The young
people on the BRAG Dream Team set an ambitious goal: riding all the way across
Georgia. Striving for and reaching goals
keeps me engaged with life, and so it thrills me to see the Dream Team have
opportunities to grow and excel through goal setting. Here’s an article I enjoyed writing for Georgia Magazine, published by Georgia
EMC in June 2011:
Headed for
the County Line
I consider
myself a goal setter. In fact, I even
have a list of “100 things to do before I die.”
On October 10, 2009, I crossed a big item off of my list: visiting all 159
Georgia counties!
My
adventures across the state began with the Bicycle Ride Across Georgia (BRAG)
in 1994. That year, BRAG went from
Bainbridge to St. Simons Island.
Growing up
in Atlanta, I had been through South Georgia on many family trips to Florida,
but I had never gotten off of the interstate to really experience the
region. On BRAG, however, I was able to
visit an old friend from Brooks County, taste blueberries in Bacon County, and
ride through a downpour in Ware County.
The
159-county goal really materialized later when I worked for an engineering
company in Macon. My job took me to
numerous rural areas. Burke County? Check!
Worth County? Check! I started keeping track of all of the
counties I had visited, shading them with a red pencil on a map of Georgia.
Next, I
began dreaming up expeditions that would take me to unvisited counties. One year, my husband Robert and I celebrated
our anniversary at Providence Canyon in Stewart County. On the way home, we planned to go to the
Andersonville National Historic site via Schley County. Unfortunately, I fell asleep, and Robert didn’t
drive us on the intended route. No
worries, though. After visiting
Andersonville, we drove approximately two miles west to the Schley County line,
got out of the car, ran around the county line sign, and went back the way we
came.
Robert used
to play a lot of golf, and one time I accompanied him on an outing to a course
near Thomaston because the drive would take us through Pike County. I was excited to finally pick up Pike until
we passed a sign for Camp Pine Valley, a Girl Scout Camp. I went to Camp Pine Valley in 1978; I had
already been to Pike County!
Finally, at
the beginning of 2009, I was down to Screven County. Thanks to an article about Georgia wineries
in the March 2009 issue of Georgia
Magazine, I devised a plan that would let me finalize my goal. Robert and I and several friends had a
wonderful fall weekend of bicycling and wine tasting in East Georgia. We rode to Meinhardt Vineyards in Emanuel
County, Butterducks Winery in Effingham County, and last – but certainly not
least – Shannon Vineyards in Screven County.
I sprinted on my bicycle to the Screven County line and had Robert take
my picture (along with my map) next to the county line sign.
No comments:
Post a Comment