Rolling Past Antebellum Elegance, BIG BRAG 2024 Route In Depth Preview - Ride from Atlanta to Savannah with Franklin Johnson

Speaker 1: 1:13

Well, it's time for Road Adventures with Cycling Men of Leisure, the podcast for cyclists who understand that riding is not just about getting to the destination, but the experience along the way. Now here are the original Cycling Men of Leisure Adam and Michael.

Speaker 2: 1:27

Welcome to Road Adventures with Cycling Men of Leisure. I'm Adam, and across from me digitally is my good friend and co-host, michael. Hello, hello, how are we doing Good? Happy New Year, buddy. How was your New Year's celebration?

Speaker 3: 1:40

Happy New Year to you as well, and my New Year's celebration was fantastic, because I'm going to let you guess where I went.

Speaker 2: 1:47

Oh my gosh, you went to Riegers again, riegers.

Speaker 3: 1:50

Distillery. Oh man, I love the slide. You want to get from the second floor back down to the first, you just take the slide.

Speaker 2: 2:00

I remember you had went there a previous month ago and I said you had texted me and I said, well, did you guys ride the slide yet?

Speaker 3: 2:07

And you said, well, not yet, but there's no other way to leave, so I've been hanging out there a lot lately, so I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing, but they got a five-timers club or something. Yeah, they should have. I'm definitely there.

Speaker 2: 2:23

All right, well, was it as good as last year? I'm just curious. Yes, it was Awesome, always a good time. All right, well, without further ado, today's show is going to be Breaking Down Big Bragg 2024. I'm going to stop you right now. If you haven't seen or heard where the route is going to go, I first recommend going to you Spoiler alert. I was going to say big spoiler alert. I'm going to go to YouTube and watch the Bragg video or, being selfish, you could go back one episode, the one right below this one, and it will give you a breakdown of the route, with the executive director, franklin Johnson, speaking of that without further ado. We have a special guest. Franklin Johnson is with us and now we're going to talk about the route. Now that we know where the route is, let's talk about it. So, sir, thank you again for your time to joining us here on the show, so Welcome.

Speaker 4: 3:20

My pleasure, honored, to be on the show again.

Speaker 2: 3:24

Hopefully your new year was good and with you and your family, so hopefully everything is well yeah.

Speaker 4: 3:31

When you got two young ones and one on the way, you don't quite stay up to make it a midnight anymore.

Speaker 2: 3:37

Yeah, I could understand that. So Been there, done that, you know, and further previous life I had a stepson and there were many years we never made it to midnight, so people were like did you make it to midnight? I'm like no, but I watched it on TV the next morning. So so we now have a route Atlanta to Savannah. Excited, I cannot lie. Plain tickets have already been purchased and hotels have already been booked, and we are cycling, men of leisure, we are ready, so we're all in at this point All right, so I'm excited to host you guys again.

Speaker 4: 4:20

I can't wait to see how many people you get for the team.

Speaker 2: 4:24

Oh, I'm excited. We know a few people have reached out to us behind the scenes and said we've joined, we've joined, and I know later on, I think, stephanie reaches out to us and gets that going. But, or at least I think that's how I did last year. But we're excited. We hope we get a lot of people on the team. We think we already actually have 10 and that that's the greatest. That's the meat just meets the goal of the Jersey. But I want to see how many people we can get. So if you're out there, you're looking to join a team and after you hear the show, if you're like man, I'm signing up. Choose cycling men and women of leisure. We'd love to have you.

Speaker 3: 5:02

Well, this route, I will say, is going to some really cool places. It is so. So why don't we get into it and start talking about some of those cool places we're going to? Adam, all right, sounds good.

Speaker 2: 5:13

I'm just going to start with Atlanta, but really we let Franklin talk about where we're going to start, where, where, where, the if you're taking the bus and or martyr from the airport or however you're getting there car, bicycle planes trains, automobiles, whatever however, you're getting there. Where is it starting exactly?

Speaker 4: 5:36

Yeah, so luckily Atlanta is the easiest place to get to from pretty much anywhere in the world on a plane. It's the busiest airport in the world, so you fly right in. You can hop on a martyr train from the airport and head straight up to the Brookhaven station. We're starting at Oglethorpe University, which is a beautiful college campus right in the heart of Atlanta. It's a particularly old school, so a lot of the buildings. I can tell people it kind of looks like Hogwarts right when you pull up some of your Harry Potter fan. But it's a really cool looking campus and super excited to start in Brookhaven Atlanta. I live in Atlanta. What's school here? Kind of grew up here and I ride these roads all the time, so just super excited to get everybody into the city and ride all the way to the sea.

Speaker 2: 6:25

That's going to be cool, so that is important. So each year that I've been following Bragg, you have some sort of catchy logo that goes along with it. So this year it's going to be actually not. What is it exactly?

Speaker 4: 6:41

It's going to be to the sea. So, yeah, it's a great route and we got some beautiful logo with some palm trees on either side, the city in the background and the kind of the sea at the foot of a bike, so it would be a good memorabilia piece for people on the ride. Cool Now. Now Atlanta, they're good.

Speaker 4: 7:00

What's that? Also, I'm excited for everyone to ride straight down Peachtree. If you're not from Atlanta or haven't been to Atlanta, I'm sure you've heard of Peachtree Street, because every other street in Atlanta is called Peachtree something. But we're riding out the big one, which it's actually a divide it's not a continental divide, but it's a regional divide where if it rains on one side of Peachtree, all the water goes to the Atlanta. If it rains on the other side, all the water goes to the Gulf. So it's a cool tidbit. As you're riding down, it'll be on a ridge the whole way. And, yeah, you get to ride straight through the heart of the city, which is really cool. So you get to ride through past some skyscrapers.

Speaker 4: 7:41

Most of this route follows the Peachtree Road Race, which is the largest 10K in the world. We're going through Buckhead and then we'll actually head straight through Piedmont Park. So Piedmont Park is Atlanta's version of Central Park, so it's a really cool park. We're going to have a rest stop there, right at Park Tavern, which is a restaurant right on the park, overlooking kind of the big lawn where they have huge concerts and festivals all the time. It's super beautiful. There's lakes there. There's all kinds of stuff to do in the park you can check out while you're there, and then we get to hop on the Belt Line, which is probably where I ride a lot in the city with my kids, because it's a multi-use path. The path is funded by the city and it's going. It circumvents the whole city. It's not complete yet, but it goes through some really cool parts of town, including Ponce City Market, which used to be City Hall, but a big developer bought it and turned it into this huge multi-use commercial development.

Speaker 4: 8:39

So definitely we're hopping off the bike while you're on the Belt Line to check out some of the breweries and shops and cool stuff that's on the Belt Line, and super excited to ride down that because I ride on it all the time with my kids, which is great. And after that we hop on Freedom Park Path, which, if you're not familiar with Freedom Park, it's a path that goes clear from the interior of the city all the way through Decatur, which is another really cool eclectic city within Atlanta almost, and heads all the way out to Stone Mountain. And if you are feeling up to it, adam, michael I'm not sure if you are you can actually climb Stone Mountain while you're there. Come back down and hop on your bike and keep going.

Speaker 3: 9:22

Let's do it All right. I mean, how many times do you in Stone Mountain, Georgia? Come on, I've never been Well there you go, we should just do it.

Speaker 2: 9:32

So I mean, on a serious note, when you say climb, should we pack additional shoes? Take off our cycling shoes to be able to climb the mountain.

