Water Level On the Dam
Dogwood Over Lanier
Wind was the order of the day for yesterday. My brother and his wife spent much of last week painting their oldest daughter's room. Sunday, they asked if I would come up and help hang a chair rail around the room. Sounded like a good excuse to get out of the house, so off I went. An hour later, the chair rail was hung, and I was free to play, so I did. I left my brother's house and decided to head up to Lake Lanier just to see how bad the lake still is. It is bad, real bad. Normally the lake should be at 'full pool' about this time of year. Instead, it remains 10-12 feet down, and the sight of so much exposed shoreline and prime fish nesting ground is quite depressing. At the same time, this time of year brings out the wild azaleas and dogwood trees that are two of my very favorite sights in the Atlanta springtime (usually seen through red itching eyes from the spring allergies), and I did find one nice example overlooking the water. Needless to say I enjoyed the ride, but it presented some interesting (to say the least) challenges. You see, Friday it was 82 degrees. Sunday, it was 52 with 30+ mph winds. Riding across the Buford Dam with a 300 foot valley to the left and one of the largest man made recreational lakes in the world to the right, well, it was a challenge. Fortunately, the BV was more than up to the challenge. I will say that the most nerve racking parts of riding in gusty wind conditions aren't the straight aways with the crosswinds, it is the turns when a blast of wind hits from the inside of the turn, when the whole bike feels like it 'lifts' a couple of inches before settling back down into place. Keeping a steady pace and a wary eye on the lines in and out of turns just becomes that much more critical. Funny thing though. All the sport bike guys I ride with talk about wearing off the "chicken strips". Before I changed tires, they kept trying to tell me that scooter tires don't come with them, they didn't see the tires new. Now they have, but my "chicken strips" don't seem to survive a single trip to the mountains and I'm afraid that the sides of my front tire are wearing faster than the middle. From there, I headed off the lake up into the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, running out GA-20 to GA-372 up into the Big Canoe/Bent Tree area before coming back home. All in all, 140 miles, a little business, a little pleasure and by the time I got home, I was in such a great mood. No more stress, just relaxed, and ready to chill on the sofa to watch August Rush with the family. Sometimes, you can enjoy the ride even more in adverse conditions than in ideal.