Something to BRAG about: Roadtrip 2004
Summer is the official season of road trips, and I recently surrendered to the call of the highway. My housemate Eugene* and I just got back from driving down to Georgia to do the Bike Ride Across Georgia (BRAG). Like the name says, it's about a 400 mile bike ride across Georgia, starting in the edge of the mountains in Toccoa and ending on Tybee Island (off the coast of Savannah). I was drawn by the promise of Georgia peaches at every stop.
Life is often full of challenges and this trip was challenging from the get go. Both of us forgot to pack directions to the ride's start. We discovered this omission several hours into the drive, and after a half hour of fretting, we thought of a solution. We whipped out the cell phone and called everyone whose number we knew from memory and asked them to look up the information on the internet for us. Unfortunately everyone we called was either screening their calls or not at home. Eugene's brother finally called us back about 4 hours later and looked up the directions for us.
We captured most of the other challenges of the ride in the following song that we wrote and performed for the talent show. Note that the verse is sort of a spin off of Jerry Lee Lewis's "Great Balls of Fire" and SAG refers to the cars that pick up riders who are injured or have bicycle failures and take them to the next stop.
They never told me Georgia'd be so hot I swear my shoes are about to rot
I should have listened about the hills I swear my butt is aching still
I'm a first time rider of the BRAG I'm scared I'm gonna have to take the SAG
Chorus: BRAG 2004 The ride from the mountains to the shore BRAG 2004 Who could ask for more By the time I get to Savannah I'm gonna burn my sweaty bandana
They promised peaches at every stop Sliced bananas is all we got
We purchased meals ahead of time Still they made us stand in line
I didn't know about the fire ants When they bit me every body watched me dance
I have to admit that I almost bailed out before the ride began because somewhere on Highway 17 we found a nightmare hill, marked by three signs (sort of like the Burma Shave ads from yesteryear) stating on the way up, "Faith," "Trust," and "Love." I was terrified that this was the type of hill that we were facing and knew that neither my muscles nor my faith in a higher power were enough to get me up hills like that. Fortunately, none of the hills were that extreme, but the ride was quite hilly for the first two days. Once the land got flat, the temperature rose and it was hot -- really hot -- and humid.
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