Frankie's Ride.....

Today was one of those days that is so nearly perfect that it just makes you glad you're alive. At least that's how it was for me today.

Katydid and I joined a group riding on the Silver Comet Trail today. We rode to Rockmart, Georgia to Frankie's Restaurant. The original plan for this occasion was for a group to gather AT Frankie's and ride west to the Alabama border, returning to Frankie's for beer and pizza. Our group, though, decided we would ride TO Frankie's and partake of the pizza and fellowship (and beer for a few) and then return.

There are several trailheads on the Silver Comet that are easily accessed from almost anywhere in the Atlanta area. We chose one that is about 11.7 miles from the beginning of the trail, because the first part tends to be crowded, and it also has numerous road crossings that are aggravating and slow us down. That location also gave us a round-trip ride of approximately 52 miles, a decent length ride without being a killer.

The weather was magnificent, with perfect temperatures and beautiful skies (once the cloud cover burned off). I love riding on the trail because there is no traffic to worry about, and  you can really make the ride any length you want to. There's no law that says you HAVE to ride all the way to Frankie's, but that is usually our destination.

This is how the view typically looks on the Silver Comet Trail. I have no idea who that person is in front of me. The trail is very well maintained, and patrolled in some areas by law enforcement on golf carts.

This sign always spooks me a little bit. And they're not kidding about the remote part. You know what they really need? A sign that says: "Hey dummy, you might want to refill your water bottles at Frankie's, before you RETURN through this remote area." I'm just sayin'.

The view of a neighborhood from high above. I took this one while I was riding.

The view of Katydid from behind. She's sure to love this picture.

Just a few of the many, many bikes that were parked at Frankie's.

This is Lisa, one of the massage therapists who attend most of the BRAG events. She has her precious boy, Victor, in the trailer behind her. And I'm sorry, but I don't know her husband's name. He'll have to be known as Lisa's Husband.

I knew the trail was also designated for use by equestrians, but I don't think I had ever seen any on the trail before today. Unless I have and I just forgot it, which would still be just about the same thing, wouldn't it?

Every time I ride through this tunnel, I'm almost at the end of it when my GPS goes, "Hey...who turned out the lights? Where did the satellites go?" It's probably the longest of several tunnels on the trail, and I'm glad there are lights in them.

Another neighborhood shot, this time when I was OFF the bicycle.

Jezebel, patiently waiting for us to get going again.

People have put many birdhouses along the trail. I circled back to take a picture of these, made out of hard hats.

It was an all-around good day, and even the 2-hour drive home couldn't take the glow off. If I had won that hugo lottery last night, I would have bought me a trail just like this one, only closer to home.

Here's a riddle for you, and Katydid is NOT eligible to play:

Katydid and I left at the same time, rode to the same place, and returned at the same time. She rode 53 miles and I rode 60. How is that?

Today's Ride.....

I saw something sort of .... strange .... on our ride today on the Silver Comet Trail. If it hadn't had negative consequences, I wouldn't be writing about it. I probably wouldn't have even noticed it. Now, though, I am just curious about it.

Rozmo and I were behind part of the riding group early today, and we came upon them standing along the trail in a group, tending to one of the group's members. It was a man, probably in his mid-60's, bleeding pretty heavily from his elbow and less profusely from his knee. No one else appeared to have been involved in the accident.

Apparently this man forgot his cycling gloves, so he was wearing .... socks .... on his hands. Because socks aren't typically MADE to wear on the hands, they weren't fitting very well. He reached to adjust one of them, and he wrecked his bicycle.

Several things about this incident bother me. I have forgotten my cycling gloves too. Never once have I considered wearing SOCKS on my hands as a replacement. Oh wait ..... I don't remember ever having a spare pair of socks WITH me. How can you remember unnecessary socks but forget the cycling gloves that are so necessary you will substitute socks?

If I were riding in sub-freezing temperatures .... another scenario that is hard for me even to imagine .... then I might consider putting socks on my hands. Or .... here's an extreme solution .... I might not ride.

I'm not making fun of this gentleman, I assure you. I just can't figure out why it was so necessary to have gloves that he wore short white athletic socks on his hands. By the time I saw him, he was wearing BLOODY short white athletic socks. (Apparently socks can also substitute for bandages when necessary.)

I almost always wear cycling gloves. They serve many purposes. They provide padding to keep my fingers from going (quite so) numb when I'm riding. They keep sweat from making my hands slippery on the handlebars. (Even though my handlebars .... and I'm guessing almost everyone else's .... are covered with handlebar tape. In coordinating colors with the bike's paint scheme.) Gloves also have a terrycloth portion that is useful for wiping sweat off the end of my nose. I may or may not actually wipe my nose on my gloves from time to time. Obviously in cold weather, gloves keep the fingers warm(er). So yes, gloves are an important accessory for cycling.

I'm just not sure they are an INDISPENSABLE accessory. There may be a new member of that club this evening.

