Rode over to Griffin on a perfect gray blustery day with stiff NW wind and temps stuck in the mid thirties the whole time, right after some rain moved through on Thursday night and Friday. In other words, perfect weather for keeping people indoors, and thus a great time to go out and explore. Great lighting for photography and I just really love winter scenes and the feeling of being totally warm yet riding through cold weather. Rode past a couple of big flocks of redwinged blackbirds which I love. About the exploring. I planned a really wandering route around town basically without any regards as to where except I knew I wanted to hit the Airport trails after sunrise. Did some short gravel roads near or in town and then stumbled upon the first cool thing which was an abandoned section of the old Atlanta road, 19/41. Thankfully there was a beaten down social trail around the barrier and all the way down the pavement that was basically singletrack due to all the leaf litter and the encroachment of vegetation. There was also a really cool bridge that looked to be in perfectly fine condition, over the same old abandoned Central of Georgia line(still owned by Norfolk Southern) that runs through Brooks and Senoia. I looked on the sides of the bridge to see what year it was built but there wasn't a year stamp for some reason... and I didn't see it listed on Bridgereports.com. Anyway I suppose it was abandoned because it was completely bypassed and upgraded to divided 4 lane semi expressway right parallel to it. I emerged from the barrier and was supposed to take a left through the Griffin UGA campus but it was blocked by a fence gate. So I rode down the former roadbed which is now grass to the next street, and easily got back on route. Also I decided to do the narrower streets early rather than when the sun was up, although it was so cold almost no one was out and about until well into late morning. Lots of these streets were concrete which was weird, felt like riding on a really big sidewalk. Did some railroad right of way gravel and rode right by the yard on a parallel street and thankfully the sun was bright enough for decent pics. The two sides of the yard were completely opposite with very nice mansions on one side and dilapidated shacks on the other. I rode on to the airport trails which had very impressive signage but were in really bad shape. It looks like the past year of tropical storms knocked down several big dead pine trees and people just gave up on it. Really sad, as it looks like it has good flow and there was a lot of work put into building it. After that I meandered around the edge of the east side of town and went up to ride to the end of north 2nd street which turns to gravel after it crosses the abandoned railroad. To my surprise the road had been gated right after the last driveway presumably by the county because there were not any no trespassing signs anywhere so I went around it and rode to the end which was only another 3 tenths of a mile. It was so weird seeing proper road signs with grass grown up all over the roadbed. The road used to connect through to Jordan Hill road in the past but I think once the Sun City developers bought the adjoining property they closed it. After that I rode on to Experiment right past yet another abandoned mill, and right after that there was a sign for a new quarry park and brand new bathrooms that were unfinished. I decided to check it out and I am very glad I did. There was a pretty large rock wall left behind from the quarrying and several jeep trails fading to singletrack. These connected to a sewer line road which was pretty much singletrack as well. There was trash all over the place and by this point I decided to try and follow it to another street rather than going all the way back the way I came. There was exposed rock everywhere and after I crossed a creek with a sofa in the way and climbed a little rise, I stumbled upon two vultures eating a recently deceased pit bull. At the same time 2 deer were grazing on the grass nearby. Made even more weird because I was actually fairly close to downtown there. I hung a left at that junction and it came out after a quite rocky uphill to a city park where I passed a lone girl who asked me isn't it a bit cold for that? After a short diversion past a different abandoned mill I connected back to my route and made my way south to join up with Bethany road and came home the well trodden gravel way home via Blanton Mill up to Tri-County and then to Padgett. Headwind wore me down a bit on the way back mostly because I neglected to bring enough food. I made a grave mistake and somehow lost a bottle(I took 3L) probably somewhere on the airport trails. I also didn't really think it would take all day and didn't bring nearly enough food. Thankfully it was cold enough and I rode easily enough that I got by ok with just the 2L, but I was really hungry the last 30 miles. I had eaten everything but handful of Reese's miniature cups and since it was all I had left I rationed them out towards the end and managed to ride right by all the stores I passed on the way. For a long time I was going to stop at the Publix but somehow felt decent when I passed it so I kept on. Then I felt bad again right before the Kroger but I just couldn't bring myself to bother with going there since I was already so close to home. And also for some reason(perhaps the tiredness and lack of nutrition) I was getting cold again(also the headwind was biting) and what was I going to do? eat my food outside huddled against the leeward side of the building? Anyways I actually felt better once I got to Hip Pocket and was fine. Certainly a great ride. Griffin is a weird but cool place.