Speaker 4: 9:40

Yeah, for sure I would it's. I haven't climbed it in many years. We used to climb it all the time when we were younger, but you can walk all the way up to the top. It's not a serious climb. I want to say it's like a mile and a half from bottom to the top. It's super mild. The end gets a little steep, but it's actually the second largest granite deposit on the planet and you get, if you climb to the top, you get a really nice view of downtown Atlanta and we're actually going to go into the park, which actually state park, and ride all the way around the mountain past the lake. So it'll be beautiful. We have a view of the mountain most of the time. It's just a wonderful park. It's probably the most visited state park in the state, I would imagine.

Speaker 2: 10:23

I say we do it.

Speaker 4: 10:25

Yeah, I'm in.

Speaker 3: 10:26

All right, boom, we're committing.

Speaker 4: 10:28

All right. And then also, while you're in Stum Mountain, our rest stop is going to be there's a brewery right downtown Stum Mountain, a cute little town right outside the state park. We'll have the rest stop right at a brewery there and that'll be a really cool rest stop midpoint in the ride.

Speaker 3: 10:46

Greatest rest stop ever at a brewery.

Speaker 2: 10:49

How great is that Can't go wrong there? Oh, you can't. We'll find somebody there and ditch the shoes off and say could you please bring these to camp?

Speaker 4: 11:00

I'm super excited about the first day just because it's a great transition from literally the most metropolitan area in the state city of Atlanta, capital of the state, through some really cool multi-use paths. Then after we get on the other side of the best amount it turns into pretty rural country pretty fast. Going through some horse territory, we actually passed by the Georgia International Horse Park where they had the Olympics for horseback riding. Wow yeah 96.

Speaker 2: 11:31

You know, michael, you and I sometimes, depending on the ride, carry the GoPro. That might be cool to put the GoPro on the back of the bike that day, and then as you leave Atlanta, it's just busy, busy, busy. And then by the time you get done, you could do this photo montage of a time-lapse into rule.

Speaker 3: 11:48

Here's what we do. We actually do too. You put yours on the back, I'll put mine on the front, and we'll get both directions. That sounds great. Yeah, I had one question. I know people listening might be a little worried. It's like we're starting in Atlanta. That sounds really busy and hectic. You're not taking us right down through all the busy streets, is that correct? We're on mostly paths.

Speaker 4: 12:09

So straight down Peachtree. Peachtree is a main thoroughfare through the city. Ok, it's not an interstate, but it is a busy street. We actually have a meeting with the city this week to go over the plans for that, which I'm excited about, but it's actually the same route we used in 2016 to get out of the city. I've ridden that many times, you know. Like I said, this is where I ride bikes and it is a four-lane to get people. Who can you know if there are any pedestrians, they can get over quickly, and the good thing about it is, you know, I would never put somebody on Peachtree Street at five o'clock on a Thursday in Atlanta. That's not a great idea, but we are leaving it probably the best time you could possibly get out of the city, which is on a Sunday morning. Right at 7 AM, we're going to have a police escort out of town and then, within the first 10 miles.

Speaker 4: 13:00

Eight miles actually were hopping on the path, so eight miles would be off the road onto a path and that path will take you all the way to Stone Mountain, which is another 20-ish miles outside of town. I just think it's a really unique thing to do in the city is to ride down you know, quote unquote Main Street to see. You know, see the building, see the sites, see what there is to see, while there's no cars on the road, and we will be in traffic. They're not traffic, but it's open to vehicular traffic. But it'll be very low on a Sunday morning and we've gone and ridden it an early Sunday morning and we're going to continue to do so until the ride gets here, and I think that's honestly. The other option is going through a lot of the neighborhood streets where there will be 500 turns and the propensity to get lost in Atlanta is we're not a city built on a grid. I fear not many folks would make it to the next spot as we didn't get you out of town quickly.

Speaker 3: 13:59

I just want to make sure everybody no one gets freaked out and goes, oh, I can't do it. They're going to ride us through, you know, and it's going to be dangerous. So it's going to be a safe route and all that and it's going to be very cool Peach Tree Street. So I'm looking forward to that as well. And, adam, this will be awesome because we rode through downtown St Louis one time, right through the middle of it, so this will be cool. We'll add another riding right down through the middle of downtown of another city.

Speaker 2: 14:27

And that was again very early in the morning.

Speaker 3: 14:30

And there was no traffic at all.

Speaker 4: 14:32

So yeah, that's what we're doing early in the morning. There's strength in numbers with the amount of folks we're going to have on the road and, honestly, I think that's really the best way to get out of town.

Speaker 2: 14:46

So if I've been with you before and I know your system, I know your style and your planning, but if I had never been to Bragg before, one of the questions that I would ask you and be like man.

Speaker 2: 14:56

I wish they would have asked this is can you talk about and I know it's early, I know here we are in January, talking about a June ride, but do you have the sleeping arrangements established? I mean, I know you sell the indoor camping, primitive camping. Are you prepared at this time or, if I'm putting you on the spot, we can move forward, I can cut it out later but are you prepared to talk about where people might sleep that night before starting?

Speaker 4: 15:25

Yeah, absolutely so. In Ogilford. We're going to have access to dorms there. So if you want to rent a dorm for the night, you can do that. You can do that on our website.

Speaker 4: 15:35

We don't have those details quite yet, but they are coming and we already get some dorms. If we're staying in a college town like that, there's also indoor camping. So we have indoor camping all along the way, every location. You can do indoor camping. Excuse me, you can do outdoor camping. We have that set up at every location as well. We've got a snooze box which is sold out for this year, but you can catch it next year, and then also you can do hotels if you'd like.

Speaker 4: 15:57

So there's plenty of sleeping options at all these destinations to accommodate pretty much any budget.

Speaker 2: 16:04

Cool, and I know the answer. But another question that I would have is support stops. Are there snacks and food? And the answer is yes, you do very well at that. If no one's ever seen your setup for your rest stops, and you can definitely get lots of items to get you going, so for sure you have that, so cool, all right. So we leave a big city, we get to the rural area and the rural area takes us to Oxford. So in then Oxford. Just doing my own research, looks like we're being home of Oxford College. Supposedly it has Southern charm. Every town looks like I searched it has some Southern charm close knit community. What is it about Oxford?

Speaker 4: 16:56

Yeah, I actually went to school at Oxford. My grandparents lived not far from there and went to school there to start my schooling before I went on to Emory University, and it's just a great campus. They have such a vibe set up. The quad there when we're going to be staying is right across from the quad and they've got fire pits and lights to hang out under there, so it's going to be a very campus-like visit there. So if you want to relive your college days and hang out in a college town on a college quad, this is your opportunity to do it. They have one of the prettiest quads in the state and it's just a great facility that we're going to stay at and also just a great small community to hang out at while we're in Oxford.

Speaker 3: 17:45

So what we're going to have to do for this. If we're going to relive our college days, we need to keep the bourbon packed up and go find us some really cheap beer. I mean to keep in the hole we're back in college, find some Natty Light or Keystone or something.

Speaker 4: 18:00

Well, we can pretend on that part, but you know the Bragg Bar off the top there, oh there we go yeah. So we will serve good quality beer to reminisce on your college days at a higher price.

Speaker 3: 18:13

So we don't have to go all the way back to the college days If you wouldn't like I can put it in Milwaukee's best can for you.

Speaker 2: 18:19

I mean a little.

