Keith Epps Benefit Poker Run - Milledgeville, Georgia

The first little southern town I came to was Washington, Georgia just off Hwy 44. This early in the morning nothing was open except a few fast food restaurants. This Saturday would be more of a rolling tour mainly because of the time spent traveling to Milledgeville. I pulled up to the red light and turned left off of Hwy 44 and onto Hwy 17. I went about three miles down the highway and turned right on East Robert Toombs Ave. As I rode through Washington, Georgia, I was wishing I had time to stop and take some photos of the antebellum home and the old hotel that was built at the turn of the century. I was told this is where the last Confederate Cabinet meeting was held by Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederate States of America (CSA) After making a circle around the square in the town of Washington, I headed west back to Hwy 44 at the other end of town.

The ride down Hwy 44 is mostly country roads until you come to a four way stop. This is where I made a left hand turn onto Hwy 22. This will take you to Crawfordville, Georgia and Hwy 278/12, which I made a left-hand turn toward Crawfordville. This is the birth place of Alexander Stephens, the Vice-President of the CSA. This small community is a fine example of a small farming town that just about dried up due to a lack of crops and manufacturing plants. Alexander Stephens State Park is located just a few blocks from the main street of Crawfordville. I doubled back on Hwy 12 and headed to Union Point, Georgia.

As you ride along Hwy 12 you will see a road marker telling about a Confederate armory that once stood at this location. This is where weapons were made for the South during the Civil War. Just before Union Point, Georgia you will find a buffalo salt lick where buffalo came to get their salt. I can tell you this was way before my time on this earth. When you come into Union Point on the right of the road on other side of the railroad tracks stands an old boarding house that was used by train passengers before the nineteen hundreds.

Hwy 12 runs back into Hwy 44, which takes you into Greensboro, Georgia. The oldest jail in the state of Georgia is the Old Goal County Jail. This medieval fortress is just a block off of Main Street in Greensboro. The granite jail was built back in 1807.

Well, it was getting close to time for the ride to begin and I needed to quit taking these side trips and ride on down to Milledgeville. When I reached Lake Oconee I became concerned about the tornado warnings. Therefore, I decided to roll my bike back onto my trailer and trailer it for the rest of the day.

I came riding in about 9:30 a.m. The first person I saw was Howard Brown. He was the man in charge of the benefit ride. Only a few motorcyclists had arrived at the same time I rode up. I was beginning to wonder if there were going to be very many riders show up. As time went on, I was proven wrong about the number of bikers. When the bikes left, I headed over to Designing Line Salon. After a three hour ride, the bikers would return to this location for a hot dog plate.

Some of the events that took place during the day were a bike and car wash. Designing Line Salon donated some of the day’s receipts to the benefit run. I heard one man got his hair cut for a thousand dollar donation and Ron Trubey bought a thousand dollars worth of raffle tickets plus Doyle Beckhams donated a thousand dollars. Some of the bike rallies around the area donated to the poker run. David Settle from the Milledgeville Thunder Rally donated weekend passes and Howard Brown and Steve Wiley of Dixie Bike Fest also donated free weekend passes.

Keith Epps is another bike shop owner that I had the chance to interview. During the ten or twenty minutes I talked with Keith, I found out some of his history in motorcycling. He was twenty-seven years old when started racing around the Macon and Dublin area, and for a time, his son joined him in racing. Keith first opened his Epps Cycle and Marine on the south side of Milledgeville in 1969 and moved to the north side of town on Hwy 441 in 1993. He stayed at this location until 2005 when he sold his business.

One of the reasons I like covering events in the Milledgeville area is that over the years I have come to know more of the bikers. Many of the riders make you feel like you are a part of this biking community. The bikers in the surrounding areas came together to help Keith raise the $204,000 needed to be placed on the list for a new liver transplant. Keith Epps Benefit Poker Run had more than seventy-seven bikes participating and helped to raise more than ten thousand dollars. Saturday’s event brought the total money raised to $18,000.

By Tommy Pittard