Warm Springs and SETI

What do you do when it is one of the best days of the year, so far, and want to go riding, but can't figure out where you want to go?

Let someone else plan and lead the ride!

One of our clubs had a "covered bridge" tour on the calendar, so we decided to tag along.  We were going to have to kick ourselves into high gear to make the meet time, though.

No fear. Some people can be counted on to always be a little fashionably late.  We arrived 3 minutes before the kickstand up time of 10 AM. But we (the group) hung around until 10:40 for some stragglers.  It was worthwhile for some of the conversations that came out of our time standing around.  I can't repeat some of them as they were raunchy!  But funny if you have that type of humor.

Everyone arrives and with some good natured ribbing we head for the road.  Turns out that this bridge tour is exactly that: a bridge.  As in one.  The leader had planned for two, until he discovered the other bridge was about 100 miles northeast of where we were headed.  Mr. Oilburner and I didn't mind as this was going to be another bridge in our belts that we hadn't visited before.

Red Oak Creek Covered Bridge is touted as being the longest covered bridge in Georgia.  But so is Watson Mill.  How can there be two?

We think Red Oak Creek bridge is considered the longest span at 391 feet, but the entire span isn't "covered".  Where as Watson Mill bridge is the longest/covered/full span at 229 feet.

Watson Mill Covered Bridge

Yes, we did ride through and across the bridge.  Only two others followed us.  Everyone else was chicken.  I can tell you that what I thought were abutting boards actually did have gaps between them.  I didn't see that until later since riding across them didn't give the appearance of any space.  I was a little glad I didn't know that beforehand.

This bridge is farther off the beaten track than others and sees its fair share of graffiti artists.  And I use the "artist" lightly.  A couple were cute or funny, but it was all the basic "Bubba and Jolene 4-ever" type of thing.

Then someone noticed a plaque high up the bridge wall noting the "high water mark" from flooding on July 7, 1994.  Wow!!  This was probably 18-20 feet above current water levels and mean that a large portion of this wide ravine was full of water.

You can make out the high water plaque in the upper left amid the black spray paint.

Once the sightseeing and speculation was done we headed over to Warm Springs for lunch.  Most people were interested in the BBQ place for lunch.  Since Mr. Oilburner and I had eaten there a couple of weeks ago, we opted to split and have lunch at the little cafe that serves diner fare.  Service was slow, but the food was good.  BLT was piled high with crispy bacon.  mmmmm......

After lunch saw people sightseeing and lounging around the ice cream shop.  But most of us just sat on the steps outside, soaking up the sun and camaraderie.  Now came decision time, continue south and west a little to hit some twisties at Pine Mtn? Or begin heading northeast towards Atlanta and see some large satellite dishes?

Hondamatic

1948 Moto Guzzi

1924 Military Harley Davidson

Nessie?

As much as I didn't want the day to end, it was nearing 3 PM and heading away from Atlanta was going to give us a long ride time home.  Besides, I have seen (but not ridden) Pine Mtn.  I wanted to see these dishes in the middle of nowhere.

Today's roads were great.  Once out of the urban areas we stuck to the less traveled lanes that DOT (Department of Transportation) was letting slide.  The lanes were narrow and bumpy as the asphalt was beginning to break apart a little.  You know those lanes where you can feel the "sport" suspension on your bike.  :)  I loved the tour on these back roads where even farms and houses were few.  I would rather have enjoyed them at the posted speed limits.  But some people see these small roads as perfect opportunites to get a little wild.  I don't know if my inner-daredevil is a little bit chicken (could be), I am a girl (most definitely) or I don't want to have my motorbike impounded for reckless riding.  But I usually like to look around as I tour.  And I just can't be a tourist when I am worried about calculations and reaction times traveling down the lane.  Outside of that, the roads were fun and exciting.  It has been awhile since we have been on completely new road.

