First Pie Ride

On the biker website I frequent, "pie" is a major theme. Doesn't matter what part of the country, pie is always lurking in the background. The southeastern contingent of riders has a pie place in particular, located at Mercier's Orchard in Blue Ridge, GA, that sells fried pies. Apple, peach, blueberrry, apricot, cranberry, espresso (wha?), you name it, they have it. Pretty often, there will be pie rides posted for those who want to go enjoy the twisty roads and get a fried bit of goodness (no, that is NOT an oxymoron) to top it all off. A week or so ago, there was a post to ask if anyone was interested in a pie ride on July 3, and I got to thinking. Looked at the map for the proposed meeting spot. Calculated how much time I'd need to get there. Calculated the amount of sleep I was willing to give up. Decided at the 9th hour to go ahead and opt in. There were only going to be five people on the ride (including me), which suited me perfectly. The most I've ever ridden with was two other folks, so this wouldn't be too much to bite off.

At 6:15 Friday morning, I was up and out the door with Riley so he could get a good walk in before I left. He seemed surprised at the early trek, but wasn't going to say no. Once back home, I finished packing, wiped down the bike, lubed the chain, and checked the tire pressure. By 7:10, I sent a text to the ride leader to let him know I was hitting the road. Our meeting place was a bike shop just north of Dahlonega, GA, at 10 a.m., just over 130 miles from my house. I threw my rain gear into my tank bag 'just because', even though the forecast was beautiful, and turns out it was a good thing to have. I was wearing a sleeveless shirt, a long sleeved shirt and my mesh riding jacket. I mean...it's July 3 in South Carolina...that's major overkill on the layers, right? Not so much! Before I was 8 miles from the house, I pulled over to put on the rain jacket as an added layer for warmth. I didn't check the temps before heading out, but it turns out our low yesterday was 63, which explains a lot!

The interstate ride was pretty uneventful. I was able to make the entire trip with no stops, which is decent for my first long ride in several weeks. I topped off with gas just before Dahlonega so I'd be full for the day's ride. I still haven't fixed the odometer on the bike (which kind of stinks), so I have to be a little more vigilant about filling up the bike since I don't have a gas gauge, and my only way to know when to fill up was when my trip meter started to get above 180 miles. It also stinks when you have directions that say 'after five miles, turn right at the stoplight' and you can't read the road sign at the stop light, so you're not sure if that was where you were supposed to turn right or not. Yep, that was the one! Once I hit the traffic circle in downtown Dahlonega several blocks beyond the light, I figured it must have been the one I needed, so I took a side spur off the circle and headed in a direction I figured would meet me back up at the road I needed. Thankfully it did (who needs stinking GPS, anyway?) and I continued on my merry way, once again wishing I had an odometer, since it was only 3.1 miles on the left to find the place to meet. By the time I got back on the right road, it was almost 9:45, so I figured I could keep going for five minutes or so, and if I didn't see the store, I could stop somewhere and ask. About a minute later, I saw the sign for Riders Hill and turned left into the parking lot. At the top, I saw four bikes parked together, two of which I recognized as belonging to a couple of the riders I was meeting.

Three of the guys I met I was able to recognize from pics on the website, with the fourth being a friend along for the ride. It was kind of interesting to meet the people behind the posters...I'm sure I'll get some grief for meeting up with five men I'd never met before to go riding in the Georgia mountains, but no worries...we never once heard banjo music. The folks in the group were: Karl, riding a 2004 BMW R1150GS (think Long Way Round), Larry, riding a 2008 Versys (accompanied by Puff, a dragon sporting a banjo), Karl (yes) also known as Kato - or 'Tinkerbell' on this ride - on a 2001 Honda CBR F4i, and Tim, riding a Yamaha FZ1.

We had the preliminary meet and greet, looked at some very pretty machines outside and headed off. Karl (the Elder) led the group, followed by Larry, me, Karl (the Younger) and Tim. The reason the Tinkerbell name came about, is that Karl the Younger's bike has one of those super bright headlights on it, and he was riding with his brights on, so I made sure never to look directly into my rearview mirror, but that gleaming light was always in my field of vision, like Tinkerbell flitting around. I'd never been on any of these roads, and it was nice to be able to sit back and enjoy the ride without having to think about what connected where, or get out a map. It was also a great time to practice my technique in the curves. We rode to a convenience store that was no more, just to get off and stretch, over by Lake Burton. Karl the Elder had an Incredible Hulk toy from a Burger King who seems to get photographed in various and sundry locations and situations (whilst Igor the Gnomad has fled the country...), and the cameras came out at the first stop, and never were put back. (I'll be borrowing some of his and Larry's pics, since I was uncharacteristically lame on the photo front this trip.)

