The bike ride Rozmo and I did yesterday was quite different from the ones we usually do. This one featured an organic farm, a small-scale biodiesel plant, a free range poultry farm, and another farm very near the bridge I jumped off on my seventeenth birthday. They reportedly also featured some old-fashioned arts and crafts skills, but by that point we didn't hang around long. All the stops involved going down long gravel roads and spending 30-40 minutes for a tour or mini-lecture. It was fascinating information, but it was also 91 degrees. We didn't get back for "lunch" until 3:45. Lunch was provided by a restaurant in Athens that features organic food, and it was delicious. We had our choice of an Italian sandwich with salami or a veggie sandwich with hummus. I'm not a huge hummus fan, but I like salami even less, so I chose the veggie option. It was a very pleasant surprise. I may deign to eat hummus again, maybe during my 7-day vegetarian stint.
The ride intersected with several other rides we have done lately, including this one, this one, and this one. We had to be very careful to follow the correct arrows on the road. To add to the confusion, yesterday was also the MS 150 ride from Atlanta to Athens, only their route was going in the opposite direction. The riders on that route were very confused, and they kept asking us, "Do we turn around and go back?" We said about a gazillion times that we were on a different ride. One of OUR riders turned the wrong way out of a rest stop and got on the MS route. (It pays to read route maps once in a while, people.) At the first stop, the biodiesel facility, one group of "hot dog" riders refused to go to the plant because they didn't want to go down the gravel driveway. So they went on instead of turning in. Which meant they didn't see the sign on the way OUT of the driveway telling them to go back the way they came instead of continuing on. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. They had an 80-mile ride instead of a 60-mile one, and I don't feel sorry for them at all. #1 - Follow the markings on the road. #2 - Don't be too proud to get a route map and.... USE IT.
As Rozmo said, I'm glad I did this ride, but I don't think it will become a yearly event. It was interesting to do once, and it was a much smaller ride than we're used to doing, but it required a much greater time investment than I am willing to make, especially when it's so hot late in the day.
I apologize for the lack of pictures. I forgot my camera (again!) and had to take pictures with my iPhone. Better than nothing......but not much. I emailed them to myself about 30 minutes ago, but they haven't arrived yet. Why does it take so much longer when I'm on a wireless network than it does when I'm on 3G? They only have to travel across the living room, not to a satellite and back. It's very perplexing. I can't hook my iPhone up to the computer because my laptop is dead, and I don't want to synch it with this computer. I realize that's way more information than you needed. (Just an excuse to complain?)
All in all, this has been a fabulous weekend. Friday night I bought some things for the kayak trip, yesterday was the bike ride, last night we went to the low country boil (but headed home around 9:00, when my eyelids started drooping), this morning Hubby and I rode our motorcycles to a town about 30 minutes away to have breakfast, and this afternoon I got in the pool for the first time. I can't say I "swam," since it was still a little chilly, but I floated around and listened to the Braves lose to the Angels. I hate interleague play even when we win.
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