Friday (June 10th) was day six of the 2011 Bicycle Ride Across Georgia (BRAG). Old mister Webster does not contain a definition for hooah so I picked this up from Wikipedia: hooah (pronounced /’hu:a:/) is a U.S. Army (and rarely Canadian Army) battle cry used by soldiers and also in use by the U.S. Air Force airmen “referring to or meaning anything and everything except no.”
Woke up early in Statesboro to get my hooah to Metter so we could get going early. We left Metter High School around 6:20. Unlike the other days where we only encountered a handful of early riders, the first 20-minutes or so today there was a peloton (cycling lingo for a whole bunch of riders) we had to navigate through and around.
Our group of seven got in line and started passing other riders. Early into our charge to the front of the pack, we went around a team from up north (Atlanta) of about 15 riders that were still trying to work out the early morning kinks as they were just cruising along, side by side and talking. I guess they didn’t appreciate being passed by a bunch of flatland southerners. Within a few minutes, I heard what sounded like a train coming and when I glanced back, it looked just like that: a line of 15 riders blowing by us. Never one to miss an opportunity, Bullet Bob and The Diesel jumped in behind the speeding group and the rest of us had our hooah drug along for the ride. We sped across the Bulloch County line and maintained a very fast pace for the 5 or 6 miles to the first rest stop at Scott’s Creek Missionary Baptist Church.
Our team needed a few minutes to re-organize while the group of 15 did a splash-and-go and were back on the road quickly. Never saw those guys and gals again. The next 12 miles had a few gentle climbs before we passed under Interstate 16 (again) before pulling into the second rest stop, a convenience store near Brooklet, GA. The temptation of another Mountain Dew was great but we had only ridden 26 miles and had another 35 to go so I thought it too early in the day for that so I settled for a banana with peanut butter and saddled up for the next segment.
Immediately upon departing the rest stop, we completed the last segment of our northern ride as we passed south of I16 for the final time. Many of my friends don’t appreciate that I define the north as being anything above I16 but that’s my definition and I’m sticking to it. Crossing I16 also meant the end of the hills, which I soon realized meant I had to pedal all the time now. In the hills, you had to pedal hard uphill but with that effort also came an opportunity to coast.
A few miles after leaving the rest stop, we had our first mechanical issue: the Diesel Doug Lane broke a spoke on his rear wheel. Fortunately, we didn’t all crash as Doug slowed and eased his bike off the road. After a few minutes, we continued on and left Doug to wait for a SAG wagon. I had to look it up but SAG is an acronym for ‘support and gear’ with gear referring to mechanical support. We entered Bryan County and made our way to the next rest stop at Pembroke Baptist Church.
This stop was only 10-miles from the last and not enough time to dampen my desire for a Dew. There was a convenience store across the street from the church but I was convinced I would need a nap in about 17 miles once the sugar and caffeine fix wore off. The problem was we had 25 miles to go and I doubted there would be any comfortable place for a siesta as we would be riding through the middle of where the U.S. Army conducts tank training and maneuvers at Fort Stewart. Thankfully, the SAG wagon showed up with Doug and watching the mechanic repair the broken spoke took my mind off the cooler full of Dews across the street. A little longer break than usual but we were soon on our way.
I didn’t think the next 20 miles would ever end. It was a long, straight road. We encountered smoke, army personnel at tank crossing points, a dead, big wild hog and a headwind. About the time we crossed the Canoochee River and the Liberty County line Bullet Bob, Diesel Doug, Mark and Buck pulled away and Lee and Teresa were a little ways behind me. Once they caught me, the three of us along with some fella from St. Petersburg hooked up and drafted together which helped neutralize the impact of the headwind a little plus it made the long, straight road less boring. Two miles before the last rest stop we rode past one of the entrances to Fort Stewart and had to deal with heavy traffic. Everyone regrouped at the rest stop and we soldiered on the last 4 miles of the ride.
When we reached Snelson-Golden Middle School (home of the Soaring Eagles) Rip, whose day it was to drive, had chocolate milk waiting for us. And it was good. We loaded up the bikes, stopped at the Hampton Inn to check in, then took off in search of food. For the second time we ate at Chili’s. While waiting on our food I sent Billy Copelan a text asking him to let me know when he and the other half of the team finished the ride. A few minutes later, he replied they had just wheeled into a Dairy Queen, the stopping point for their group at the end of every ride. After a few minutes, I remembered that today was the “big race” between Lee and Doug. Knowing Gary Larkins would be with the rest of the group at DQ I sent Billy another note, which led to the following text exchanges:
MW: By the way, investigators from Fort Stewart and Liberty County are investigating potential sabotage of Doug’s bike. They are lifting prints off the rim and a person of interest last been identified. More to follow.
BC: Larkins says all he cares about is who won.
MW: Does mechanical failure disqualify Doug?
BC: Phil (Curry) says only if you spend over $3,000 for the bike.
MW: Lee refused to declare victory from Doug’s misfortune. They agreed to push the showdown to tomorrows 36-mile sprint. And they want Gary in the mix as we are all staying at the Hampton Inn tonight.
BC: Gary says only if he gets a 10-mile head start but the rest of us think he would need 20 miles and we are still not sure he could do it.
MW: Doug says Gary doesn’t even wear the right kind of shorts and Lisa (Warren) thinks she can beat him and y’all have no confidence in him. Sounds like he should just wave that white towel he has hanging out of his shorts.
BC: Gary says he’ll take Lisa on right now.
MW: The ladies here have outfitted Lisa and she said for Gary to be in the Hampton Inn parking lot at 3:30.
BC: I think Gary just choked. He said y’all are ganging up on him!
MW: If he were a lesser man, I would agree.
BC: He says forget 3:30. He is ready NOW!
MW: Tell him to have another dilly bar on me.
I was reading Billy’s reply to our group at Chili’s and I’m sure he was doing the same with the group at Dairy Queen. Everyone was laughing and I think I even heard a hooah thrown in somewhere.
Lisa and I went back to Snelson-Golden Middle School (home of the Soaring Eagles) to talk with a reporter from the Coastal Courier. They had run a story the previous Sunday about MICHAEL’S ULtIMATE MISSION and the fundraiser we were doing as part of BRAG. They planned to run a recap of BRAG in the upcoming Sunday paper and wanted to ask us a few questions. When we were leaving, we saw another team member that had been staying in a RV during the week. We stopped and caught up with Kathy and Wayne Hutcheson and their niece Mary Katherine. Kathy and Mary Katherine have ridden BRAG for a number of years and Wayne takes care of setting up and breaking down the RV, getting it to the next town and making sure everyone is fed. He said something about his camp being called high maintenance but I didn’t catch everything he said about that and even if I did, I’m not sure I would repeat it. We made plans to find each other at the finish line tomorrow.
Before returning to the hotel, I received a phone call from the owner of Georgia Theatre Company, Bill Stembler. He has been keeping up with the ride through the updates Billy was providing The Brunswick News and saw we were in Hinesville so he called and offered to treat any of our team to the movies at the theatre he owned in Hinesville. Some of us had planned to go to Savannah to Elizabeth’s on 37 to eat dinner but six or seven that were not going took him up on his invitation and saw X-Men, part of which was filmed on Jekyll Island.
Everyone enjoyed the last night of BRAG and prepared for the last 36 miles to Savannah tomorrow. Hooah.