While putting up my Edison yesterday after a Sunday ride, it occurred to me I had just experienced my dream of a lifetime.
It was an ordinary, dreary Saturday in Atlanta. I had called my son at Georgia Tech and ridden there from Decatur. I wasn’t wearing Spandex or bike shoes and looked like this picture from ChatGPT.
Google has yet to integrate bike routes into its maps. The route it gave me ran along Ivan Allen Jr. Blvd., sharp hills filled with traffic, leaving just a few feet for the bike. I tried a similar route 40 years ago and nearly passed out. Now, at 71, I was ready for an adventure.
We rode over the hill on Howell Mill Road past Westside Provisions, then past the city reservoir to Atlantic Center. The project was built at the turn of the century, over an old steel mill. It was meant to rival downtown. It features a triumphal arch at its center, along with a small lake. We stayed just a few minutes, watching a line of people order coffee from a pop-up under the arch. Then we headed, as Hitchcock might say, in a northwesterly direction.
After a few blocks I got it in my head to eat at my favorite TexMex restaurant, but we got lost. After more hills we found the new Woodall Rail Trail, taking it to converted warehouse area called The Works. I picked out a route through the development, close to where the trail will soon go, and we came out a few blocks from the restaurant. We parked, then waited outside for a table before enjoying some glorious food.
The Hard Part
We had now been out and about most of the afternoon. My son wanted to get home. We rode along Chattahoochee Avenue as fast as we could, took the Woodall trail back to Marietta Blvd., then rode on streets back to his place, near downtown.
I then picked a route back home alone, past a demonstration on behalf of Iranian secularists, down Sweet Auburn past Dr. & Mrs. King, across the Beltline and then past the Jimmy Carter Center.
A few thoughts:
- When we got to the restaurant we looked like the other customers, once I stuffed my helmet and gloves into my backpack.
- It would have been impossible for me to do this ride, even in my 20s, because the hills and/or traffic would have killed me.
- The traffic didn’t kill me because Atlanta drivers have seen bikes, and e-bikes, all around over the last few years.
Had I been driving my car this trip would have taken longer. The traffic jams were murderous around the museums and West Side Provisions. I had to go through them twice.
This ride, or something very much like it, has been a dream from the time I first moved to Atlanta 45 years ago. I tried it several times, in several ways, on my old Romic road bike, each time stymied by the effort it took to get over those hills. Even if I had succeeded, I would have been in no shape for a meal and might not have been served in my bike shirt, shorts, and shoes.
The Lesson of the Day
E-bikes made this ride possible. They made it comfortable. You can ride over Atlanta’s hills, stop, ride again, stop, ride to a restaurant, stop again, and keep riding.
On the day I rode nearly 26 miles, through traffic, and until I got home, I thought nothing of it.
But my bucket list is now empty.
It’s time for some new dreams.