Speaker 3: 18:19

Milwaukee best and some ramen noodles and relive in college, all right.

Speaker 3: 18:26

So Oxford's not a big town, it's only 2,134 people Interesting things that I found. So it's not a big town but it actually has the Ornavilla mansion which is built in 1825 and used in the Civil War as a hospital. That's kind of cool. The other thing I found was the Dukes of Hazard. You know, in the beginning of like, we're the good old boys and you see the general lead jumping up, kind of that midair shot. That was actually shot there, really On Oxford, on the campus of Oxford College. It was Generally famous air scene shot there.

Speaker 4: 19:07

Yeah, so Oxford is pretty much a suburb of Covington, which is a little bit bigger town not huge but bigger town and that has actually become almost the Hollywood of the South because you know they're filming it's more and more here in Georgia than they are anywhere else and so many movies have been shot in Covington. Because we've got that tax credit here in the state, we're actually going to have a shuttle from Oxford to downtown Covington and probably have a concert in downtown on the square there, so you'll get to see not only Oxford while you're there on campus but also Covington, which is another cute, quaint small town with a beautiful square where just about any movie you can think of has a shot of it in it.

Speaker 3: 19:50

Cool. The only other thing interesting I found out about this town was it is the hometown of Heck Thomas. Isn't that cool, Adam.

Speaker 2: 19:59

Oh man, I remember old Heck. Yeah, what the heck are you talking about? I doubt you remember old Heck, but I like that I'm saving it so I don't look bad.

Speaker 3: 20:10

No, heck Thomas was a lawman in the American frontiers back in the old West days and he was one of the lawmen that helped bring down the Dalton gang. Oh, the Dalton gang, if you don't remember, tried to pull off two robberies in right out here in my territory, coffeeville, kansas and city people found out about it and kind of ruined their robberies and they didn't make it out of Coffeeville, kansas.

Speaker 2: 20:37

Now, you see, franklin, this is exactly why I ride with him. We will pass something and he will say right there, right there, there was. You know well if we were in Illinois, the Lincoln Douglas debate, but or something. Every now and then I just go, I wonder if he's messing with me.

Speaker 3: 20:54

But we're riding, so you can't check it out then. And then by the time we get done riding, you will have forgotten it.

Speaker 2: 21:00

So I'm safe. That's right, I'm safe. Good enough. Well, thank you for the interesting Oxford information.

Speaker 3: 21:09

So then we're headed to.

Speaker 4: 21:11

Social Circle, Social Circle so don't take a shortcut because it's Oxford and Social Circle are not very far apart. So we've kind of extended this route out a little bit to hit a couple other towns. Just because it's such a short day, this is going to be our shortest day, Just right, sub 48 miles, right at 47 miles. We're going to start out leaving Oxford, have a beautiful rest stop right on the Lake Barnard Reservoir, right at a pavilion there overlooking the lake. So that'll be a cool, cool rest stop for sure.

Speaker 4: 21:45

And then we're going to keep going head into the city of Monroe and Monroe is a really cool downtown area, nice strip. They've got a lot of newer you know acts throwing and breweries and cool stuff to check out in the downtown area. It's really grown a lot in the recent years and as folks have left the cities and gone back to the rural areas, it's really one of those cities that's growing and bringing in a lot of people. So we're definitely going to figure out how to route through there, through the city, to hopefully have a rest stop at another local brewery there, Because it is a short day and we're kind of encouraging people to stay out and enjoy the route that day.

Speaker 4: 22:22

Then from there we're going to head into horse country. Everyone has a nice big, beautiful stable out there, so we'll be riding by a bunch of thoroughbred as we go through hard labor state or hard labor Creek State Park. We're going to have a rest stop there, which is again overlooking a lake beautiful rest stop. Beautiful state park Actually has a very large mountain biking trail. If you bring your soft tail bike and you want to get some, some laps and feel free, then we're going to finish up the day heading into social circle.

Speaker 3: 22:54

Now. So you said hard, hard labor, state park. Hard labor state park Did we go through hard labor state park. Last year, during the Spring tune ride, spring tune up spring tune up, that's right.

Speaker 4: 23:10

So some of these roads, if you have ridden spring tune up around the Rutledge Madison area, are gonna look familiar. These are some of the most beautiful roads in the state and if we're going through there we're certainly gonna pick the most beautiful roads we can ride on. So Some of these roads are gonna be familiar if you've done those rides. But don't worry, they will not be boring at all.

Speaker 3: 23:30

No, I just thought that sounded very familiar, so I just wanted to clarify that.

Speaker 2: 23:34

So well, that'll be cool because I mean on my Strava I can, I can say oh, I did it slower, faster, because I know I've been out there, so that'll be cool.

Speaker 4: 23:42

So open for some King of the mountains, for you out of this Whoa KOM's baby.

Speaker 2: 23:46

KOM's. I'm gonna get there. My little research of social circles says that the city's history is tied to a railroad town, that the railroad played a significant role in the development of social circle Southern town, and says it offers various parks and recreational facilities for outdoor activities, including places for picnic, sports and family gatherings. Throughout the year, social circle hosts some community events. Will we be there when there's any of their community events or yes.

Speaker 4: 24:19

The last time they're 2016 they actually closed off all the downtown area and we had a block party right down downtown off the square. That's where we're shooting for again. It's a great small town. There's a lot of cool restaurants right on the square that you can go to, or rather, street, main street so hopefully we're shutting down the street again, having a big old block party and the beautiful thing about social circle is where we're staying Is about a hundred yards from downtown, so soon as you park your bike, you can walk to the downtown area and check out everything. So for us to offer that's cool.

Speaker 3: 24:54

So, adam, we are the social event for that. Yeah, so.

Speaker 2: 24:59

Well, I Believe in transparency and being honest and I use chat GBT for some of my history Because I want to be prepared, because I think Franklin's time is valuable, and I must tell you that chat GBT said that I could make jokes such as the social, social event, the social gathering, things I could say about social circle while being social, and I thought Chat GBT has a has a comic side of his too.

Speaker 3: 25:27

Well, unlike my co-host, adam, I do my own like research, so I Don't cheat. But I didn't cheat, I went into a pool. Population is like a little under five grand. It's about the size of my hometown, only incorporated in 1904, and really the only thing super historical or interesting I could find about this town is that the Discovery Channel series a haunting, in Season five, an episode called the exorcism of Cindy Sawyer Takes place in social circles. So check it out. I.

Speaker 2: 26:04

Should see that before I go, because then I should see what's stupid social circle looks like.

Speaker 4: 26:08

It's gonna be hard for me to sleep now there.

Speaker 2: 26:14

So Did I. Before we move on, is there anything else about social circle that that Anybody might be curious or interested about, or?

Speaker 4: 26:24

well, my mom was born there. Oh, I don't know if that counts, but yes, it counts.

Speaker 3: 26:30

She wasn't on the list of notable people. I apologize.

Speaker 2: 26:33

Well, you know she will be saying Chat GBT or Michael GBT did not do the best research. So, well, well, that's great. So, and I know that your mother has been very supportive, bragg, and everything that you're doing, so will we get to see her, since it's so close to her.

Speaker 4: 26:53

She's right. Every route, every route, every right I put together, so she'll definitely be there.

Speaker 2: 26:59

That's cool. So, from a from a non Georgia resident, I Want to make sure I'm pronouncing this correctly. I did it last time, want to make sure we're gonna be then heading into Millageville. But I had that right, that's millage, really got it perfect millageville, and that is your overnight town as well.

