Dawsonville

Oh man. I've been working 16 hours a day for a week now, writing a SQL parser and translator. If you understood that sentence, you just earned several nerd points. Computer programming is the opposite of exercise so in an attempt to balance it out, I tried to get out on the road for a few hours early in the week. It didn't work out.

Yesterday though, I finally managed to get out for real. It was about 1PM when I left and about 55 degrees. The only clean jersey I had was sleeveless, so with the armwarmers I was looking all NBA.

I set the timer on my phone for 2 hours and headed north. Not 5 minutes north of town my front derailleur cable broke.

I debated turning around but that would be the second time in a week. I didn't NEED a big ring.

A little while later my chain was getting really creaky. I guess that's what I get for riding in the rain for so long that last time. I considered stopping at a store to see if they had some kind of oil behind the counter when I noticed a bottle on the side of the road.

Thanks litterbug. Sort-of. I guess.

The bottle felt empty so I turned it upside down and let it all run down into the cap. It wasn't as empty as I thought though and when I unscrewed the cap it poured out all over my glove. That's OK though, I didn't NEED gloves either.

My chain was the quietest I've ever heard it. Good old 10w30. Maybe I'll use that from now on.

After a long run up Hwy 9 I reached Dawsonville...

...and hung a left. I'd been up that way before but I didn't have much time and I didn't get much further. This time I made it out to 186, all the way up Keith Evans Road and even a bit up Bailey-Waters. Local mountain bikers might recognize those roads, as they are in the general vicinity of Bull Mountain. In fact, I'd hoped to make it to Nimblewill Church but my alarm went off just north of the Kangaroo place.

Darnit. I was still a few miles south of Nimblewill. It's a net climb on the way out so the return trip is generally faster but it gets dark right at rush hour these days and I didn't want to push it.

On the return it got substantially colder. When I got home my face was pale, my eyes were bloodshot, my big toes were purple and wouldn't reprofuse and I had a splitting headache. How am I going to stand it when it's even in the 30's? Much less the teens?

How!?