Greetings from the watermelon capital of Georgia, Cordele. We are here to start the 2013 version of BRAG, which will take us to St. Mary’s on the coast by Saturday. Due to cost cutting, the ride is only six days long this year instead of the customary week. Will we have 16% less fun? No way!

As we have done for the last two years, we are on the ride with our dear friends Claudia and Randy, one of the most fun couples on two wheels.

We spend the day on Saturday taking care of logistics, which means dropping off a car at the end and driving to Cordele. After nine hours in the car, we are ready for a good meal and a beer. Unfortunately, good meals are hard to find in Cordele, and we find a just-OK dinner at East 16th, just down the street from our hotel. Fortunately the beer is cold and we have a nice time at the restaurant.

On Sunday morning, there is a non-supported ride that gets us seven days of riding for the week. We start around 8AM to beat the heat. We wind up with 48 miles, which due to bad weather and work schedules turns out to be our longest ride of the year. It’s a great ride, and we see probably five cars in the first 20 miles.

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One of our stops is in Veterans State Park, which we have visited in the past. It's known for its good photo opportunities.

It also has Lake Blackshear, the big tourist attraction in Cordele. Well, there is also that big Titan missile at I-75 that must pull in the drivers from the highway.

We still have a car tonight, and we return to the lake for dinner at Cordelia’s Restaurant. It’s really good and we are glad to see so many cyclists there, easily identified by their blue BRAG bracelets.

Hey, I had an active day and I need the meat. Eve is much more sensible and gets the chicken with tortellini. We have been on the road for two days and still have not had dessert!

There’s a storm brewing over Cordele and we fear the campers are going to get wet.

Don’t worry, we are safely holed up in the Holiday Inn Express and will stay dry. Tomorrow we head for Tifton, “The Friendly City”, where we celebrate Eve’s birthday. See you there!