Scratching an Itch

I'd been itching for a long ride for several weeks now. I usually get in a 60+ mile ride once every 2-3 months, but had not ridden that far since January.

My nephew from Savannah was playing in a baseball tournament in Hampton, GA (home of the Atlanta Motor Speedway) which is about 35 miles south of Atlanta. I thought this would make a suitable long ride.

I had a route that followed our Quad County ride into Stockbridge. This got me better than half-way, but I wasn't familiar with the roads from there over to Hampton. I used bikely.com to plan out a route, but one of the roads I planned to take had been recently removed so a subdivision wouldn't have cut-through traffic. I didn't waste much time going down the road before it was clear this road was going no where, but the only route I knew wouldn't get me lost was following the main roads. Fortunately, even the main roads were not too busy, but my 70-75 mile ride turned into an 85-mile day. I scratched my itch real well.

On the way down, I passed through the town of Rex with its historic grist mill (grits was one of the things made there). I learned the mill was built in the 1820s and used off and on until at least the 1930s. In 2007, the sluice is nearly completely gone and the site is overgrown, but you can see what the site looked like 25 years ago and 40 years ago.

Clicking the images below will load the full size image; worth the download to "climb into the scene".