The Boys, The Bikes, And The Broken

 

When we were young, Paul, Jerry Carr, and I took a trip up to north Georgia to ride our dirt bikes. It was a one-off thing, but I still remember it fondly. After Paul, Steve, and I had been riding our electric mountain bikes in the wilds of Florida for a summer, it occurred to me that these machines might do well up in Georgia. Thus, we hatched a plan that consisted of a long drive and 4 days of hard riding and seeing if we had changed much since those early days.

I picked Fort Mountain State Park in northern Georgia, because I had been there camping with Pam and Ollie. I saw all of the mountain bikers in the campground and heard that it was an epic place to ride...I must not have listened closely.

The ride up was smooth, Steve driving the whole way, in spite of me insisting that I would be glad to drive as long as it was not raining, not dark and no where near Atlanta. As is usual on such a trip from Florida, all predictions were that we would arrive by 3pm and we got there around 8pm....all those predictions assume that we could always drive the speed limit and you never needed to stop for gas, food or restroom breaks.

In spite of that very long drive, including Google taking us straight through the heart of Atlanta, Steve pulled in, hooked up and then grilled us supper...or at least he was willing to. He had purchased a brand new gas grill, specifically designed to fit in the small space he had. We had packed in enough food to feed 6 of us for 2 weeks, because we knew it was a long drive down the mountain to Chatsworth, which supposedly had a grocery store.

I was helping with the paper plates and silverware, getting some baked beans going and locating soft drinks for the 3 of us when Steve suddenly realized his fancy new grill only worked with a giant bottle of Propane, the kind you use for a home grill. Steve had 5 brand new bottles of the little ones you use for camping...and no adapter to hook them up...

Man, those were the best peanut butter sandwiches that night! I thought to myself that something had to go wrong on any given trip, and we got it out of the way on the first day...if that's the worst thing, we're good!

.....not so fast, Perkins....