After 3 cups of Grouchy's Deli's famous Costa Rican coffee while waiting a half hour for Rick & T.J., we had to over-rule T.J.'s proposal to stay there and watch Lance Armstrong go for his 5th consecutive Tour de France victory in the 2nd to the last leg of the 2,125 mile race. Sorry T.J., but we all knew he was going to win it, without us watching it on TV. We finally departed around 9:45am in perfect sunny 80 degree T-shirt weather.

(Editor's note: BBB was sporting an "Ithaca Harley Davidson" tee to counter Rick's Cornell U golf shirt. Ah, the game is afoot! Next comes "If you can read this, Buffy fell off!" in a nice khaki green..)

The first leg took us thru the traffic/red-light-free scenic tour thru the upscale estates and horse farms of unincorporated N.Fulton County along shady Hopewell Rd., with its continual sweeping curves, a great road for biking.

Then we hopped over GA.20 to tiny Heardsville to stop and tour the famous Poole's Mill covered bridge, standing since 1901, one of the best preserved & best built covered bridges in the entire southeast. This historic spot also features a wonderful park for visitors, as well as picnic/play grounds, and of course the popular swimming hole underneath the bridge where the old mill race used to be.

Next, we headed northwest over to GA.5 and up to Jasper to stop and visit T.J.'s former cohorts who run the huge Jasper Jeep dealership. After a warm greeting, we found T.J. working on their computer system within 3 minutes of arrival! Must be he never completed those little IT / web projects they paid him for. You just can't call this place a dealership since the building is more like a museum, that we enjoyed taking in while waiting for T.J.. Now we know why so many people from Atlanta drive up I-575 to buy vehicles up there.

We then zipped 3 miles south on GA.515 to check out the 1st annual "Thunder Over Georgia Bike & Blues Festival", organized by a Cherokee Indian managed business. Just a quarter mile off of the highway on a little dirt road, they set up this festival in a tree encircled meadow, with about 30 vendor booths in a circle around the stage. Only 11am, the place already had over 200 bikes parked on the grass, with a non-stop stream of bikers rolling in, but no music yet. We heard & read that the promoters had scheduled some top area blues musicians to perform during the 2 day rally.

Running late, we then headed east out of Jasper on Cove Rd., and then north up thru the scenic lake village of Grandview, with its perfectly conical shaped Sharp Top Mt. backing it. Next came the big climb up Hwy. 136, a/k/a Burnt Mt. Rd., to its incredibly scenic overlook at 2,900', with views all the way to Alabama and Pine Mt. near Calloway Gardens. With so many bikers continually rolling in to enjoy it, we had to head out, with the best part still ahead. As we crested this road at a cool 3,000' and headed downhill for 7 miles on its spinney ridge, with great valley views to both our left and right, we found out why they call this the "Blue Ridge Pkwy" of Georgia.

We then connected onto Hwy.52 to get to Dahlonega for lunch, a nice wide 2 lane country road, but only got half way before T.J.'s bike died. Really Rick's fault for T.J. not being familiar with this project Yamaha that he was borrowing from Rick. Rick switched it over to the reserve tank, tinkered a bit, and off we went. However, the greatest thing was the strangers who stopped to offer assistance to him, in just the few minutes after he stalled. One guy offered to drive to Dahlonega to get him some gas and come back with a can full. This just doesn't happen in Atlanta but it seems to be a biking way of life.

Finally we rolled into Dahlonega and incredibly got the "Bob spot" parking space on its Square, and right in front of the Front Porch Restaurant where we wanted to eat ! After a climb upstairs, we were greeted by a very friendly staff who quickly prepared our orders as we got comfortable at a table for 4 out on the 2nd story front porch overlooking the whole town square. We could have sat there all day watching people and the non-stop parade of bikers & tourists rolling thru town, under the towering shade trees over the porch. We recommend this place to everyone.

Since we couldn't find Jay or reach him on his cell phone, we headed south out of Dahlonega on twisty Hwy.9 to Dawsonville, with no traffic to stop us from "pushing it" thru the curves. In D'ville, we cruised by the crowded Premium Outlets complex, and took a 10 minute stop at the interesting new shrine to NASCAR history, "THUNDER ROAD", funded thru the Bill Elliott family of nat'l fame. Tell our readers that the bldg has eye-catching architecture, that they have a nice soda fountain, and a big lobby full of NASCAR artifacts that is free. But skip the museum and save $8.50, unless you're real NASCAR fans.

Then down to Cumming the "back way". In booming Cumming, we were forced to stop at Biker Bill's favorite place, the totally re-built "new" Dairy Queen, a hot spot for area bikers with it's street-side outdoor cafe tables. After this great cool-down stop, we completed our ride down Hwy.141 to Rick's work neighborhood, John's Creek, where we ran into Biker BillyBo's "biker momma", his wife Marcy, a Harley rider herself, but enjoying the a/c in the SUV at the time. Not being a Cornell grad, she refused to taint our 1st ride by joining us, but she looks forward to riding with us in the future, esp. if some other biker women participate!

That's it. A great 180 mile ride. Sure wish Larry, Rachelle, Alvin, Greg, Jay, etc. could have joined us.