PJ's 2006 RAMBLE

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October 16, 2006

Atlanta, Round 2: Deliverance

I left Jake's place somewhere around 2pm and had about 420-something miles to ride up to the Deliverance rally. I had some thoughts of trying to pull a "crazy endurance ride" and make it all the way there in one day, but for that kind of distance, to get there in the same day I'd have had to have left a lot earlier, otherwise I'd be arriving at 3 or 4 in the morning, and who knows who or what I'd find at that time (if I made it at all).

From Jake's place (between Ocala and Gainesville), I rode 318 west to ALT 27 and stayed on that for 100 miles or so (seemed like forever) up to Perry. The bad thing about ALT 27 is that it's all 4-lane divided highway, which I've come to realize is about my least favorite type of road to ride on (outside of interstate highways and gravel roads). The pace can be too fast and the scenery is generally disappointing, not offering much more than an interstate would, not to mention the sensation that you're not moving very fast since the road cuts such a wide swath through the countryside and there are no trees, or shade(!) nearby. And it was hotter than hell that day, so the sun was killing me. No fun when you can only go 55mph.

So in Perry I was thrilled to get the hell off of ALT 27/19/98 and onto a smaller road, 221N. This took me the remaining 50-something miles out of Florida and back into Georgia, the state I'd come out of just the day before. I stayed on 76 up to Adel, where I found 41, a road which runs within a few miles of Interstate 75 all the way up to Atlanta. The scenery in northern FL and southern GA is pretty, lots of houses with tall, tall trees shading the front yard (there are a few different variants on this theme and unfortunately I don't have a good photographic example of it, but it's almost magical-looking, a large-scale grove with huge trees spaced well apart that shade the entire expanse of yard, a gorgeous sight).

At some point in northern Florida I turned over the 6,000th mile on my odometer. I traveled down the sun-baked road past a whole lot of nothing, with the occasional sight to pull over for, like this strange landscape and this abandoned BP gas station. I made it to that Georgia line with much less than an hour of daylight left. I passed a nice swamp and then it got dark.

I'd been trying not to drive in the dark too much if I could avoid it, too many bugs and Hazards of the Road. But I wanted to make it up to Atlanta as soon as possible so as not to miss too much of the rally action, and since it was such a late start, this meant at least a few hours of night driving. I was planning on going about 2/3rds of the way (possibly up near Macon) and getting a motel for the night, then trying to make it up to the rally by midday Saturday. I was trucking along in the dark, the temperature was still decent and the bugs weren't too bad so I figured I could go for a while.

At some point almost an hour past Tifton in the middle of nowhere, maybe near Arabi, something dashed out onto the road. I braked hard and tried to swerve but it scurried back and forth (as animals in the road do) and I hit it dead on with a sickening thud, sending the front wheel of the scooter up and over. It was a good-sized animal, I guessed it to be a raccoon. I was simultaneously full of dread and amazement that I didn't wreck the scooter; those 10-inch wheels hitting just about anything (especially when you're not bracing for it) is usually a losing proposition.

I went about a half mile up the road and pulled over, shaking with fright and adrenaline. I thought that I'd better turn back to see what I'd hit and whether or not it was dead, as much as I didn't want to confront it the thought of maiming an animal and leaving it to suffer was worse. So I turned back around and went back, and I came upon the poor thing in the road. I pulled the scooter over and left it running for the headlight's illumination, and I could immediately see that it wasn't a raccoon, but a good-sized striped cat. I am a "cat person" and have a striped cat that looks very much like this one and was horrified to see what I'd done. Fortunately it was dead and not suffering, not that that makes me feel any better about it.

The cat had no tags and there were no houses within a mile or more on the road, it was late at night and I was in a state of shock, so decided to move the body to the side of the road where it wouldn't be hit again but would be visible to somebody driving if they were looking for it. So to the cat and its guardians, if any: I'm so, so, so sorry. This was the worst experience I have had on the trip and the first time I've ever hit anything larger than a bug on my scooter (I hit a squirrel once in a car as a teenager). I was immensely bummed and couldn't go on driving that night, I pulled off in the next motel-sized town (Cordele) and got a room for the night, cheapest-looking motel I could find.

