What can I say? It’s the end of an era and for us a very big relief to have put the Georgia Tandem Rally to bed. Since 1999 we have spent countless hours throughout the course of each year thinking about it, researching it, making phone calls, having meetings, making routes and maps and cue sheets (Roger), driving routes, marking routes (20 years), writing emails (all Roger). Now our time is our own and we are free to make travel plans whenever we please! Don’t get me wrong, it was a labor of love (mostly) and I’m sure we will miss it but right now we are celebrating going out on our own terms.

All that being said, we had a GREAT time at GTR this year and now I’ll share the story and the pictures.

In our last post, the GTR Pre-Tour had wrapped in Athens, and the 39 teams were headed for Covington, where they would be joined by the rest of the teams coming in for GTR Weekend. We start with our registration party at Amici’s. Most of the 60 additional teams show up for their packets and dinner at our first social event.

We had a fantastic turnout inside the restaurant and out on the patio as well.

Friday morning was a remote start in Social Circle. We met at a park and as our usual (and very experienced) car parking assistants were not riding (looking at you Randy and Claudia) and did not show up for duty I had to handle the job for a while until Marcia “saved” me!

After everyone got ready to ride, we had to “herd the cats” to get the ultimate drone photo of almost 100 tandem teams. Then Roger had his rider meeting and we were off!

On Friday night everyone had dinner on their own – but a large group ended up at The Social Goat Tavern on the square. One group of note featured almost all of the people who had been at the first GTR in Madison, GA in 1999.

The Social Goat had a good night as there were many tables filled with our T-shirts!

Up next, our favorite purveyors of ice cream – Scoops! By my count they have scooped for us at least six times (and we love them)! This year they brought the truck right to our hotel complex – what could be better? (the answer is NOTHING)

It’s the 25th GTR and possibly the very first time that a Saturday morning ride start was impacted by rain. It was a huge disappointment, but after studying the radar we had to call off the 8:30AM mass start and encourage those who planned to ride to start as early as they could (and ride the short option) to try and avoid the rain. 35 to 40 teams went early and most only got slightly damp in the mist. We were glad to see so many ride because we had a “Biscuit Break” planned at 16 miles.

There were also a few teams (above) who stayed totally dry, and came to have hot biscuits. Usually the Saturday photos are of people getting ready to ride and all decked out in their GTR jerseys, alas – today we had to settle for the biscuit stop. There were many leftover and they were brought back and enjoyed at the hotel during the afternoon.

Saturday’s banquet was at the Georgia International Horse Park in Conyers. It’s a beautiful “remnant” of that time Atlanta hosted the Centennial Olympic Games in 1996! We hosted a banquet at this location in 2013. It was appropriate to have the final hurrah at a “fancy” spot.

Here is the room before anyone arrived, and here is a shot while we were enjoying our social hour:

Angela and Greg Knecht have attended 24 rallies in a row, and Mark and Debbie came to every single one…with us – 25 straight years.

There was a lovely and tear inducing presentation by Linda and Eric – also OG’s who just missed a few GTR’s (excused absences!). We truly appreciate how much everyone appreciates us!

The skies looked iffy for the last ride – but Linda and Eric had promised a special surprise which could only be seen and experienced if you rode your bike. The turnout was higher than a normal Sunday ride, and many were decked out in GTR jerseys for this ride.

The surprise truly touched us because a committee of those who were at the first GTR (and many more) coordinated the creation of signs to line the route of the Cricket Frog Trail. The signs professed love and thanks for all the years of GTR and for Roger and me.

The “ring leaders” of the secret project are seen above – Audrey, Christen, Ryan, Eric and Linda! Thanks for your thoughtfulness. Below are the final signs which we made into a group photo op…and then the skies opened up and soaked us for the last few miles of the last ride. It was okay because it covered our tears.

And so the Georgia Tandem Rally is done. To conclude I am quoting Marc Maron (a famous podcaster who announced the end of his podcast after 16 years). “We started the show on our terms, we grew it on our terms, and we’ll end it on our terms”.

And so we did!

It’s the end of GTR, but we have a busy summer of travel planned. Stay tuned for further adventures.