Suwanee and Buford Loop

Sunday morning, I was tired, tireder than I expected to be, and I slept in. Around noon I finally got up, did a bunch of work for my dad, and jumped out on the road around 5. I had no specific plan, but as I headed out of my neighborhood, a plan came together on it's own.

I hung a left, headed down Hwy 20. Traffic was light, just a bunch of Sunday drivers. I passed Chung's Package.



I see it all the time, but I've never had a chance to stop. I don't know who this Chung guy is, but I'm impressed that it takes an entire store to contain his package.

I hung a right on Suwanee Dam road and rolled out past Settles Bridge, past Simms Lake and into Suwanee proper. Suwanee has a historic district along the tracks...



...complete with an old caboose.



Back up the road they also have a not-so historic district with a gigantic park, fountains, marble-clad city hall building and a sprawling array of shops.



The weather was gorgeous and the entire city was in the park.

After doing my little bike-tourist thing, I hung a north and headed toward Buford. At Hwy 20, I had to consult the map. It seemed like there was a road that I needed to take, but it turned out that it wasn't there. I'm telling you. Too many concussions when I was a kid.

Buford has it's own cool little historic district, again, right on the tracks.



I picked up Buford Dam Road on the north side and headed for home. There's an actual bike lane there, and a couple of mean hills. For the first time in months, I even felt a little anaerobic. Yeah, feel the burn. No burn could get me down though. It was in the mid 70's, sunny and I felt really good.

The one thing that could get me down did though. Some time ago, somebody had tossed an empty bottle of Jack Daniels out their window. With the sun in my face, I didn't see it until the last minute and I rode directly across the label, and the glass that it still held together.

Instant flat.

No problem, I'd changed a tube in record time the day before. It didn't take long to fix, but as soon as I inflated it, the spare blew too. Rats. I guess there was a little bit of glass still in the tire that I couldn't feel.

End of the line.



Fortunately I was less than 3 miles from my house and it only took Kathryn a few minutes to come and get me.

The route was pretty good. A little more traffic than I usually like, but even that wasn't too bad. I think I'll try it again. Maybe I'll even ride up to Gainesville next time.