The Bud Plant Ride

Right in my backyard, which in Atlanta means within twenty to thirty minutes of the house, lies the quaint little town of Cartersville, Georgia. I don't know that much about Cartersville, other than its on the other side of Lake Allatoona, the people are country, and they have a Bud Plant.

A Bud Plant you say? Yea, that's where they make my favorite drink. Beer. Heck, during the Katrina crisis, they switched the whole plant over to water, unasked, and began shipping out cases of fresh water in Bud cans. How cool is that?

The nice people at the Bud Plant have opened up one of their parking lots to the bicycling community. You can park your cars there and ride the back roads of whatever counties lie to the north east of Cartersville. As a matter of fact, they have a century ride that I am planning on doing in September that leaves from that very place. The route is (almost) clearly marked with paint at every turn.

A group of peeps from Beginner Triathlete decided to have a group ride this morning. About eight folks were showing. Half of them would be doing the 45 mile option, the other half would be doing the 65 mile option. Since I had a 4 hour bike scheduled today, I joined the 65 mile group with the understanding that I would go back out again if I had time left over at the end of the ride.

I got up at the butt crack of stupid this morning, still tired from my weekend activities. I made breakfast, grabbed the coffee and jumped in the car. As I pretty much expected, it took me thirty to thirty five minutes to get to the Bud Plant. I almost ended up with wrong group. Silly me didn't know how popular this place was. I didn't fathom there might be more than one group leaving for a ride.

After realizing my error, I managed to hook up with BT'ers. Nobody really wanted to be in charge, but eventually we got the ball rolling. Three of the guys in the lead took off and set a very fast past. I was supposed to stay in Zone 1 for the first thirty minutes. After three to four minutes of this, I gave up and joined the tri-chicas bringing up the rear. They were doing the 45 mile loop and were in for a less intense ride.

I rode with the tri-chicas for a while. The route was beautiful. It wasn't too hilly. There were some really nice flat and downhill sections, and the scenery was just awesome. The morning started out cool, and much of the ride was under the canopy of the trees. Eventually, we met up with the lead pack. They stopped to wait for us across an intersection. One of the experienced riders told us there was a dog ahead. The dog was somewhat of a known nuisance. The experienced rider told us we should all stick together going past the dog.

The group took off and formed something of a pace line. A mile or two down the road, I saw this medium-large dog with wet fur standing on the side of the road. Evidently, this dog had some experience "playing" with cyclist. When he saw us coming, he went behind the bushes and setup his ambush. Now, everybody who knows anything about ambushes knows that you let the first couple of people by and jump the middle of the pack. Fortunately for me, I was one of those first two or three cyclist to go by. The dog came jumping out with a fury chasing down some of the peeps behind me, but everybody made it through OK.

At the thirty mile mark, the group split up. The 45 milers would continue ahead. The 65 milers would take off on their own route. I asked the three guys in the 65 mile group if they wouldn't mind slowing down a bit so I wouldn't like, die or anything. They obliged, and we took off on the rest of our ride. Ten minutes into the route change, the lead rider got a flat tire. We pulled off the road for about fifteen minutes to allow him to change his tire. We got back on our bikes and headed down the road two miles to a corner store. We refilled our bottles there and caught up on our nutrition.

Once everybody was set, we took off again to complete our ride. The hills started to get worse, and the effort was taking its toll on my body. I got seperated from the group and was struggling to catch up. I did not want to get caught out on the route by myself, even if it was marked. I came to a ninety degree right turn in the rode and ended up taking it too fast. As I hit my back brakes, the wheel started to slide out from underneath me. I didn't panic. What I usually do is just ride the bike off the road and into the grass. With patience and determination, I began the process of executing the same maneuver, when to my chagrin, I realized there was a barbed wire fence running along the road. I cursed under my breath, slammed on both breaks and yes, I rode my bike into the fence. Lucky for me, I escaped with just a minor scratch on my knee.

Shaken, but not defeated, I got back on road. The guys were waiting for me up ahead, and I was able to rejoin the group. Not ten to fifteen minutes later, I had a wasp fly down the front of my shirt! At first, I thought it might have just hit me and bounced off, but NOOOOO! He was squirming around in my shirt. Lucky he didn't sting me. I rode off the road, slammed on my brakes. Ripped my shirt off and got that sucker out of there!! LOL!

The rest of the ride back to the plant was uneventful. At times, I struggled, at other times, I carried myself along fine. I made it back to the plant and said good bye to the guys with whom I had ridden. I finished up the 65 mile route in around three hours and thirty five minutes. I rode back out of the plant to finish my ride. I admit. I did not have much in the tank. I think I went six miles in that twenty five minutes. On the way back, I wasn't paying attention to what I was doing and went off the road again!! There's nothing like off roading in knee deep grass full of cans, bottles, and hidden holes. Geez... Being tired is no excuse for getting killed!! LOL!!

I made it home in one piece, after stopping off at McDonald's for some fuel. I was SOOO hungry. I've basically made it through the day without any kind of nap. I took Matthew and Dee Dee bowling. Dee Dee kicked our butts the first game. She has a new nick now. Muscles :-) I managed to win the second game, the only game where I actually bowled over 100. Matthew did very well too. He got two strikes during the last game.

Tomorrow is normally my rest day, but I have a race coming up this weekend. Instead, I have a fifty minute run planned. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go cry in my Sam Adam's Cherry Wheat and butter pecan ice cream, the breakfast of champions.

Wes

OCN: 70.75 miles, 4:02:16, 17.5 mph