Douglasville

Man, I have been buried in a project, for as long as I can remember. Weeks go by and I'm like "What day is it again?"

Case in point, my brother and I rode around Douglasville two weekends ago and I'm just now realizing that I have photos on my phone from the ride.

We met up at PBR and rode out from there.

When I first started out on the road, I was on the Bicycle Outfitters MTB team and I'd religiously drive down from Alpharetta in 5 o-clock traffic to hit the 6PM group ride in Douglasville. There were 2 routes that we used to do, depending on how much daylight we had - a 30 and 50. I have so many good memories of those roads but It's been years and years since I've been on them.

We rode most of the 50 that day and it was like meeting up with an old friend.

Some things were different - there's a new neighborhood off of Mirror Lake road with a screaming descend down to the lake, John had found a better route from Liberty Road back toward town, and Coursey Lake has been developed. But some things were just the same. Mirror Lake road is still super rough and the hills on Liberty Road and Coursey Lake aren't any less steep. I may be a little stronger these days though. Just a bit.

Two very interesting things happened too.

We passed a baby deer nursing from its mother. I've seen precious few baby deer in my life, rarely any deer during the middle of the day, and to my knowledge, the only animals I'd ever seen nursing before were cows and humans. Awesome!

Also, we needed to merge into a left turn lane and though John signaled, with what appeared to be plenty of time, the guy behind us maybe thought John was telling him to move over or something. As John began to merge, the guy sped up, ended up right next to me, and came really close to John's back wheel before letting up. It sounds sketchy buy John was looking back the whole time and ready to dodge if he had to. Then he was all "Jesus man, hand signal not enough for you?!" or something to that effect. When I merged, the guy pulled up alongside me and rolled his window down. I expected threats and incoherent screaming but instead he was really calm and nice, explained that "the signal seemed a little quick" and caught him off guard, and was effusively apologetic for how close he came to us. Then he pulled up to John and reiterated the same. Wow! How often does that happen?

We eventually made it back to PBR, grabbed some lunch at Taco Mac and watched a little of the Copa do Mundo.

The one thing that stood out to me more than anything else though. The heat. It's getting to be nice and warm these days. It was 97 on that particular day and I could feel that fluttery stomach action for a lot of the ride. Most of my rides these days are in the evening when it's cool but it sure is warm in the middle of the day. Woohoo!

I need to get in some more of that.