A Struggle

As lousy as the hotel was last night, I didn’t want to leave this morning. I was not feeling it. My legs were tired and sore, and it felt like a workday - do it because you have to not because you want to. I’m sure there will be more days like that ahead, but this was the first one so far.

I changed my plan today so I could ride through the town of Erin, Tennessee. For those that don’t know her, that’s a shout out to my oldest daughter and website technical advisor. Not sure how Plan A would have been, but Plan B ended up having the most amount of elevation gain in a single day yet! Not exactly what I was looking for with the tired legs. Plan A was also going to be a bit over 60 miles. Plan B ended up at 88! Not exactly what I was looking for either. It didn’t help that I missed a turn and cost myself an extra couple miles in the process.

There were a couple of highlights, though. First, Nashville is less than 40 miles away and I’ve been pointing to that since the trip started. Second, as I was struggling to the top of a hill this morning, only about 30 miles into the ride, I hear “Do you want some water?” I looked over and there was a woman of about 60 with her little Pomeranian in her arms. She put the dog down, went inside and brought out two bottles of water. She says she always has some on hand for when bikers come by. I sat on the porch of the house that was about as close to the absolute middle of nowhere as a person can find themselves and sat with her (Sunshine) and her husband (Hi-Fi - apparently a former sound engineer in Nashville) for about 15 minutes shooting the breeze. They told me of a place to stop for a cheeseburger about 7 miles up the road. The owner of the store (Trey) came over and when I told him he had been recommended by Sunshine and Hi-Fi, he knew exactly who I was talking about and kept thanking me for coming in.

Back to the grind after lunch, and I kept thinking that if someone had come by and offered me a ride, I would have taken it. No such luck and I finally limped in to the hotel around 6.

Tomorrow, I will have my interim grades for the 8 states I have been to so far. The top state was a bit of a surprise to me.

Kentucky Lake - part of the Tennessee River.

Sunshine and Hi-Fi’s place in the hills

of northern Tennessee

Those birds had been gathered tightly together in a group like a bunch of teenage boys (from the 80’s) looking at a Playboy. When I rode up, they scattered. I had to look, and sure enough, it was yet another armadillo - by far the most prevalent roadside casualty. This was in Houston County, Tennessee, the farthest east I’ve seen one, but they have been in EVERY state I have traveled through.

Prom night at the Panda Express in Dickson, TN