Scouting A Route

So good to unpack, scrub the car inside and out, sort through clothes that we don’t need for shipping to Tucson, and just generally regroup after the first 2 weeks of road-trippin.

Got in two longish rides before all the kids and grandkids arrived: one to Hamilton, GA just south of Callaway Gardens, and one to Andersonville, GA the historic site of the Confederate POW Camp. Columbus is decidedly bike unfriendly--no bike lanes, no shared lanes, no shoulders, and generally just very unaware drivers. On top of that roads are a lot like Boston in that they meander, change names every few blocks, and a lot like Austin in that they often bang into 4-lane expressways when you least expect.

So, my 60 miles to Hamilton was a slow go as a I dug out a route. My route to Andersonville was, initially, much less successful than Hamilton as US Highway 280 out of Columbus turned out to be life-threatening: 4-lane, high speed, less than 3 inch “shoulder”, and trucks unceasing.

The plan was that Kirk would visit Jimmy Carter’s Farm in Plains while I rode to Andersonville and then we’d hook up there to visit the POW Museum and Cemetery together. As I had been relegated to a weed-walk far off the road along Rt 280, I called Kirk for a SAG to my next road, GA 26, which was just delightful. As it turned out we both arrived within 5 minutes of each other at Andersonville.

On each of my transcons as we “marched through Georgia” we stopped briefly at Andersonville. I had always wanted to come back to truly visit; doing it with Kirk, who, despite growing up in GA had never been there, was best of all.

Pix will follow later.