After this stop, we pushed on to Tiger, GA, for a Tiger Burger. I don't think the town had a stop light, but at the big four-way stop downtown, there is a convenience store with a short order window just inside. You order your burger/sandwich, grab your chips and drink from the store, and pay on the way out. That place was hopping while we were there. The burgers were pretty big, and since I wasn't terribly hungry, I opted for the BLT, which was verra, verra yummy. The guys I was with have ridden together many times, so there were some funny stories to listen to, with KtE usually sharing the background story for me. The humor occasionally reminded me of a 9th grade locker room, but for the most part wasn't too bad :)

We headed out of there with a fuel stop before destination: PIE! I had a couple of 'Hiawatha!' moments on the ride, and one came shortly after leaving lunch. We'd gone up a curvy mountain that descended rather sharply and curvily. In a couple of these, I committed cardinal sin of braking in the curve, which means I entered it too fast (for my skills anyway), but not bad enough to do much more than get a minor wobble in the front. At the gas station, there were more Hulk antics, as you might notice the green blur in KtY's hand (he was about to toss him up for a mid-air pic). And no, our mother did NOT lay our matching outfits for us this morning. (It was also humorous that KtE and Larry were wearing identical riding suits...Tim was the only one who had any individual style for the ride!) There were some really nice roads on the way to pie, and we pulled in there about 2:25. I went to the restroom when we first got there, and so got stuck at the back of a longish pie line with Larry while the other guys were picking up their orders. There were probably a dozen or more varieties of fried pie to choose from, but I opted for good old American Apple Pie, along with a lemon slush drink. Grand total was $3.10 for both.

While we were there, KtE mentioned we might be getting a mystery guest, he kept looking around and out the windows. About 2:40, another BMW pulled into the parking lot and he walked out to greet the rider. Turns out it was another BBO member, James (known as Prof HH) who had come down from Indiana that morning as part of a ride to get a SaddleSore 1000 certification, which entails riding 1000 miles in a 24 hour period. He'd left at 5:30 that morning, and we were the turnaround point, just over 500 miles into his trip. He called his wife at each of his stops to post up the city on a thread he'd started in the forum for his trip. Not surprisingly, he had the espresso pie from the bakery. Just before 4:00, we all headed back out, bidding James a safe ride home, and ourselves aiming back towards Dahlonega. Here is one of the pics I did get, with the guys over at the bikes...only bike not pictured was Tim's, but standing there from left to right are James, KtE, KtY, Larry and Tim.

The last leg to ride was down about 40 miles Highway 60 from just outside Blue Ridge to Dahlonega, and this was definitely a beaut of a road. From the intersection outside Blue Ridge, Tim led out, followed by Larry, me, KtY and KtE. There were a few cars in front of us that Tim (the Hwy 60 speed demon) and KtY passed, and Larry was able to get around them shortly after that. There wasn't really a good passing zone and since I was unfamiliar with the road, I hung back until there was a nice straightaway and then got around them, with KtE riding along behind. The next several miles were full of very nice curves, and later KtE commented that my bike did quite well on what was out there. He's got some track time under his belt and probably takes curves faster than I normally ride on the interstate, so hearing a comment like that from a rider like that was pretty cool. The five of us regrouped at another c-store in Suches, which was a little hole in the wall place...you don't really know it's a town/hamlet/village by anything other than the dot on the map you see. Several riders went by, heading off Highway 60 to go across on 180, which sounds pretty rough (technical with stinky road surfaces).

From there, we rode to our last stop for fuel in Dahlonega, slaying tar snakes left and right. Shortly after leaving the station, I had my second Hiawatha moment on a right handed curve. I was following Larry, and didn't brake much (like at all) before entering the curve. The black and yellow arrows posted on the far side of the road should have been a clue that I might want to back off a touch. Once I was committed, I knew I could NOT brake or roll off the throttle, so inside my helmet I sounded like a labor and delivery nurse, yelling, "push! push! push!" to myself, willing my right handlebar lower and lower, while having visions of the bike leveraging on hard parts and slithering across the road. However, those racing folks must know a thing or two, because I got through it, wheels sticking to the ground and bike happily intact. The adrenalin from that kept me going for quite a while.

About four miles from the gas station, I broke off from the group and took a different route back to I-85 than I'd ridden up on that morning (a result of much map consulting by Larry and KtE). It turned out to be a great ride, avoiding any large cities and going through rural countryside. It intersected with 85 just south of the big shopping exit for Commerce, GA, and from there it was about an hour and 15 minutes to get home. The last 40 miles of the ride I was reminded over (and over and over) again that I need to get the seat modified for the bike. While my total miles for the day were probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 400-425, I'd been riding since 7:10, and getting home at 8:25 made for a sore backside. Once again, I found that, while I was fine when riding, once I got off the bike and done for the night, I realized how tired I was. Today's been a lazy day, recovering from sore muscles and thinking I might plan out my own SaddleSore route one of these days, as well as wondering what type of pie I'll try next time...