Vidalia is a town that embraces onions, and during the Georgia Tandem Rally Pre-tour they embraced us too! We loved them and they loved us back.

22 couples joined us in the home of the Vidalia Onion for three days of riding, eating and fun. We kicked things off with a remote start from Big Al’s Country Market with plans to lunch there afterwards.

Before the ride, Roger and I had made a stop at Bill’s donuts to pick up some treats for a rest stop at the 16-mile mark.

Lunch after the ride was fried chicken perfection, although we ate as they were running out of some of the most popular items. Roger and I had the same traditional southern fare.

The first day of the pre-tour was very busy. A visit to the Onion Museum was our next event.

We all learned about the labor intensive planting, growing, harvesting process. And were introduced to the very famous Yumion.

Dinner was at the Rialto Italian Eatery, home to great food and wine slushies!

The portions were tremendous and many of us took leftovers back for lunch the next day.

After dinner we visited the Onion fountain – because, why not?

The next morning we got a HUGE surprise. I was looking out our window when I saw YUMION walking over from the Onion Museum to our hotel.

Our riders were ecstatic to see Yumion and he (?) seemed to enjoy posing with everyone who wanted a picture.

He got on the tandem but passed on going for a ride as we didn’t have an appropriate helmet to protect his noggin or whatever it is!

After the ride, a group of 8 couples made the (longish) trek to the banks of the Altahama River to visit Benton Lee’s. Most of us ordered the steak, their specialty.

There was one more short ride and then we packed up and moved out of Vidalia.

Next up, 22 teams travel to Dublin to meet up with 41 more couples at the Georgia Tandem Rally.

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