Beltline Bike Tour

I'm finding that the more I ride, the more I want to ride. What better way to start Cinco de Mayo than with perfect weather and exercise? Initially, I wasn't too thrilled because I was thinking of all the eating I wanted to do yesterday, but it turned out to be a superb idea. I could work off some calories before the festivities I planned to participate in later.

Friday, my coworker, J, emailed me about doing the Beltline Tour and my response was, "meh." Then, another coworker, B, asked me about it. I think two people asking about participation semi-piqued my interest... plus there was a noon deadline, so there was no time to think too long about it. I went to the website and because we're doing the Tour de Cure in May, we decided to do the 21 mile, West Side route.

J, me, B & D

I was supposed to put my bike in my car on Friday, but I didn't, so I had to rush on Saturday morning to put air in my tires, break it down, put the bike in my trunk, take off to Peoplestown and be there before our 9 AM start time. I finally get in the vicinity of the park and I'm having issues connecting my front brake. Why??? I thought, "I couldn't have rushed over here, only to not be able to ride." I was a bit annoyed by all the bicyclists that passed, noticed my troubles and kept riding. Those types of situations make me more aware of how I treat others (work in progress), I digress. I finally get my brake connected and I ride up the street to the school. I'll omit the part where I just parked because I saw bicyclists, didn't realize the street had changed names and J was trying to help me find the park. Ha! We finally convened and met up with the West group.

We started off from D.H. Stanton Park, which has sustainable grass and a solar powered shelter area. We went up Hank Aaron and to University, which is quite busy... basically we did a LOT of riding on the streets. If you know me, I'm terrified of being hit by a car... most people in Atlanta aren't too nice to bicyclists. Thankfully, we were in a large group and no one was hit by a car. We did have one rider that hit an old rail and flipped off of her bike, I screamed like it was me. I hope she's ok; they called the first aid people for her.

Beltline Bike Shop

On our ride, we went through the West End, past historic Westview Cemetery, down Hollowell, up Northside and Marietta Street.  After that we turned around and went a variation of the way we originally came.  Somewhere along the way, I had no idea where we were, we stopped at the Beltline Bike Shop ( I googled, it's on Murphy Street). They work with children in the neighborhood, have them volunteer to do clean up and they eventually earn a bike. The lady said that they have given away approximately 173 bikes so far.

Historic Westview Cemetery

I saw parts of Atlanta that I had never seen before and got historical tidbits at the same time. For instance, Westview Cemetery was the site of the Civil War battle, the Battle of Ezra Church and it's the largest cemetery in the southeast. There are a lot of famous people relevant to Atlanta there like: Asa Candler, Ivan Allen, Jr., Henry Grady, Joel Chandler Harris and Robert Woodruff. Another place we stopped was Washington Park, which was established in 1919 as the first park for African Americans. Up, the street was Booker T. Washington High School, the high school for African Americans. One of its famous students was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The Washington Park neighborhood was the site of race riots during segregation... I found that to be interesting because recently, I read Where Peachtree Meets Sweet Auburn and that was mentioned in the book.

The tour was quite fun and I would do it again; I'd like to see some other parts of the trail. I added a new battle scar to my right leg yesterday. Why? Because I fell. Ha! I've shared some more pictures below. I'll add more later.