Austell

It's been a while since I wrote anything, and largely that's because I had a big gap in doing anything. My Dad and I rode that awesome ride in late December, and a week later I was super sick. Sick enough to get a COVID test. No COVID. I'd gotten a flu shot a while back too. No idea. Some upper respiratory infection. It lasted 6 weeks, and it was pretty awful. Same thing happened in early 2020, but the 2020 version was much, much worse.

This one was kind-of weird. No coughing, just constantly clearing my throat and blowing my nose. There was always blood when I'd blow my nose. I was perpetually exhausted too, and it felt like I wasn't getting enough air if I was just sitting around. If I'd get up and walk around I'd feel fine, but if my breathing got shallow I felt like I'd been climbing some super steep, impossible climb after a few minutes.

Terrible.

I did, eventually get over it though, got back on the bike, and milled around town a bit.

Turns out there's this pond pretty near by that I didn't know about.

Some guy was out fishing, and some ladies were sitting on their back porch enjoying the afternoon when I rode up. There were ducks on the dam, and when I rode by, I guess the ladies throught I was harrassing the ducks or something, so they harassed me with some "hey... hey!!!"s like those seals in Finding Dory. Ok, ok, I'm not even 10 feet from the ducks...

There was this elementary school nearby too. I've discovered that schools often have some kind of trail running around in the woods behind them, so I checked it out. Yep, trail running around the outside. Also, there was this abandoned outdoor classroom in the woods out front.

There was a trail leading to it too, but it was super overgrown. I just saw the structure through the woods, and didn't see the trail until after. It was one of those trails bordered by landscape timbers and filled with wood chips. It led from the corner of the woods near the parking lot out to the classroom, but at some point, a road had been bulldozed through and a pad placed for an antenna of some kind, and it went right through the middle of the trail. There was no clear way to reroute it either, so I guess the whole thing just got forgotten.

Around back there was this trail leading down to a retention pond, and one of the adjacent houses had a big hole in the fence, through which poked the head of a smiling German Shephard. He seemed very happy to see me, and I gave him so many scratches. The trail led across a little dam, but it was too overgrown with throrns for my taste, on that day in particular. So, I didn't pursue it any further.

On subsequent days I rode around and found a bunch of trails leading into and out of a nearby park and some neighborhoods. Most were really just sewer lines, but they were fun to ride, all the same. One seemed like it might be the local hobo highway - super well traveled, lots of trash, and a guy camping in a tent near the park.

Those rides were short, cold, and freaking exhausting, but it was nice to get out in the world again. In addition to being sick, it had rained off and on for a month, so I felt pretty lucky to be able to get out at all.