Andy, Can I Put My Bullet In!!

So... Tony and I were ready to get our first real leg of the A2A - Paddling from Atlanta to Alabama expedition underway – we even had Brian Cummings and two of his boys along for the ride.  Tony and I have previously been out to  Georgia Power's McDonough Plant to scope out the boat ramp they have there on the edge of their property.  Even Gretchen and I went out before to check it out.  Heck, we finished up A2A - Trip 0; Powers Island to McDonough Power Plant (We Finished up the ATL50) there a few weeks before!  So, I was blown away when we were greeted, immediately, by an armed guard.

I was waiting for the old "Andy, can I put my bullet in?" line.  It was even a bit awkward.  This fella took his job VERY SERIOUSLY! 

In all fairness, he was just doing his job.  His job was to protect America's infrastructure from three grown men (one of them aging, balding, greying, and generally out of shape – yep, that one is me!) and two young boys who were getting dropped off in their mini van and SUV by two mothers.  Yes, we were obviously a threat.  But, again, I'm trying to be understanding about this gentleman who was just doing his job.

I just wish his decision were rational and reasonable – again... he's just "doing his job" and the boat ramp is clearly marked as private property, so really, my bad.  And yes, I've learned my lesson and will NOT try to use this boat ramp again.  I'd also recommend nobody else give it a try.  That's OK, we'll just drop in five miles upstream at Paces Mill when we try it again and make a long 18 miler out of it.

The good news is that we didn't lose the day.  We simply decided to run the Chattahoochee River from Garrard Landing down to Azalea Park (both Roswell Parks) although Tony decided to skip this repeat.  This 8 miler (mile marker 325 down to 316 on the CR-NRA map) was a subset of the longer ATL50 - Leg 5; Medlock Bridge to Island Ford (+ repeat of leg 2 = 15 miles!) trip Tony and I did last year.  The river must have been going slow (or we were!) as it took us about the same time to do 8 (instead of 15) miles – maybe I just recorded the time wrong – who knows!

No matter what, we had a great time on the river and it was nice to see the enthusiasm in Brian and his two boys.  Thanks for going, guys!!