Cross-country Bicycle Adventurers enjoy first build day of 2025 ride
Cross-country Bicycle Adventurers enjoy first build day of 2025 ride — the gnats, though, not so much
AMERICUS, Georgia — Just days after leaving the coast of Florida on their way to the coast of Oregon, the orange-clad cyclists of the Fuller Center Bicycle Adventure have peddled past southeast Georgia swamps and through quaint Southern towns while successfully dodging storms.
It’s when they stop, though, that they have had to deal with the nastiest, ugliest four-letter word in the state of Georgia: G-N-A-T. Actually, when it’s a four-letter word, it’s not so bad. The problem is when it becomes the five-letter G-N-A-T-S, and they have been more plentiful than peaches and peanuts this year in the state. They don’t bite — they just swarm and aggravate.
“This is the first time I’ve really learned about gnats,” said Benny Garcia, a first-time rider from California who works in information technology. “I even had to look it up on Wikipedia. We’ve got mosquitoes where we are, but this is my first time experiencing this.”
Paul Scott, however, has not had to deal with quite as many gnats as he supports the Bicycle Adventure as the van driver for the entire 3,800-mile ride from Amelia Island, Fla., to Florence, Ore. It’s a critical support role for the ride and one with which he is quite comfortable.
“Now that I’m retired, I do volunteer work all year ’round and live out of a travel-trailer, so I’m used to being on the road,” he said. “Doing this with a good-natured group of folks and serving a cause, it’s perfect.”
The “cause” is raising awareness of The Fuller Center for Housing’s mission and funds for the work — more than $6.5 million, in fact, since the first ride in 2008. Bicycle Adventurers occasionally also get to practice what they preach with build days. Thursday’s build day with the Americus-Sumter Fuller Center for Housing — putting the finishing touches on a recent new home build and building a wheelchair ramp at another home — was the first of six on this journey across America.
Today, the group is back on their bikes and pedaling 84 miles to Columbus, Georgia. Georgia’s so-called “Gnat Line” runs approximately from Columbus through Macon to Augusta. That’s where the sea once covered parts of Georgia, and gnats prefer to breed in the sandy soil south of the line. On Saturday, they’ll head north of the line to Lanett, Alabama (late Fuller Center founder Millard Fuller’s hometown), where they will have a second build Monday with the Chattahoochee Fuller Center Project.
Then, they’ll have 3,400 miles, nine weeks and four build days to go … and no more gnats!
We'd love to hear your comments!