Speaker 4: 27:23

So it is. So that'll be day three. We've got about a 66 mile day, a little less than 3000 feet of elevation gain. We're actually totally lose about 500 feet that day. So it'll be more, way more, downhill than uphill, which will be great.

Speaker 4: 27:39

But we'll head out of social circle and we'll hit Rutledge, which we go through on spring tune up again. That's just a beautiful little town. We're gonna see if Molly over at the caboose wants to get some breakfast fired up for us Right in the middle of Rutledge. They won't keep going and we're having to reroute a little bit. So I'm a few guys are familiar with Rivian, the electric vehicle automaker, but they are building like a three billion dollar plant here in Georgia and they bought a huge farm right there. So we're gonna have to actually ride around that. So it'll be interesting to see how much progress they've made.

Speaker 4: 28:12

While we ride around that Ride through a lot of the same spring tune up roads to get out to, through a wildlife management area and then we'll hit Eatonton, georgia, and this is really the portion of the route which kind of follows the Sherman's March to the sea During the Civil War. So, headed from social circle to millageville, that's pretty much the route he took One of his wings. So in Eatonton we switched up the route a little bit to go past a lot of the old antebellum homes. I mean you can see some Very old Civil War era homes still standing in great condition there and Eatonton will ride by those and then keep going along Biker out 35 that we have here will cross over lakes and clear, which is a beautiful lake. Have a rest, stop overlooking the lake Right at the marina, and then we'll stay on bike route 35 for about the last 10 miles into Millageville.

Speaker 4: 29:08

And millageville is another. This the common theme this year. We're saying a lot of college towns and millageville is no different. They've got georgia college and state university which we normally stay at, but they had a camp that's booked them out for Our week for like five years now. So unfortunately we're not gonna stay at the campus but we'll be just outside of millageville At their parks and rec department, which is you're actually gonna camp right on the lake, which will also be very beautiful.

Speaker 4: 29:41

And millageville, being a college town, has tons of stuff to do. There's Blackbird cafe downtown. There's ton of cool Restaurants and bars. You can spend all day walking around downtown millageville. There's the river you can go tubing on and if you are looking to get some extra miles on the next day, you can ride through central state hospital, which was where Georgia had one of the largest Institutions yeah, so it's kind of eerie riding through there. Most of it is abandoned actually have one of the largest Cafeteria's in the world to serve all the residents there, and I can't remember if it was Reagan or Jimmy Carter when they shut it down. It was a big hit to the local community, but it's pretty cool to ride through there and check out what it used to be and how many residents they used to have.

Speaker 2: 30:26

You know when you started and talking about Rivian, you've answered a very important question that I had, because when I did spring tune up I saw all the signs that said say no to Rivian plant coming. So I I'm assuming the signs did not work and the Rivian plant is coming.

Speaker 4: 30:43

So yeah, they, that was a you know, that was over.

Speaker 4: 30:47

A lot of people said I think the governor worked a direct deal with them and don't quote me on this, this is all he or say from the local community. But yeah, the state really wanted them there and I think a lot of the local People there in the county. Now Morgan County's actually has the largest percentage of agricultural land in the state, which is incredible when you think about some of the South Georgia towns where you know all they're doing is growing crops. But I think it's the largest percentage of area in Morgan County is used for agricultural and uses and A lot of people didn't like that. They were coming in and you know clear-cutting. You know hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of acres to make this plant. I don't have a dog in that fight, you know. I think you know there's pros and cons on both sides of that argument, but but it's going out there on drove past it the other day and sure enough there's, you know, bulldozer on bulldozer on bulldozer, moving dirt. So they're, they're making progress.

Speaker 2: 31:45

Well, for the people who wanted it, congratulations, and the people who didn't, I'm sorry. So you know I Obviously we've had the same situation here with different plants and stuff going in. People are concerned about wildlife and and things of this nature. So but as far as the history that I found about Millageville which was extremely interesting is that it was the capital of Georgia from 1804 to 1868, and that was that was interesting, and then not to. I don't want to make sure I don't steal Michael's thunder, but it says that it had an has a notable structure, including the old governor's mansion, which is a national heritage landmark, and, of course, the central state hospital that you mentioned. Consider my under stolen.

Speaker 2: 32:37

You think I got it all.

Speaker 3: 32:39

No, you didn't okay.

Speaker 3: 32:40

I'm quitting then not gonna steal my thunder, no, actually a couple things. I found interesting Is that Oglethorpe University opened its doors here in Millageville in 1838 and then during the Civil War it was forced to close and then it was rechartered Around, I don't know, 1915, 1912, somewhere in there, rechartered and reopened back in Atlanta. So originally it was here, which I thought was interesting. Population's about 18,000.

Speaker 3: 33:13

Another couple of interesting facts for you is Lafayette, the famous Lafayette of the American Revolution, who helped, helped win the war and later on went on to France to help organize the French Revolution, actually visited this town in 1825 and Sherman marched his troops in 1864 right through Millageville. But they pretty much spared the town. So that was kind of nice of them. So, and I wanted to apologize right now to all the the folks that this, as we stated in the last episode, this kind of follows the Sherman's march through Georgia, going from Atlanta over to Savannah. And I apologize to the folks of Georgia right now I actually had a great, great, great grandfather who was in the Union Army in the, I believe, the 11th Illinois Calvary and he was with Sherman and you know, was there reeking havoc.

Speaker 2: 34:14

So I I'm sorry, but there goes, all our listeners Thanks.

Speaker 3: 34:17

I know well I'm, you know Get it out there. You know I can take responsibility.

Speaker 2: 34:25

I mean, no one's knowing that I'm just getting so anyway, and yeah, it was what's that?

Speaker 4: 34:35

So there's a couple of towns like Madison, georgia, which is very near to where we have our spring tuna pride. They always say that, you know, on Sherman's March to the Sea, where they were burning everything, he found Madison so pretty that he refused to burn the town down, which is why you have so many of those beautiful antebellum homes there. But then I hear that same story. You had a lot of other towns where they have beautiful antebellum homes too. So I'm not sure how much you really burn down versus how much you let stand. So you might get let off the hook there, michael.

Speaker 3: 35:05

Well, technically they were only supposed to be burning. You know military contraband, that kind of thing. But in a couple of towns they got a little carried away and maybe lit some things they weren't supposed to. But so the only other thing I found interesting is that Oliver Hardy from Laurel and Hardy is from that town.

Speaker 2: 35:28

And I have one which I didn't want to say because I was afraid that you had it, but Flannery O'Connor, an acclaimed American author, spent a significant part of her life in Millageville and her former home is now a museum preserving her legacy.

Speaker 3: 35:43

So I didn't want to steal your. She in fact wrote many essays, so she was an essayist, I guess, as you would call it.

Speaker 2: 35:53

So that right there is going to make you sign up for Big Brack. I'm going to the museum for Flannery O'Connor.

Speaker 3: 35:59

Boom Perfect.

Speaker 2: 36:04

So when we're in Millageville when he got in line for us do you have any plans yet? I mean, I'm sure you're working on things, I am.

Speaker 4: 36:12

So I think we always like to split it up with the layover. One day is a little bit more chill, to actually give you some rest, and then the next day is a little bit more exciting to pump you up on the town.

