Norcross / Rome, GA

The morning we left for Norcross from Athens and I felt close to 100 percent after being sick the last two days. The ride was only 56 miles with nothing too memorable unfortunately. I just remember people yelling "Shut up legs, do as I say" the whole ride. This started when everybody saw a video of a professional cyclist explain how he rides hard and what he does when he gets tired. We did get chased by a couple of dogs but that really happens everyday. Its a little scary but funny at the same time as people unclip their feet and take out their water bottles as they prepare for war.

Once we got to the Boys and Girls club location things got a little more interesting. We first biked another mile to teach little kids about basic bike safety. Before that really got started we hung out at the park and jumped around in the water fountain system they had, which was quite refreshing after the humid ride. The bike clinic would have been a lot more interesting had the kids brought their bikes but unfortunately nobody brought anything. So it was really just a discussion and a fake bike ride around our bags and bikes to show them stop and turn signals.



Dinner was provided by our host location at a nice little restaurant where we got our grub on. You just can't go wrong with beef brisket, coleslaw, and baked beans. There was a small band that played some music as well so we had some entertainment and good food. So something did happen during the ride actually that I forgot to mention. I went to a Walmart and got a big cake donated for one of our riders, Karen, because it was her birthday. So after dinner we surprised her with the cake and all had an awesome time as we played some fuseball, table tennis, and air hockey. The host location was really awesome and entertaining.


The ride to Rome was definitely more interesting than Norcross as we biked 81 miles over some bridges, nice farms, saw some Indian Mounds, and got lost of course. Due to the detours and wrong turns it actually turned into a 90 mile ride that I knocked out with Karen who was the birthday girl yesterday. We actually stopped at a boat loading dock and tried to use our story to get a ride around the lake, but it turned out that the dock that we were at had a ticket price so the guy kicked us out right after we asked someone who said he would have but was running late. Even though it sounds a little crazy I really think it can work and will just try some other time. We had plenty of random stops at gas stations along the way but that last 30 miles seemed like forever. Karen and I first took a detour to the Etowah Mounds, which was closed for cars but not for bikes as we sneaked by the gate. Once that was done we then got lost for a couple of miles looking for a road that apparently was not there. Then finally we got on the 20 miles road that was never ending. It had a climb into the mountains and a awesome decent as we glided by some awesome farms. We saw some cool mini horses and got one to come super close as he chewed grass our way. Karen and I finally got to our host site around 5:30 which is rather late, with sweep coming in close to 6:30. It turned out to be a pretty hard day with the extra mileage and humid weather.




The host location was incredible. We had a professional bike mechanic basically fix all of our bikes, a masseuse, and a chiropractor. All people that donated their time to help us feel our best. I hit up all 3 stations slowly since there were lines for all of them at all times. The chiropractor cracked my neck about 5 times which felt surprisingly awesome. There was also this cute little girl who had an obsession with trying on other peoples shoes/sandals. She went around asking people and also just trying on random sandals she saw. I caught her trying on B$'s sandals which are honestly too big for me I think.

Turns out its really hard to blog frequently so I will try to post whenever I get a chance. We don't get internet access all the time and with 32 people trying to use 4 computers it gets a little hectic.