The dishes did not disappoint.  These are actual SETI (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) dishes that  were originally an AT&T satellite relay station.  One dish has been refurbished for SETI use.  Currently parts for one dish are being cannibalized for the other dish since AT&T managed to damage both of them when they abandoned this site.  Georgia Tech University has reclaimed them.

We spent a few minutes chatting and speculating, wishing for tin foil to make hats to prevent our brain wavelengths from being read.  But it was now time to head home.  It was a great day with all the exciting and entertaining food, companions and destinations.  The temperatures started at a 42F (5.5C), necessitating heated gear.  But the end of the ride was a basking 64F (18C).  it is so nice when you can remove a layer of clothing during the ride!!  Out little jaunt came to 227 miles (365 km) of some great pavement.  More images available on Flickr.

Elder Mill Drive Thru

Tuesday.  Departure day.  But still time to squeeze in another ride.  :-)

Where to go, where to go...

We only had a couple hours before heading to the airport.  Where could we go for some good roads and an interesting destination?  Ah...the covered bridge is only about an hour away and I know some good back roads.  Too bad I didn't take any of them.  LOL.

Standard morning grog and coffee pick-me-ups as the prelude to me and Brother on the road, traveling against traffic.  Did I mention that the skies were blue, filled with huge, fluffy, white clouds?  Nice day for riding.

The great thing about not knowing the area and not have ridden these roads a gazillion times is that Brother didn't recognize a single thing along the first 20 miles.  Me, on the other hand, could tell you where every single construction pylon was placed along one of our "Recover and Reinvestment" roads.  I couldn't pinpoint the trees, as those have been clear cut.  The price of progress: fewer trees and poor houses with 10 foot wide front yards since they have lost the right-of-way.

I debated on the route until it was too late to take any but the second to last.  :-)  That just meant riding on a quiet highway until reaching Monroe, then taking some quiet back roads.  I actually hit roads that I hadn't been on before!  Incredible.  I pulled into a minute turn lane to verify location and direction, only to have sirens come running up the road behind us.  What in the world??  We stayed put to keep out of the way when the ambulance came to a sudden halt directly behind us?  I know I didn't call the ambulance.  Then more sirens start coming again.  We get out while we can to give the second ambulance a place to park.  I hope whoever needed those are ok.


Even though we aren't traveling far the Harley's little tank needed some fuel.  And what did Brother spy?  Buttermilk Biscuits!  Are they made fresh here?  How should I know?  Go ask!

Well, they are and he partakes of a bacon/egg biscuit.  Ah..the heart stopping butter.  So good.


A hop, skip and 15 minute jump down some comfy tree-lined country roads gets us to Elder Mill Bridge.

 Wow that is a dirty windshield!!

The flutterbies quickly scattered as we parked the bikes in their sun spot.

Brother got a kick out of being able to ride through the bridge.  I attempted to take a video as we rode back through, but the windshield, lighting changes and camera that is not meant to be a camcorder didn't do such a good job.

Since I had been taking my time in the morning we were a little pressed for time to get home and had to haul butt.  I decided the larger roads and highway would help speed us along.  And I was right until the hail suddenly came flying out of the sky pelting us!  I was protected in my regular gear.  Brothers' cargo pants had ridden up and the hail was stinging his shins.  Then I became concerned about riding on little round balls of ice.  We pulled to the shoulder under the little protection of an overhanging branch.  It was one of those catch-22 times.  If I didn't stop the hail would keep coming and get worse.  Take the time to stop and put weather gear on and the hail would putter out.  

Yep, the rain and hail stopped before we even mounted back up again.  Oh well.  It was still interesting.

Made it home without more incident and reached the airport in time for Brother to run for check in.