Speaker 4: 36:23

So I think the night we get there we can all hang out out at the Walters-Williams Park which is, like I said, the rec center right on the lake, kind of have more of a chill afternoon, kind of get a little bit of rest, and then the next day we've got a 40-mile route which will be a recovery ride headed around the city. We're going to stop at a few local farms, stop at a little bit of downtown Millageville to get you acquainted with some area down there, see some of the O'Connor River greenway that's there. So we're going to check out a lot of cool stuff In and around Millageville, try and ride through as much as we can as a Central State hospital. And then we're going to do something downtown in Millageville. And the last time we did a sip and stroll there where they had four different restaurants and bars where they had live music and everything kind of rotated from one to the other.

Speaker 4: 37:11

But I think we're going to try and pull up a concert in Millageville while we're there. It's just such a great town and they host a deep roots festival every year, which is huge. They have two colleges there in Millageville, not only Georgia College State University, but also Georgia Military College, which used to be, I think, the old capital that they've converted now into the school. So lots of history there, lots of music history as well. So it would be a cool town to have a concert in before we leave the next day, headed towards Swainsboro.

Speaker 4: 37:41

So cool town to check out and lots of cool places to stay while we're there.

Speaker 2: 37:47

When we leave Millageville we're going to head to Swainsboro and, based upon your video, that said 79 miles. One of the cool things that you do is, if you're able to pull off a century, you give a bandana away for everyone who completes a century. Is that something you're doing this year? Absolutely, we do it every year.

Speaker 4: 38:06

So if you want to ride 100 miles on our Century Day, feel free and you get a bandana that you can sport and be super proud of for completing your Century ride. So we used to traditionally do the Century ride on the layover day, so you had to choose between not riding or riding 100 miles, and I thought that was unfair for all the people who like to hang out and chill on the layover day. So recently, the past few years, we started doing the Century Day on the longest day. So on this day you'll have to choose between 79 miles to get to Swainsboro and all you got to do is tack on an extra 21 and you get your Century bandana. So are you guys planning on doing the Century? It's a big question.

Speaker 2: 38:49

Yes, I'm committing right now, short of some weird weather.

Speaker 3: 38:56

Do I get a vote in this? You just committed us without even asking.

Speaker 2: 39:01

Dude, you're my best friend, You're coming.

Speaker 3: 39:04

OK, I'm dragging you there. Yes, we're in then.

Speaker 2: 39:07

I mean for 21 miles. I mean, unless those 21 miles are like the first day of Bragg last year, I'm in OK let's do it, I'm good.

Speaker 4: 39:18

Fair enough, so leave in Millageville. We are going to have some pretty good hills getting out of town, so get you nice and warmed up. For 100 miles we go through a little town called Deep Step, which it earns its name of having some pretty deep steps in the road there in terms of cycling. So a lot of up and downs getting out of there and then we go through a town called Sandersville which, upon touring the town, I learned that they are the Kailin capital of the world, which apparently Kailin is this white clay that goes into everything from baseballs to any kind of like plastic products. You can make just about anything paper, ceramics, paint out of Kailin, but they have a bunch of Kailin mines there, wow. So while you're in Sandersville you can check out all the Kailin mines, which will be interesting.

Speaker 2: 40:05

Did he steal your thunder, Michael?

Speaker 3: 40:08

No, that's some thunder. I didn't have, that's interesting.

Speaker 4: 40:11

Ok, ok, good, I haven't even heard of Kailin until we did a tour of the town a few years back, when we were looking at staying in the night town, but apparently so Sandersville is a pretty big town.

Speaker 4: 40:21

We'll ride they have a really cute downtown ride through there have a rest stop there and then a couple miles later have another rest stop in Tinnell, which is a little suburb of Sandersville. Get to hang out there and all today is very pretty. We go through a lot of forestry land, which will be nice. Then we end up in Wrightsville, which is a great little town where Herschel Walker was born. So I definitely want to drink some of the water there so you can get big and strong for your century Head out of there, hit your extra 21 miles and then keep going all the way into Swainsboro.

Speaker 2: 40:58

Well, remember to get that water. I'm going to need that probably that day. So, swainsboro I didn't really find out anything, except where it was named after Stephen Swain, one of the earliest settlers in the area.

Speaker 3: 41:18

Yeah, he was actually the state senator, became a state senator. Ok, and Stephen Swain is the one that introduced the bill to create the county that it's in, so they named a town after him.

Speaker 2: 41:31

And so he created a manual county, so then they named the town after him.

Speaker 3: 41:37

Well, he was a senator that introduced the bill to create a manual county. Ok, Didn't just declare it and then obviously it went through and it became a manual. County Town was established in 1822. It's got about a population of 7,500. And this I thought was interesting. At one time they changed the name to Paris. Paris, georgia. We've been to Paris, kentucky. But then three years later they decided that that wasn't so great, so they changed it back to Swainsboro.

Speaker 4: 42:10

Even I'm wearing stuff on this part.

Speaker 3: 42:12

Yeah, but what's interesting is when they changed it back. Originally it was spelled borogh, but when they switched it back after it had been Paris for three years, they spelled it boro so.

Speaker 2: 42:26

Wow, don't know why. Chad GBT's got nothing on you, bro yeah take that.

Speaker 4: 42:35

Well, next time I'm there I'll have to get the real reason behind that. That's interesting. Yeah.

Speaker 4: 42:42

So, yeah, swainsboro is another college town. They've got East Georgia State College, which is a beautiful campus. We'll be staying right there, slapdav in the middle of campus. We've got our beer tent set up right on the pond there, which is a nice addition. This is what we did last time we were there in campus. It works out really well.

Speaker 4: 43:00

Do some music, trivia right on the water, have a beautiful stay right on a nice college campus and then we'll show folks, if you want, to the downtown Swainsboro. They got a nice square. We always have a concert right off the square in downtown and they always really roll out the red carpet for us and they're really good at doing it because they have a pine tree festival. Swainsboro is actually a manual county, excuse me, produces, I think, more pine trees than anyone else in the state in terms of the county. So they have a pine tree festival that's been going on almost 100 years I think they had their 80-something anniversary this year and they bring in over 100,000 people for this festival, this pine tree festival, every year. So they're used to rolling out the red carpet for big crowds, so they're excited to have Brad come through again.

Speaker 2: 43:48

So one of the things here that says that Swainsboro has a charming historic downtown with local shops and local restaurants, is that what you're talking about? It's really right near there.

Speaker 4: 43:59

Yeah, so you probably want to take the shuttle. I mean, it's like a couple of miles. You take the shuttle into downtown. They've got a nice new steakhouse right off the square. Lots of dessert shops, little coffee shops, so it's a big fountain you can check out. And then they've got a big pavilion where we have our big brag celebration right off the square. So definitely head into town, get some good food and check out the concert.

Speaker 2: 44:26

Cool Sounds fun. Ok, so then, in each of these college towns is the dorm availability? If someone is looking for that, are they going to offer that?

Speaker 4: 44:38

Yeah, so dorm availability is available at most of the college towns except for Swainsboro. I just found that out about a week ago. Long story short, but they're not going to be available in Swainsboro, but the other colleges are going to have dorms up for sale. Cool yeah.

Speaker 2: 44:55

Cool. Ok, so we enjoy Swainsboro, we get up and pack up camp and we're going to head to Statesboro. And how many miles to Statesboro.

