Life After the RIDE

These Blue Ridge Mountains in North Georgia depict the views we have so enjoyed throughout Georgia and Alabama since completing our bicycling odessey on October 11.

We experienced rain the day after the completion of our "ride" so after worshiping in a 150 year-old United Methodist Church in Savannah, GA; we drove up to the kids cabin in the Blue Ridge Mountains for a couple of days R & R and to celebrate Rinda's birthday there.

A midweek evening ride with Rinda and the grandkids. This is the Silver Comet Trail which is a rail trail that Leroy rode on Thursday to the Alabama border and back adding another 100 miles onto the seventeen the night before with the group. He also took in a twenty mile ride through Atlanta on the Freedom Trail ending at Stone Mountain Park. Included is a picture of the famed "kudzo" which was very prevalent along the Silver Comet Trail.


On Saturday we were priviledged to see both Liske and Anneke play in their soccer games. As a former kids soccer coach and referee, it was great to see them playing. Lena Jean is only a few steps behind them in everything they do even though she is only 19 months!

Here are the reasons we took a week of R & R in Atlanta after the ride. We had a great time in Atlanta seeing our kids and grandkids. Ballet, soccer, shopping, Stone Mountain, a picnic, building a loft library for the girls, building a butcher paper holder, cleaning a closet, bicycling on the Silver Comet Trail (see below for more miles Leroy has added) visiting their church, relatives, and friends; made for a quick week.

Meet our friends, Ausie and Beth Clement. We go back many years to Fort Dix, New Jersey Basic Training and Fort Benning Georgia pre-Viet Nam. It was a gorgeous drive North through Alabama to visit them in Athens, Alabama today. We have visited a few times with them over the years. The water tower just seemed to embrace the support for our troops all across the South.

When we left Atlanta on Sunday afternoon we had a great visit with Al and Pat VanderPol in Anniston, Alabama. They are friends we both grew up with in Mount Vernon Washington; also our paths crossed at Fort Dix, New Jersey and Fort Lewis, Washington during the Viet Nam era. We spent the night with Zeke and Linda Willis, Army friends from Fort Lewis who live in Birmingham, Alabama. It is such fun to just take up where we left off the last time we visited, even though many years may have passed in the meantime.

Miles Traveled during our week in Atlanta = 137

Total Miles Traveled = 2,871

Trivia = Stay tuned as we travel through more of the USA heading home to Sunnyside.