Through the lower Smokies

On Saturday morning the 23rd, we all hugged and parted ways, Cvstar headed north on Rt 17 towards Charleston; we,BeamerPop and BurgMa, headed northwest towards Augusta on Rt 321. We had a very nice journey on tree shaded two lane roads and passed through the limited access area of the Savannah River. We lunched in Augusta with Nana and Tom, enjoying a wonderful spread of fresh corn, boiled shrimp, crab cakes and baked potatoes. It was finalized with cool watermelon and wonderful peach pie. We had to decline Nana's gift of white peaches (our air-conditioning system wouldn't be able to keep them cool). A quick call to a BullDog enthusiast confirmed a home game in Athens. We headed out with hopes of making it to Cleveland TN before nightfall. The trip from Augusta to Athens GA was fine and we made it into Athens just as the football game was ending. Lots of red and black dressed fans were on the sidewalks and in cars; there wasn't alot of car-honking so we assumed it was a loss for the home team. We wove our way with the fans in a northeasterly direction before stopping in a large parking lot to let the hoopla subside. After a 30 minute break, the traffic diminished and we were ready to get some coffee and return to the road. Our friendly bulldog enthusiast is also an Athens native so a quick call to her for directions led us easily out of town on rt 129 which joined with rt53. It was a beautiful drive on the bikes and I would have enjoyed it more had nightfall not descended. We decided to make it to Calhoun before we called it a day.