Speaker 4: 45:08

So that day is going to be right about 57 miles headed into Swainsboro. That's going to be a very rural day, so we're going to pass through a few less towns that day, but hitting Twin Cities right outside of Swainsboro, keeping on going, going through a little town called Portal which is even smaller than the Twin Cities, passing by some nice lakes, really rural areas. You got some mix of timberland, you got some lot of crops and a lot of crops and cows out there, which makes for really beautiful rolling farmland that we're going to be riding through. So really, as this route progresses, it's hiliar as it starts, not super hilly but hiliar, and it really mellows out closer to the end of the ride and this is the day where you're really going to start to notice it really mellowing out.

Speaker 4: 45:58

So, rolling hills into Statesboro, ride through the golf course right before we get into Georgia Southern University, which will be the largest school that we stop at in the city of Statesboro, another college town. Statesboro, outside of Atlanta and Savannah, is probably the biggest stop that we're making in terms of the size of the city, really cool, vibrant town. Lots of songs written about Statesboro and Statesboro Blues and Blind Willy wrote songs about Statesboro. You'll get to see the Wooden Nickel, the bar that was famous there. It is no longer there but a lot of cool bars and restaurants in this very historic town where Georgia Southern is. It's a really cool spot and a really beautiful campus.

Speaker 2: 46:46

Well, we'll be going by the Eagle Creek Brewing Company.

Speaker 4: 46:50

We can put that on the shuttle stop and get you there. How about that?

Speaker 2: 46:55

OK, I don't know if that's recommended. Is it a good place? It's while doing some research and looking around. It says that it was established in 2013,. One of the city's points of pride. That's the only reason I mentioned it.

Speaker 4: 47:10

Yeah, no, like I said, Statesboro is a little bit bigger town, so there's a lot of stuff going on, a few very cool breweries Natch Landing is there, actually, when we leave the next day. They've got a rail trail that we're going to take getting outside of town, so they're really building up their infrastructure there to attract people from outside of the town. But it's, one of those towns that's got a big football team that has a lot of really cool stuff going on, so cool. Yeah, go Eagles.

Speaker 2: 47:40

Go Eagles, that's right. What's up?

Speaker 4: 47:42

OK yeah, funny enough, my dad went to Georgia Southern for a bit at the beginning of his educational career, so I'm just making connections along all these towns as we go.

Speaker 2: 47:54

Yeah, I made a joke once that we should just call those Franklin's memories. That's the right. There we go.

Speaker 4: 47:59

There we go.

Speaker 3: 48:02

Statesboro is a bigger town, A little over 33,000 people. It was chartered in 1803 and started out as a trading community that was providing all the essentials to cotton plantations and the Eagles. The Georgia Southern University started out in 1906 as the first district A&M school, so it did not originally start out as that.

Speaker 4: 48:31

And another cool thing. So you say you got a how many. How many people did you say live in Statesboro?

Speaker 3: 48:36

Yeah, a little over 33,000.

Speaker 4: 48:38

Okay, so we've got 27,000 students that go to school there, so I'm interested to know if that includes students or not. It can.

Speaker 3: 48:46

I'm guessing it doesn't, because this is based on the census and so typically they wouldn't be taking the census at the college or the university.

Speaker 4: 48:56

So I'm guessing about Statesboro is 27,000 students, 11,000 of them are men and the other 17,000 are women, so you know.

Speaker 3: 49:06

I went to college in the wrong place, that's for sure, wow.

Speaker 2: 49:10

I don't want to tell you this, but that's the. The stats that he's reading is now when you went, it was I'm just kidding, so Wow, I found something interesting about Statesboro. It's got a song it does.

Speaker 3: 49:26

Oh, I thought that's what you were going to tell us.

Speaker 2: 49:28

Oh, no, no no, I'm reading an annual event. I'm probably going to blow the pronunciation. Franklin's going to help me out here, but the Kiwanis, oh, gichi Fair. Is this something that you've heard about? It's a, it's a fair, and at the Everett Center.

Speaker 4: 49:50

I've not heard of that. They have the. I know there's the Gullahichi people, but they're more tour. I mean I guess Statesboro is sort of the post but they're more on the coast. Okay, but I've not heard of the Gichi Fair. Now.

Speaker 2: 50:02

Well, I don't know if it's going to be there or not. It doesn't say when the date is, but strong sense of community involvement with residents activity, participating in volunteer work. So forget. Southern Charm, every town, it says Southern Charm Everyone.

Speaker 4: 50:25

We got to get you on chat. Gpt-4 next go round.

Speaker 2: 50:28

I think so.

Speaker 4: 50:29

I think so Well to let you know, there is a song called Statesboro Blues.

Speaker 2: 50:37

Ba ba, da ba bum.

Speaker 3: 50:38

No, there is. It was a Almond Brothers band covered covered it. It was inspired by the city of Statesboro, georgia. Interesting, there you go. And it used to be a cotton producing until about the 1930s and then the, the bull weevils came in, destroyed it. Then they started turning more towards tobacco, which during the life of the tobacco production they had over 20 million pounds of tobacco passed through that town. Wow, that's a lot of tobacco. And the only other thing I've got that's interesting is Justin Houston is from there and he was a linebacker with the KC Chiefs.

Speaker 2: 51:22

Go Chiefs. You're not a Chiefs fan. Don't do that I did that for my wife. I was going to say don't do that.

Speaker 3: 51:30

Okay, you called me out. I mean, I can still say go, chiefs.

Speaker 2: 51:34

You live there. You can do that. That gives you the right, but and I believe your steering wheel cover does have a Kansas City Chief- yeah, thank you yeah. That's my wife's too, I mean, she won't let me buy any Denver Bronco stuff.

Speaker 3: 51:47

So at least we beat them this year, so I had that to go off of, but Very on, so States Pro, you'll have the Bragg Bar.

Speaker 4: 52:00

Yeah Right. So cool thing about States Pro is where we're staying is in the athletic or the recreation center there for the school, which rivals any D1 schools recreation center that we're seeing. They've got a pool right there on the premise indoor outdoor pool. So if you want to go swimming right there where we're staying, pitch your tent, head over to the pool, hop out of the pool. Bragg Bar will be right there within Stone's Throw, and then also where we're camping, there's a built-in amphitheater stage. So we're gonna have a big last night blowout concert right there where we're staying. So you won't have to walk far to get back to your tent after everything's over. It'll be all right on site on campus there. So it'll be nice contain just for us. It's gonna be a great send-off to head into our last day heading into Savannah.

Speaker 2: 52:53

That sounds exciting. I mean that'll be great. Well, I don't know, and I guess States Pro and then next day into Savannah, how many miles from States Pro to Savannah for the last day?

Speaker 4: 53:08

So last day is gonna be high sixties, probably gonna make a couple of tweaks by the end of it, but we'll leave out of States Pro on the SNS Greenway for the first little bit, so it'll be a cool exit out of town. Then we're gonna be under. We're gonna follow some of the bike route 35. We're gonna follow some of the Athens to Savannah ride. We're gonna follow some of our 2016 route, kind of weasel through some small towns and then getting into Savannah. Savannah's, behind Atlanta, is the second biggest city that we're gonna be going through, ending in the city, and last time we were there, there was an accident, so we were being very diligent, working with police, working with the city, taking as many bike paths and established bike routes as we can, so we've driven it several times. It's such a great route into the city. It's probably the best way, the most the safest way we can get into Savannah, and Savannah's gonna be a great ending point. Just because every time I go to Savannah, I always get blown away about how beautiful it is. They've got more historic squares, I think, than any other city in the United States. Just about they've got historic River Street, which is right on the path. This is cobblestone streets that you can walk along, where there's very old historic district with several hundred year old homes right there on the river, which is very beautiful, and we are gonna end ride at Dappin Park, which is where the Savannah bananas play. So I'm not sure if you guys are familiar with that no, yeah, a little bit of baseball, but it's really blowing up right now, and so it'll be cool to end at their stadium right at Dappin Park and just encourage everybody.