Other than that, the ride today was uneventful. I was worried about the heat, but most of the trail is shaded. And as long as you're moving, at least you are generating your own breeze. I made sure I drank enough water and G2 to avoid dehydration, since that's what happened to me one time on the Trail with VT and Rozmo. When I got back to my car, the outside temperature gauge showed 104 degrees. But that was only because it had been sitting in the sun for seven hours. After I got in and started moving, it cooled off to a mere 99 degrees.

The Silver Comet Trail.....

Today I joined two of my bestest cycling buddies, Rozmo and VT, for a "little" bicycle ride on the Silver Comet Trail, an awesome multi-use trail built from a former railroad track. Because it used to be a railroad track, there is very little grade and few hills. [I read somewhere that a railroad couldn't have more than a 3% grade, but I'm not sure of the veracity of that statement. Don't you love words like "veracity"?]

No hills is the good news. The bad news is that you have to pedal, pedal, pedal, pedal, pedal, pedal, and then pedal some more. No coasting here -- at least not much.

The "little" ride turned out to be 75 miles. I say that as if they tricked me into riding that distance, but that is not really accurate. You pretty much know the length of any ride on the Silver Comet Trail -- it's wherever you are multiplied by 2. Because unless you have a chauffeur, your only choice is to ride back from whence you came. At some points on the trail it isn't even POSSIBLE to be picked up by the hypothetical chauffeur.

We rode that far because our objective was to have lunch at Frankie's, a wonderful Italian restaurant in Rockmart, Georgia. It would be wonderful even if it DID have tons of competition -- which it doesn't. Frankie caters to cyclists, because her restaurant is very near where the trail comes out in Rockmart. She doesn't mind that we're sweaty and stinky and generally not very attractive when we get there. She welcomes us warmly, plies us with food and drink, fills up our water bottles and/or camelback reservoirs, and has us sign the wall in her back room. Her food is delicious, and everyone is extremely accommodating. Rozmo didn't care for the garlic bread sticks [WHAT IS WRONG WITH HER?], so they brought her some that didn't have garlic. I had fettucinni alfredo with chicken, and I could easily have curled up in the corner and died from sheer happiness. But I had 37 miles to ride back.

Today was a wonderful ride. I was even in FRONT of the group for a lot of the time. I said I was going to come home and kiss my elliptical, because I'm sure that made a huge difference in my power and stamina today. Other times we were able to ride three abreast, taking up the whole trail. There are long stretches of the trail that are in very remote areas. When you start seeing people with strollers and dogs, you know you're approaching civilization.

The last time I rode the trail was NOT a pleasant experience. I rode with VT and Rozmo that day too, and it was miserable. Looking back now, I think I may have had some symptoms of mild heatstroke. I drank and drank and drank and drank, even when Rozmo did NOT tell me to, and I thought I was well hydrated. When we got to Rockmart, I was about to die to go to the bathroom. But when I got there, I. Could. Not. Pee. That was one of the most miserable experiences in my life, up to and including childbirth.

This happened on a Tuesday. We rode up to Frankie's door, and I was in front. Rozmo shouted, "What time does she open?"

"Thursday."

We had ridden 37 miles to eat at a restaurant that wasn't even open that day.

So we went to a sub-par barbecue restaurant, where I still couldn't pee, and when my lunch got there, I couldn't eat. I had ridden 37 miles on my bicycle, and my only choice was to ride 37 miles back, and I could not eat a bite. Rozmo went to the store and got me a Gatorade, and my friends were kind enough to stop frequently and allow me to lie down on the side of the trail. I was never so glad to get to the end of a ride as I was that day.

There was a time when I wouldn't have thought twice before going out to ride the trail alone. It is patrolled by officers on four-wheelers or golf carts in each of the counties it passes through, and most people appear to be friendly and only there for the exercise or to enjoy the scenery. That all changed in July of 2006, however, when Jennifer Ewing was murdered as she rode her bike along the Silver Comet. The animal who killed her recently got the death penalty for her murder, but lethal injection is too good for him. She fought back fiercely, to the point that her attacker wound up going to the hospital and HIS blood was found on her bicycle. She wasn't able to save herself, however.

A memorial stands beside the trail near the spot where her body and bicycle were found.

It is a very sobering reminder of the society in which we live today. Other people have also been attacked on the trail, men as well as women. One man was attacked by a group of four teenagers, so I'm not ENTIRELY sure that the three of us women riding on the trail are safe. Every time I see a woman riding alone, I cringe inside.

When we got back to the parking lot today, my bicycle computer read 74 miles. I wanted to be able to say I rode 75 miles, so I went beyond the 0 mile marker toward a shopping center (where, inexplicably, they evidently have a -1 mile marker -- I don't get it). I thought I'd ride another half mile down the trail and then circle back to my car for a total of 75.

Only when I'd ridden about 3 tenths of a mile, I got to a hill. A fairly big one.

I decided 74.81 miles was far enough. I will say I rode 75 miles if I want to, and you can't stop me.