Thanksgiving in Hotlanta

So Katie and I drove down to Atlanta Georgia to visit my aunt Amy, Uncle Dave, their four boys, my grandparents, my parents, brothers, and new nephew. Yah big group! We left Wednesday morning when Katie got off work at Barnes and it took about 9 hours. The trip really wasn't that bad of a drive. We only stopped once to eat at 1 and I had good tunes and almost no traffic the whole way.

I of course brought my bike with me and was really looking forward to some good riding. My aunt and uncle live in a VERY well to-do area of Atlanta so the traffic is low and people see bikes on the road often. This was great because it makes for a much more relaxing time on streets you have never been on.

I found a route on mapmyride.com the night before and loaded it onto my Garmin. This is also a huge help because it makes me feel like no matter what I can always find my way home. That was good because I felt totally lost the entire time, so I just enjoyed the ride and let the Garmin tell me where to go.

I left around 9am and there was a think fog in the air, a slight nip, and a light wind. It looked like it had rained that morning but I didn't hear anything. The nice thing was that it was 65* instead of 25* and raining like back home in the STL. The roads were totally quite, no cars and just a sprinkle of morning runners. The homes I went by were AMAZING! There were some that I thought looked like palaces, with large estates, bridges, rivers running through their front yards, large gates, it was too cool. I think it would have been way too dangerous for me if there had been more cars because I spent most of the time looking at all the great homes. The climbing was nothing bigger than back home in St Louis, I was hoping that my aunt and uncle lived closer to some mountainous terrain but I would settle for new surroundings. The ride really was only 26 miles and I am looking forward to riding more Saturday morning and doing a 50 mile ride that supposedly has 4-6K feet of climbing. I decided to not ride Friday morning as it was pouring rain, and I felt like I had my ass kicked from the family 2 hand touch game I played before turkey day dinner yesterday.

This is really turning out to be a great weekend, I have not seen my brothers happier in a long time. Getting to see my new nephew Will is great! He is only 7 months old but he is a monster! My mom said that my brothers and I were all big kids when we were babies though and now we are really nothing special in the size department. All pretty avg.

I have started looking for a new mountain bike. I will not get it till next fall but I can look and really do some good homework on finding the best ride for me. I think that I want something that I could race but I don't know if I want to really race that often. I am more dedicated to racing on the road. I think I will spend about 4K on a bike, I don' t know if I should build it myself or by a whole bike. I am worried about going carbon because I seem to like to crash so I am thinking titainium. I am pretty sure I will stick with a hard tail as no matter what you are never going to get a full suspension frame that comes lighter than a hard tail and with my climbing ability or lack there of I need all the help I can get. I also think I am going to stay with the 26" wheels. I was very close to going the 29" route but most of my reading says that unless I am riding on a gravel road 26" is the way to go. They are quicker on the trails, going uphill, and even downhill you have not trouble making time. So if I ever needed a 2nd mtn bike and I was going to do a LOT of racing on fire roads or something I think I will stick with the tried and true. Sorry Mr. Fisher but 29" just aint for me.

I am really liking the writing thing.