Its Friday night and I am parked in South Carolina

/ / / No Comments

Slept well back in the woods.

Plan is to drive to Thomson, GA to pick up my mail and continue to FATS. Drove less traveled highways. Stopped in Greensboro & took pictures of some of the old big houses there. Picturesque.

Mail was not there. My calcs said it should have been. faced w/ a strategic dilemma: Do I drive back west on Mon to try again and then drive back east & north to Brevard? Stopped @ post office in Edgefield to ask if I could have my general delivery mail forwarded to another general delivery post office. Clerk said yes. I filled out a change of address card to make request official. i could spend the next several weeks trying to catch up w/ my mail. All to save 60 miles of driving.

Stopped @ FS ranger station for camping permit. Staying up above Lick Fork again. Walked in woods which have been well maintained. Beautiful day windy, chilly 50’s, & blue skies.

Made appointment in Brevard to see Kim and let her work on my left knee. Kim said that there is a snow forecast for Brevard.

Contacted Bruce of Pisgah Works of my plans to hopefully ride w/ his gang & brewery crawl.

Those that remember reading Blue Highways and this part of it: Heat-Moon picked up a slug that got in his van and he never found it. I experienced several moths flying inside my van that I picked up somewhere last summer that were hiding until outside temps warmed for them to emerge from their hiding places. Difference is my stowaways emerged.

Friday night and no homework, second shot of Scotch to keep me loose.

Cop roust, repair & rest day near Athens

/ / / 2 Comments

Yesterday I boasted of sleeping spots I have found and not being bothered. About 1:30 AM today that string was broken. My bladder woke me up for mid evening pee. I looked out front window and saw headlights w/ a searchlight. Oh, this could be interesting. Lights left the van and circled the building parking lot and finally came to rest on me. I crawled back under the covers to play I’m asleep but the raps on the door were incessant. A flashlight shone in my eyes. I was greeted by a sheriff’s officer. A brief conversation about what i was up to and the request for the driver’s license. Several minutes he came back and said I was cool. We talked a bit and he left me to go back to sleep.

Started raining during the night. Plan is to go to Sunshine cycle in Watkinsville just down the road and maybe I wouldn’t piss anyone off. As I was waiting for the light to turn green @ the shop I saw a pickup leave bike parking lot. I pulled in. Shop person was tardy in showing. He said that the bleed kit was picked up by somebody from the Athens store. Great, return of the crossed wrench. I still shared w/ him a pasrty for just being there.

I drove back into Athens to downtown store bearing my pastry i walked into shop. Josh, the wrench was in good spirits. He had a bike in 1 stand but jumped up and took mine & put it in a stand and started working on it. He worked for hours trying to bleed the brake. He discovered a missing oring so he went to the well to find one, not exactly the same size but close and the brake in the stand worked. I paid $25. for his hours of work.

Drove S of town to do interent work. verizon booted me off & I was unable to get back on.

Heritage Park is outside Oconee NF. My sleeping plan was to drive a logging road back into forest for sleeping spot. Scored. Rain quit but was foggy.

Slept w/ no heat but used doubled down blanket for warmth. Slept in.

Today is short drive to Heritage Park TH. I get there and check out trails from TH. They seem dry. Beautiful day. I decide that I will do my laundry first to allow more drying time. Drove into Watkinsville. I check out Chamber of Commerce: No laundromat in entire county. The receptionist is very helpful and draws me a map of a location up almost on UG campus. I find it. No college kids or anybody. DO wash.

On way to TH I check out an advertised campground to see about a shower. Lady said $5.00 and I am clean. Will wait until after ride.

Drive back to heritage TH and gear up. Tight trails thru trees w/ ups & downs. Maybe 1 lap netted 8.57 miles & 1260′. Concern that my derailleur hanger is bend causing some drivetrain issues. Call Sunshine in Watkinsville and wrench has derailleur hanger straightening tool.

Stop @ XG for shower.

Drive to shop. Hanger is slightly bent and wrench works it as far back as he fells comfortable straightening out the hanger for fear of breaking it. I have an extra one. Said hanger bend could cause my shift issues.

I ordered parts for brake from Formula to be shipped to Ellijay,GA up in N GA mountains.

Beautiful day: blue skies, high cirus clouds for sky filler. Drove back to last night’s spot.

Tomorrow I head back towards SC. Bill is hosting me @ FATS this weekend.

Mail forwarded to Thomson, GA for tomorrow pick up, or Monday on swing back.

Debating about driving all the way back to Brevard, NC and then head W to catch N GA mountains. Such decisions: it’s a financial issue to spend $30.00 to back track for some expected fun w/ guys in Asheville and Brevard.

Last night I looked @ pictures from out west. Nobody has asked to see pictures or really asking about riding anywhere else. In the East riders get off on seeing vistas. I noticed in the west pictures that there is an awful lot of sky. I do not have the eastern vista jag.

More Georgia under my wheels

/ / / No Comments

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 plus  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.