Playing Tourist in Newnan

An example of an antebellum home in Newnan

BRAG offered unsupported "warm-up" rides on Sunday. Roads are marked. Cue sheets and maps are available. But there are no rest stops with snacks and water. (Not really a problem since the cue sheets show where convenience stores were on the route.) Riders were scarce. Some we talked to had just finished long drives to reach Newnan and just wanted to take the day as a rest day. (One guy had driven 22 hours from Brooklyn, New York.)

We watched riders heading out. Then headed out ourselves. We weren't going to follow the BRAG route. We were going to play tourist, pedal around town, gawk at the antebellum mansions, and read historical markers about the Civil War history of Newnan. Newnan was the site of a number of hospitals for the wounded during the Civil War and, as a result, was spared destruction from the Union army as it swept through Georgia.

It was a short day for us on the bikes, but a pleasant way to make the transition to the rolling hills of the Piedmont. We went everywhere around town and BRAG HQ, and there was not one flat stretch of road. It didn't take too many miles to begin to get back into the rhythm of riding hills.

We returned to BRAG HQ, picked up wristbands and bike IDs, cue sheets, and (of course) the ride t-shirt. We looked at the riders setting up their camping gear in the gym and out on the playing fields of the high school. Then we popped our bikes on the car and drove to our hotel.

A civil war monument in front of a building that served as a hospital for Confederate wounded during the war.