The next morning I got up at a decent time (decenter than usual, i.e. I got out of there before check-out time, probably 8-something). I thought I had just over a hundred miles to Atlanta but it turned out to be more than that through some attractively hilly and pine-y roads. I also stopped in a small town to buy a discman CD player at a pawn shop so that I could listen to the "SOS" music CD Ryan had mailed me c/o Jake's place in Florida. After some searching I eventually found one, paid $20 for it (too much, esp. considering that when I went next door to Dollar General to buy batteries for it I saw brand new players for $12...oh well). No matter the price, hearing the sweet sounds of Townes Van Zandt, Woody Guthrie, The Carter Family and Stompin' Tom Connors was worth it as I sailed along the hi-way, thrilled to be hearing these songs that I'd been dreaming of for weeks. Thanks again to Ryan.

Once I got close to Atlanta and started crawling through its big suburban sprawl nightmare I decided to aim for the interstate about 12 or 15 miles outside of downtown and rode that in, too hot and impatient to deal with the stop-and-go strip mall and fast food route.

By the time I finally rolled up to the rally it was about 2pm and I'd missed the group rides, but I got a warm welcome from just about everyone there, it seemed like a lot of people recognized me and/or my trip, and that was flattering. I spent the afternoon chatting with people and watching the various gymkhana events, had a veggie burger and tried to stay cool and somewhat out of the blistering sun. The rally is held at a great venue called the Masquerade, I think it used to be some kind of factory or brewery, it's a gigantic building that now houses a dance club, or several. They have a large lawn area out back (inside some sort of castle walls) and that's where most of the scooter stuff is, except for the nighttime bar part, which is inside in the bar. Some cute dreadlock'd beauties working there. So after several hours of fun-in-the-sun antics-watching people kind of went their separate ways, planning to meet back up at the Masquerade later that night for the bar stuff.

During this intermission I rendezvous'd with Danielle, the girl whose apartment I'd crashed at my previous night in Atlanta, and she was kind enough to offer her couch and cat for my enjoyment once again. So I unloaded some of my gear and then walked across the street to Soul Veg to have another fantastic dinner there. After that I played with the cat for a while and checked my e-mail and went out to join the evening festivities at 9 or 10.

They had karaoke in the one bar and some kind of dance club party in the other part, and scooterists were hanging out and drinking all around. When they did the awards ceremony bit I wasn't very surprised to be called to the stage for being Furthest Ridden, but I was quite surprised (and more than a little embarrassed) to get called back up for my scooter being named Best in Show. That is a tall honor and I give all the credit to Will Christman at the Sign Shop of Racine who did my paint work. Shortly after the awards I learned that a woman named Becky had actually ridden a little farther to the rally than I had from Florida, and that she was really hoping to win Furthest Ridden, so I gave her the trophy. No big deal, she earned it and it meant one less thing for me to carry or ship home.

As the evening drew on some of my newfound friends told me they were going to a titty bar called the Cleremont Lounge, located in the basement of a sleazy motel, and that the strippers there were basically all age 40-60+. Sounded like a plan to me so I rode over with some others and paid my cover charge for admission into a red, hot, crowded, smoky room with a couple of old ladies dancing up a storm on a couple of stages and an ancient DJ (looked to be about 70, dressed in the height of late 1970s fashion) spinning tunes. Unfortunately cameras are prohibited in strip clubs but it's quite a venue, simultaneously fun and pathetic.

After that I called it a night and slept well. The next morning there was a breakfast at some Irish bar/restaurant in a suburb, and after getting lost trying to find it I eventually arrived, if a little late. Ordered up the least of the evils on the menu, a mess of potatoes, onions and soy sausage with a strange, dry bread that tasted like soda bread mated with rye, and sat and chatted with some of the BNSSC folks and a few other friends I'd just made. After breakfast some people headed over to a park to play kickball, I went along with them (to watch, not to play) and chatted some more. After this I went back to Danielle's place to collect my gear and ended up staying the night (and most of the next day) with Matt and Christina, a sweet scooter couple who'd recently moved to Atlanta from Pensacola. They were so kind and let me stay the night in their cool loft apartment (after they'd just said goodbye to a houseful of guests for the rally) and take over their computer for the better part of a full day, trying my best to upload photos and pen an update or two. I had a really good time at Deliverance 5 and thank all the great folks I met for the conversations and southern hospitality. I hope to attend more Atlanta rallies in the future. To see more photos from the rally, check out the Deliverance 5 gallery on scoot.net.

I left the next day for Montgomery, AL, that update to follow soon...this one is long enough!

Posted by pj at October 16, 2006 09:18 PM

Comments

Posted by: Marvin Holland at October 19, 2006 08:32 PM