Speaker 4: 54:53

If you are coming in town for this ride and you're not in Georgia, you're from out of town definitely stay the weekend in Savannah. It's just such a cool city. There's all these old oak trees that hang over all the streets, with the Spanish moss hanging down. It's very romantic. They've got a ton of bike paths to get around the city. If you're staying there for the weekend, you can even head off to Tidey Island, which is just down the street, and get right on the beach. And Savannah is just such a cool old historic town with a lot of charm, and it's actually also a bigger city, so there's plenty of stuff to do there while you're there. Yeah, I'm looking forward to that.

Speaker 3: 55:32

Yeah, I've never been to Savannah and I'm like, well, you have right, I have, and I noticed you had I believe it was Tidey Island lighthouse in your video there, so that was kind of cool.

Speaker 4: 55:42

Yeah, so Tidey Island is probably about 15 minute drive outside of Savannah. My wife's grandparents actually have a beach house out there, so we used to go out there all the time. It's a really cool place to go visit. It's the closest beach to Savannah. I think a Sandra.

Speaker 4: 55:58

Bullock has a house out there too, so really cool place to go visit. But again, Savannah downtown they've got it. Smiley's is probably my favorite dueling piano bar If you're in St Al-Late and then singing some karaoke to some pianos. But there's lots of cool places. Just walk around and check out Highly, highly recommended Google some images of Savannah and you'll see how beautiful it really is. Oh, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3: 56:24

Well, this is a major city. We got 147,000 plus population, so you'll definitely find the Starbucks, adam, because I know that's what you're always looking for Some interesting facts about this town is this is the oldest city in Georgia.

Speaker 3: 56:39

It was established in 1733. And that was founded by General James Oglethorpe, who, if you know anything about him, he was a general who was sent over here by King George to create a settlement, a buffer settlement between, basically, the Spanish Florida and the French Louisiana. So that's where Oglethorpe and the university and all that, that's where that name comes from. So in 96, the summer Olympics in Atlanta, they actually did the sailing here in Savannah.

Speaker 3: 57:14

Well, not here in Savannah, but in one of the in the Wausau Sound, and December 21st 1864, Union troops marched into Savannah at the end of their march across Georgia. But I will say my ancestor didn't quite make it that far so.

Speaker 4: 57:38

Okay, now I'm interested to know how far he did make it.

Speaker 3: 57:41

He made it about halfway. He had been wounded once in a battle up north in Virginia and then, as he's going across, apparently the Georgia people were a little upset. The Union troops were there and started shooting at him and he got shot in the thigh and after the second wound they decided to muster him out. So he only made it about halfway across Georgia.

Speaker 2: 58:04

Now we got all our listeners grave on the route.

Speaker 4: 58:06

What's that? Are you going to be able to find his grave on the route?

Speaker 3: 58:10

Actually he's. No, he didn't die. They just mustered him out of the military and he's buried up in Illinois. So they didn't get him completely. So he was able to go back home and live a long, fulfilling life.

Speaker 4: 58:22

So Well, now that you're coming, back he can take his place if we have another shot, I guess yeah.

Speaker 3: 58:27

We didn't do the job the first time. Let's get one of those guys. Okay, yeah.

Speaker 2: 58:34

Well, well, I just want to say that I saw that Savannah has 22 pictures, squares each with its green spaces, monuments and beautiful landscaping, so I'm excited. I've seen all kinds of pictures of Savannah and that's someplace I haven't been yet, so I'm excited to see that.

Speaker 3: 58:58

Don't forget the Southern charm.

Speaker 2: 59:00

Well, it definitely has Southern charm, beautiful diversity, according to this. Now, one of the things is it says it has a culinary scene. Is that true?

Speaker 4: 59:15

Yeah, so lots of really cool restaurants in Savannah. You know a lot of them you can check out on River Street.

Speaker 4: 59:23

You know they're right there along the street. A lot of them are more deeper into the city. There's also SCAD, which is another big college. I wouldn't call Savannah a college town, but they do have a big school there. There's also some culinary schools in Savannah, so they do have a big culinary scene. Seems to be that, like the ghost tours, that's never really been my thing, but the ghost tours and haunted mansions and things you see a lot of that around Savannah. So if that's your bag of tricks and you want to check out some ghost tours Savannah is pretty big on that too Definitely suggest walking around or just riding your bike around there.

Speaker 4: 59:59

They have a ton. You know we're working with bikewalk Savannah. They just have a ton of bike lanes to get around, bike paths to get around. While you're in Savannah, then check out a lot of the squares, like you mentioned. They're super beautiful. All the buildings there are just picture-esque. You can take a picture just about anywhere and it'll be a postcard. But definitely get down. Check out River Street. Check out Forsyth Park. You know I can't tell you how many weddings go on there every weekend. It's super beautiful. Where we're ending, daffin Park will also be very beautiful. We'll have a great end of the road celebration there. You know you can get your picture taken to the finish line with the awning and, you know, be a proud finisher of the full bike ride across Georgia and it's going to be a great finish for you to stay over and hang out an extra day in Savannah.

Speaker 3: 1:00:47

Cool. And the other thing I found interesting about Savannah is a couple of notable people. You should know this one, adam Eli Whitney oh, he invented the cotton gin, thank you, yes, very good. And I'm going to introduce Juliette Gordon Low, which I don't think you'd probably know, who was actually the founder of the Girl Scouts from there, I don't know that. And James Lord, a peer point, and you're not going to know who he is either, but I guarantee you sang his song like probably a million times Happy birthday. No, he's the person who wrote the song Jingle Bells. Oh, okay, and ironically enough, he was the uncle of JP Morgan. So there you go.

Speaker 4: 1:01:30

Hello.

Speaker 3: 1:01:31

Okay, now you know. Not that you ever really wanted to, but now you know.

Speaker 2: 1:01:36

I did see a funny thing on Facebook. It's had a picture of Batman and it says I do not smell so so so Well, I appreciate that. No, I did not know those last two. I was being a Boy Scout. I knew I can take some Boy Scout history, but not, not, not Girl Scout history.

Speaker 3: 1:01:59

So Baden Pal is not from Savannah.

Speaker 2: 1:02:02

So okay. So then, after you have the celebration, then, of course, those who want to get back to the airport, you'll have a shuttle that night that they can pay for and leave after that, or that afternoon, or however that's going to work, yeah, so if you got a high tail out of town, you can either do the shuttle at the beginning of the ride, so your car is there in Savannah and you can just head wherever you need to head.

Speaker 4: 1:02:28

Or if you want to take the shuttle at the end of the ride, all the way back to Atlanta, we'll have a shuttle for you. Or if you want to hang out in Savannah, they have actually, you know, groom has daily shuttles from Savannah back to Atlanta, or they've got a regional airport if you're jetting off somewhere, or, you know, if you're nice enough to get your wife to come down and bring the kids and spend the weekend with you before you got to head back home. So that's what I'm going to try and do, for sure, sweet.

