New seat, taste of Atlanta, ride with a great group

I've been getting some great rest lately. Usually I only sleep about six hours per night but the last three nights I've gotten 8 to 9 hours. I took it easy this morning and then washed my bike and got ready to go into town to get a new seat. The people at Atlanta cycling were great to work with. The guy that was managing the store seemed to be very knowledgeable and helped me to get the right seat. It happened to be the one that was closest back when I tested a lot of different saddles. The mechanic in the back looked over my rear wheel. It had a bit of a problem with the spoke from the going away ride when my taillight got caught up in the wheel. He touched up the truing and inspected and said that it should make it okay without being replaced. After filling my bottles for me I was on my way to test it out.

The neighborhoods in midtown are nice. I went downtown to see what that was like. It doesn't seem to be a very bike friendly downtown. Only a few cyclists were commuting with frowns on their faces. I usually like riding downtown in big cities but this just isn't it.

The ride started looking up when I went to Piedmont Park. That thing is huge. I think it's larger than Central Park in New York. It's definitely nicer with the mix of dog parks, experimental gardens, botanical gardens, and lots of different activities going on. Fewer people seem to be using it as well even though it was almost 6 o'clock when I was there. After doing a little research, I have learned that central park(843 acres) is almost five times the size of Piedmont Park(189 acres). I'll be back there in June to see where they hid all those acres from me the first time I was there. As a matter of fact, Austin's own Zilker park is almost twice as big(350 acres). I never  would have guessed that. I suppose it is all in how it is developed. Atlanta has done a great job and the recent expansion is a tremendous effort.

As I was coming out of Piedmont Park I met Eric. I asked him how far to the bike shop and he said he was going that way so I grabbed his wheel and followed. We arrived at the bike shop to a parking lot full of cyclists. Apparently the group ride started in two minutes. Well hell yes! We wandered out west and north of Atlanta cycling into the Richy neighborhoods and through a cemetery and some more Richy neighborhoods and had us a grand old time. There are actually some good hills in Atlanta. And by the end of the ride we had climbed a fair number of them. This really wasn't the best way to prepare for a big hillclimbing day so that will be postponed until Friday. The good news is it's been reported that that's a very nice ride and so I'll make sure to do it Friday. I was only able to get a couple of pictures during the group ride because those boys push a pretty good pace. Looks like now I have to recover from my recovery ride. That seems like a pattern I'm all too familiar with from back home.

That's Eric in the foreground with the Atlanta skyline in the background. Thanks for the hook up Eric! Thanks also to Atlanta cycling for the help with the seat and the rear wheel as well as a great group ride.