It was a roundtrip of 125 miles thru backroads and rural roads in North Georgia with John Moore. It was a rather hot day but Ellijay was in its charming best. I highly recommend Emily’s Bar and Restaurant. Great food (and great presentation – something you won’t expect in small towns) and a lot of space to sit outside in covered areas.

John, of course, was as funny as ever. But the best part was our discussions around cultures in America, Europe, India and Kenya. (His wife is from Kenya and he has a great understanding of a lot of the ethos and ethics there – that most tourists won’t get). One very interesting turn of discussion was the role of economic progression in the decline of certain kind of cultural behaviors – e.g. respect for the elders (or even elderly parents).

John is a great guy to hang around with. Riding bikes to do the hanging around is an even better icing on the cake!!

Took exactly 30 days to go from 13,000 miles to 14,000 miles. Rode every single day in between but one when it rained the whole day!! Covid and four drivers with only two cars at home made it easy to make the motorbike the conveyance of first resort for me this month!!

Rakesh had once taken a few of us bikers there. Today, I went just by myself. Rode around the town for half an hour. Talked to a couple of local folks. And when I say I talked to a couple of local folks, I must have covered a large percentage of the population there.

With a sum total population of 64 (and declining), it is reputed to be the third largest town in Georgia. It sits in a beautiful part of the North Georgia mountains next to a few rural mountain roads and a state highway.

The town came of being right after the Civil War due to the railroad built thru it. In fact, as you can see in the picture, there is a old carriage sitting there still with the welcome to the city message on it…

Lunch at Helen with John. Some hilarious discussions with John – mostly about politics and the virus.

Great time!!

Today we rode our motorbikes together. For the first time.

I think it was more than two years back when I had run into Greg and his wife Colleen in Alpharetta Green Way after my morning run and I found out that Greg is a motor biker too. I always knew him as a great colleague and an amazing runner. He and his dog runs about twice the distance in the same time as I do. (Here is a previous encounter with his dog). He and Dan Parzych were the first ones, I remember, who had encouraged me to run a marathon.

That day we had said that we should ride our bikes together sometime.

Fast forward a couple of years. This Tuesday, I ran into Greg again while running in the Big Creek Greenway. In fact, I ran about half a mile with him… at his pace!! He suggested that we should go out for a bike ride this weekend. I was so out of breath, I would have agreed to anything 🙂 Just kidding! Of course, I was excited by that. And I could not believe that we had not done it already.

This morning, Greg Jones and myself went up to Dahlonega for a great breakfast and a 100 mile ride! Turns out we are both Honda brethren. He is on a Honda 919 and I am on my CTX 700D!!

This is a snippet from a road about 15 miles from home.

I was on my motorbike – and Ballground is often a stop for me. It is a nice, small town and has a good coffee shop. Ran into Nikita and her friend Sidney there!

Went to Pig Tales to grab lunch with John Moore.