Stats:

113 miles

Rode through an authentic covered bridge!  :-)

Encountered one more weather phenomenon: hail

Summary:

Including the laps around the neighborhood acquainting himself with the bike Brother rode exactly 500 miles in three days.  We effectively increased his cumulative riding distance by half!  WooHoo!!  He meandered down country roads, shot the twisties and rode through wooden bridges.  He experienced fluffy clouds and blue skies, rain and hail.  Two of which he rarely sees where he comes from.  Then add them all together and consider he ran the twisties in the rain!  There is no way I would have been doing these things with that mileage under my belt.  I'm so proud of him!!  He's my brother.  LOL

Covered Bridges

It's been many weeks of little sleep and constant caretaking. We haven't been able to go out much because we haven't been able to leave Goldie alone for any length of time. She's doing better and the weather was great, so against my physical therapists' orders (damaged a disc in my lower back) I hopped on the bike on Sunday.

We headed out with Alex, Joe and Annette and tried for a Covered Bridge tour. We originally plotted the route for 5 bridges. One was questionable since it is located on private property and the owner hasn't given explicit approval for visitors. We figured we could hit the first four and determine if we wanted to try for the last one if we had the gumption.

Our list of bridges included: Elder's Mill, Howard's, Watson Mill, Cromer's and Lula. While C and I had been to two on the list, the others had never been to any of them.

First on the list: Elder's Mill. You might recognize the bridge as I have posted about it before. It was nice to return to it in the summer to see the new growth...including all of the poison ivy. ;-) We enjoyed riding through the bridge, taking pictures, turning around on gravel and stretching the legs. The light was very bright and there was virtually no traffic. In all, a very nice spot to stop. I held everyone up by walking through the bridge and photographing the other side. Then stopping to smell photograph the flowers.

Second stop: Howard's Covered Bridge. This bridge was a little trickier to get to. Never trust a GPS 100%!! Both mine and Master of the Mechanical Stuff's (MotMS) tried to take us down some interesting dirt roads again even though a paved road was just around the corner. We bypassed the proffered directions and made some changes. Good thing we did. The original route would have brought us in from the other side...that is currently blocked by the crown of a very large branch fallen from a very old tree. As you can see this bridge is no longer maintained for vehicular traffic. It is for pedestrian viewing only. Also a good thing since the underlying floor is rotting through. Just don't step in those spots.

Again, I wandered around a little longer then the others and took in the mud, gravel and some Queen Ann's Lace flowers. Everyone else huddled in the shade and watched the ticks crawling around.

Stop three: Lunch! We continued on our merry way...again misled by the GPS'. Luckily we were having fun, and the GPS can sometimes take you on some very interesting backroads that we wouldn't have seen otherwise. So we went with the flow, gased up the bikes and fueled the humans at the only place open we could find: Zaxby's. Not bad, but would have been better if we could have enjoyed the local BBQ. Given it was Sunday and small town...not many places are open. Next time we need to bring lunch and sit at one of the picnic areas near a bridge.

Stop four: Watson Mill. MotMS and I have been here many times. Once even on our bikes if you want to remember. The park has a great little campground and wonderful walking, bicycling and horse riding trails. One can also rent canoes above the damn and sit/slide down the rocks below the damn. We haven't enjoyed either of those activities. The dogs are usually with us when camping. And I hear stories of leeches in some of the pools in the rocks. No Thank You! This time I allowed the others to wander around and take the pictures while MotMS and I sat in the shade and watched the bikes. We enjoyed watching many others motorcycles out enjoying the day on the same roads. One couple stopped to enjoy the water and parked near us. While most of us have saddle bags or locks for our valuables, we learned a new way of making sure no one walks off with the expensive leather vest...just park the bike on it!

Final Stop: Cromer's Mill Covered Bridge. This is another pedestrian only bridge. It had been restored recently as evidenced by the steel beams running under and through the bridge.

Time was rapidly advancing and we decided not to attempt the last bridge and just head home. We made a beeline for the freeway and took off. We had been gone for 219 miles and 7 hours, and while my back wasn't too bad, this was the longest we had left Frankendoggie alone. I wanted to spring her from the prison penned area that we had confined her to. So MotMS went with Alex, Joe and Annette and had dinner, I came home and relaxed and played with the pups. It was a good day with good friends and I can't wait to find more bridges.