Georgia report

Friday Joe and I were on the road by 6:30am on our way to Georgia for the Six Gap century ride.
Arrived at our motel (Best Western) which had nothing that was "best" or "western".

We walked into the lobby and the place smelled, then he couldn't find my reservation even though I kept telling him to look at my paper with the number on it. Finally we get a room and we go check it out and walk out of it with a headache, it smelled worse that the lobby. I told the "ho" to call the Comfort Inn across the street which is where I wanted to stay but were booked. Guess what, they had a cancellation 30 minutes before I called, went back to the front desk and cancelled at BW and moved across the street to CI. My niece and her husband flew in to Orlando and drove up to do the ride and were staying there too. They also did the ride and finished it in spite of the conditions, great ride guys.

Saturday we went to the registration place at the Dahlonega Square, nice smalll town with hundreds of bikers riding all over the place. We walked and purchased a few last minute things at the bike expo had lunch and went back to the motel to get ready for Sunday.

Saturday night into Sunday morning, rain and lighting. Got up got ready and the rain had stopped by 6am. On our way to the ride venue the heavens opened up and the roads and streets were like rivers. We waited in the car for 20minutes thinking they would move the start time back, but no, promptly at 7:30 the horn went off and we were off. Within 10 miles into the ride the rain started again and never let up.
Temps in the high 60's to low 70's made it better. It did get cold on some of the downhills but when you are going 30+ and at times 40+ in the rain you are bound to get a bit cold. Yes, a couple of times I did hit 40+ on wet roads going downhill. For the most part you could see the turns coming and you could gage how fast you wanted to hit the turn if you could slow down. I ned to buy new brake pads, I have less than and 1/8 left on each one. The climbing was excellent but I feel that if I knew how the course was, I  could have done it in 20 minutes less the way I felt and with dry roads. It was a hard ride but the description makes it look worse than it is. When we made it to the top of Hogpen Gap, the "ho" and I looked at each other and said "is that it". It was hard believe me, but we thought it was going to be worse. After that we pushed it a little more and were able to make up some time, my finishing time was
7:33.08. good for 342 out of 793 finishers with almost 25% DNF's. Under 7 is a possibility with the right training for the ride. With the little riding I've been doing comparing to previous years I think I did good.

On the way back the "HO" had to stop at the original KFC to visit the Coronel. And yes, I'm ashamed to say it but I had a 3 pc original and it tasted good.