Speaker 2: 1:02:54

Sweet. So we chose for the land in Savannah. See Savannah a little bit before the ride, take the shuttle up to Atlanta, ride back to Savannah and then the next day fly out. So we're pretty excited, hoping that you don't mind if I talk about a few price points. So if anyone's interesting to doing the ride, we're now at the full week price of $4.75. And according to your website that goes to a $3.31. Now does it go if they don't sign up before March 34, does it increase again?

Speaker 4: 1:03:31

It does Okay. So it's you know. It's easier for us to plan ahead for sure yeah, you know you're coming the more we can plan. So it definitely racks itself to try and incentivize people to register early.

Speaker 2: 1:03:46

And if this has been shared by somebody that says, hey, check out this route. $4.75 gets you the primitive camping If they don't choose to do indoor camping, but they do get the support of the full breakstops and things of that nature.

Speaker 4: 1:04:05

You get all the peanut butter and pickle sandwiches you want out of the rest of our race. We got chips, cookies, bananas, fruit, granola bars, all kinds of stuff, also surprises from here and there. We've got all the rest stops. We've got the best SAG crew in the business that you picked up. If you ever have any mechanical or, you know, medical issue, that's non-emergency. Have you guys ever been picked up by SAG on Bragg or no?

Speaker 3: 1:04:33

No, we have never been picked up by SAG on any ride and I'm knocking on wood right now, so fortunately not.

Speaker 4: 1:04:42

All right, well, it's good to know it's there if you need it, but not going to wood, hopefully you don't need it. And then, yeah, I like to access all the areas, all the concerts. We have all the shuttle to get you back and forth from downtown restaurants to where we're having our overnight venues. So it includes showers, includes a lot of different stuff you can check out and all that stuff you want to check it. Out.

Speaker 2: 1:05:08

So if earlier I mentioned the Bragg light option, that is currently at the price point of $2.25. So the $2.25 would get you either the first three days or the last three days or the second set of three days. So either on the front end or the back end.

Speaker 4: 1:05:23

So you can do that with the shuttle too. So if you want to do the first three days and you don't have to get your car back, we've got Bragg light shuttles too that will show you from Millersville back to Atlanta or from Savannah to Millersville. So all option there.

Speaker 2: 1:05:38

Cool. I just wanted to give the price point. I mean, really, if you're looking for the information. One of the nice things is about your website is it's full of wonderful information and it's clean and concise. There's a ride that we don't talk about that we were on once. The website was just I don't know. I think I needed a degree just to read the website. It was amazing how atrocious it was. But yours is crystal clear, concise. If someone wants to know anything and everything, I can't imagine I mean it might be there. I doubt it, but I couldn't imagine it. That wouldn't be on your site. You've got everything listed there. When you go to braggorg, there's multiple rides. Franklin has multiple rides. We're obviously talking about Big Bragg 2024, june 1st or the 7th, but check out his other rides as well. He's got all kinds of options and international and going big time, big baller over there. So I'm excited.

Speaker 4: 1:06:38

In a couple weeks, here we're headed to Mexico for that trip and then doing our Amsterdam boat trip in August, and then next year we've got trips to France and Italy where we're adding on, so definitely growing the international portion for sure.

Speaker 3: 1:06:56

Well, adam, I just have really one question, that, after you've heard about the route, why would you not just immediately, right now, go to the website and register?

Speaker 2: 1:07:06

Because I already registered.

Speaker 3: 1:07:08

Why would someone else not just do that then? Well, they should.

Speaker 2: 1:07:11

I mean, you know people you know, ask Michael and I. All the time you know like, hey, we've never done this. We're, you know, a little anxious about signing up this to me, not because we consider Franklin a friend and I would say this anywhere, any day, anytime that I am, if anyone asked me. This is the perfect state long ride to sign up for. It's so well supported. You make life easy. You make it multiple options. So if someone's a hotel person and they want to do hotels, you offer an option where they can purchase a for a small fee, with a baggage can be transferred from their hotel and to the next place, into the next place. You offer indoor camping. So if you have a person who wants an aero bed and I mean I've seen it all now you want to bring the bring the arrow bed. You want to bring a mattress. If you want to bring that and you want to make sure you're with an air conditioning, you have that. You offer primitive camping. You offer the team atmosphere.

Speaker 2: 1:08:15

I don't I don't know how well to say that if you're looking to jump into something like this that you never done it before, or if you've done others and you're concerned that you know what is it going to be like. One of the questions that we get a lot is how does it compare to rag bright? How does it compare to rag bright? And my answer to that is always think of it as a more intimate rag bright People that you get to see at the same break stops, people you get to see every night hang around in town, literally like I remember Brazzleton and you. You could just walk around and see the same people you know through the week and meet people and say, yeah, it's great to meet you and great to talk to you. I, I, I highly recommend if you haven't signed up, especially before the March 31st price point, absolutely so jump on and take a, take advantage of that.

Speaker 3: 1:09:01

So I totally agree. I've ridden, I think, across seven states now, multiple times on most of them, and I would say that this and probably one or two other ones of those seven have a lot of the same feel, a very, you know, intimate type feel and that type of thing. I'm not going to discuss those now, but maybe in future ones. But yeah, it's definitely a good ride for somebody who may have just got into cycling, who's a little unsure, never done a big long ride before, or just the the avid cyclist that just wants to go out and have a truly good time meeting new people and experiencing really a lot of you know. This is, you know, you get to see a total cross section of Georgia, so it should be great. I encourage everyone to go out and sign up, absolutely.

Speaker 4: 1:09:49

So Franklin means you guys what made you, what brought you back year after year? But I guess I guess you guys answered my question.

Speaker 2: 1:09:56

Yeah, I mean we've we've built some wonderful friends this year. We've had to change up a few things of what we're going to do, but this was really passionate for us to come back At least this year. Who knows what next year will bring, but this year was definitely. He and I talked about it and you know we are not going back to Iowa, but we've made many friends. What we always say in the beginning of the show is the experience and the people you meet along the way. The people that we've met from Georgia have just been just amazing, awesome, fantastic, I mean. And so and these people, we keep running into other states Iowa, kentucky, I mean, florida, I mean. So these are people that we all met on Bragg, that we've now connected with, and there's just some. I think that's what my answer to you is. What, what made us come back was knowing that, a you put on a good ride and, b that we enjoy the people that we know we're going to see there, so awesome.

Speaker 4: 1:11:04

I appreciate that.

Speaker 2: 1:11:07

Well, I know that your time is valuable. You are a family man and I just want to thank you again for coming on. You know, last year you had said to us hey, I can invite me on to talk about the route, I could help, and I'm like well, this year I'm inviting you. So not only did you accept the invite, you're here, and Michael and I are very thankful that you're willing to come back on with us and talk about it. So, just to be clear, lana Tisavanna, june 1st of the 7th, mark your calendars. Go, sign up. It's simple to sign up. There's options galore of how you want to make your ride your ride. That's the greatest part about your, your ride. To me, you can do it however you want to do it. So well, cool. The only thing I'll say is, as we always do, it's a great day for a bike ride, all right.

Speaker 3: 1:12:05

Awesome, thank you. Thanks a lot, franklin, we appreciate it Absolutely.

Speaker 1: 1:12:12

Thank you for coming along with Adam and Michael on Road Adventures with Cycling Men of Leisure. If you have enjoyed this, please subscribe to the show on the podcast app of your choice.