The Dirty South

Greetings from La Grange, GA. I apologize for not keeping up with this thing everyday, but we have had trouble finding a computer that was convenient. So let me fill you in on the last week; sit down this could take a while. So the last time I checked in we were in Lake Wylie just outside of Charlotte. I was expecting a tough 90 mile ride, but I was feeling stronger than ever and as Judah said, we rolled through the upstate to Greenville. Uncle Jay and aunt Phyllis put us up for a couple nights. We had a great spaghetti dinner to replenish those Carbohydrate stores the first night and then we took a little walking tour of downtown Greenville. I was actually very impressed, it had a cool little scene going on down there and there was a big waterfall right in the middle of town.

The next day was our first off day so we slept in until 9ish which felt really nice. Aunt Phyllis was off to a golf tournament early in the morning and Jay was at the gym. When he got back, that was when the real golf tournament began. I mean this thing rivaled the US Open. Me, Judah, and Jay; 18 holes at Frankie's Fun Land, winner take all. It was a tight battle at the turn, as I led both of the J's by 1 stroke. As we made our way onto the back 9 Judah quickly lost focus as the group of 4 12 year olds behind us began taunting him mercilessly (little did he know, Jay and I paid the little bastards off to get rid of our competition). So it was down to 2. It was a battle all the way to the end, but Jay took the title by one stroke. I guess all that "experience" really pays off. That night, the boys feasted on some delicious barbecue and then Jay left for the gym again and Judah and I were given the keys to the Lexus (a bold move on Aunt Phyllis's part). We ended up going downtown and checked out a couple of the local watering hole. We were pretty unsuccessful on finding the party. I guess everybody was at the Keith Urban concert down the street. We would have gone but we didn't have any cowboy boots, we didn't want to feel out of place. So we headed home around 10, which was definitely in our best interest anyway.

We woke up early and Jay gave us a ride out of the Greenville traffic which we greatly appreciated. We still had about 85 miles to go to get to Athens, GA. We knocked out the first 70 no problem and had a little lunch at the Hardee's in Danielsville. I would like to go on record and say that Yvette is by far the finest and friendliest fast food employee I have ever met. At this point it got real hot, I'm talking 95 degrees and we still had 15 miles to go. It was pretty much hell (little did I realize what the next day would be like). As Phil Ligget might say, "I died a 1000 deaths on the road to Athens."

Despite the ride we had a great time in Athens that night. We started our crawl around town at The Village Idiot (totally fitting). We met quite a character there named Big Tom. He was sort of a mixture of Brandt Wymond and Jake Gentry at 60 years old, overall hilarious. He recommended about 3 different bars all with incredibly hot bartenders, the man does have good taste. Tom's favorite line, "Marriage is the number 1 cause of divorce." On our way home from the bars we hit up a hot dog street vendor. After eating that little slice of heaven, I decided it was ridiculous to go all the way to Texas, because I had just found Valhalla in a hot dog and I was going to go to UGA instead.

We got a late start the next day (hard to imagine, I know). We had about 60 miles to go to Rania's house in Doraville, GA, just inside the beltway in Atlanta. We figured since we had been doing 80, 85 and 90 mile days, 60 would be no problem. Well... 60 is still 60 and its worse when its hilly, there is traffic and it is approaching 100 degrees. Absolutely, the worst day I have ever had on a bike. It is my new benchmark for how awful I feel, "well, I still feel better than on that ride to Atlanta." Rania had to work that night so Judah and I walked over to the Mexican restaurant near by and went home to call it an early night.

After the excruciating ride we decided to take a day off in Atlanta which was awesome because there was a free music festival in town. Rania got the day off and we went over to the show about 2pm. Yeah, its called Hot-lanta for a reason. Pretty sure the mercury topped out above 100. But not to fear, we downed plenty of Red Stripe to stay cool. It was actually a pretty decent line up as we caught the Head Hunting Swamp Monkeys (or something like that), Jupiter Coyote, Rusted Root and Guster. I had a really great time and it was probably the first time all trip I really felt like I was on vacation.

We headed out this morning with no particular destination in mind. We got on the MARTA, Atlanta's metro rail, about a mile from Rania's house and took it all the way south to the airport to avoid riding through the city. While the map at the airport looked extremely confusing it was surprisingly easy to get out headed south again on rte 29. About five miles into the ride, we caught up with Tony. He is a PE teacher and football coach in Palmetto, GA. We ended up riding a fast pace line for about 20 miles before Judah and I pulled off for breakfast. He told us this was the first time he has ever ridden with other people, much less drafting and pulling in a pace line. It was awesome and a really great way to start the day. Well, we put in some big miles again today, logging about 70 as we made our way down to La Grange. It was hot, (starting to see a theme here) but I was feeling pretty good and Judah got stronger through the day.

We are going to cross into Alabama tomorrow, another state and another time zone which is pretty exciting. Only a couple more days until we hit the coast, I can't wait.

Staying cool in the Comfort Inn,
Steve

PS. Love you Pops, Happy Fathers Day