More Georgia under my wheels

Just before crawling into bed last night a semi pulled in & parked about 200′ from me and let the engine run all night. Otherwise the bright all night unecessary parking lot lights eliminated a need for a night light.

Entered address of high school classmate into gps & nailed it. Debbie had her first horse @ the same place we had our horses for several years. Made contact @ 40th HS reunion summer of ’07. She & her husband have a horse trailer sales / service business. Brief conversation as she was pressed for time (she said). Looked @ some of the trailers. Several had human quarters as part of the trailer. How great for horse people: they get to sleep in smell of manure. Lots of $. Us bikers are outspent.

Bought another bottle of Old Pulteney single malt Scotch, aged 12 years for $26. It could have been Junior Johnson’s moonshine for $19.

Drove up rt 81 to Fort Yargo SP and their ST. Overcast cool day. Checked out new shoes. Specialized made 2 noticeable changes: raised tread on sole that now provides 2 non sole bearing points for the Eggbeaters. This will make for a tighter cleat retention. I used old cleats and they were lock tight but released like a greased pig. And they moved the front pieces of leather to further out on toe. Toes will now rub against leather instead of fabric which caused visible pinkies.

Trail goes clockwise on certain days and counter the other. I parked in the non prime TH. I started in what I believed was prescribed counter clock wise. Encountered 2 riders going opposite direction. I thought they were wrong but none of us said anything. A few miles later the trail dumped into the prime TH and I see the CW and CCW arrows on pavement. I was wrong. Turn around & rerode back to van and continued rest of loop plusĀ  rerode original rerode for 17 miles, 2093′ vert in 2 1/4 hours.

Brake still squeals. Researched bike shops in Athens & punched in 1st loc into gps. Ended up downtown on UG campus. No shop. Tried the next one. The wrench & I kaputzed about a solution. None determined. I am focusing on push rod that is stripped. Called Charlie @ Formula and he told me to bleed out a drop of brake fluid as maybe the pads were pushed too far into caliper that will allow essentially overfill of hydraulic system. Will try that tomorrow.

Drove S out of Athens looking for place to sleep near tomorrow’s ride. Found a likely looking bank lot but there were still cars in the lot. I drove down the road looking. I thought I was turning off highway into shopping center but it turned out to be a short road back to a dr’s office and a cul d sac. Just amazing the spots I stumble onto. Tonight’s dark and hopefully no trucks will make up for last night.

At the Park I asked if there were showers. I found the visitors’ center and asked the woman working there. Yes, they have showers but for $10. I balked and she stood her ground. I tried again and she dropped it to my suggested $5.00 because she was there by herself and nobody could tell her not to but that she usually charges the $10.

Showers run the gamet from comfortable homes to just get it over with. The final result is a clean body. I should expend half the effort to clean the Turner.

Couple more GA rides and then to FATS for weekend. Forecacst is for sunny 50 deg days.

Later.