Day 15

Saturday, April 17, 2010. First off today we have an iron-ore furnace built in 1833, followed by a tree with interesting roots where a gully washed out under it. The sideways 3rd picture has a wild onion in the middle. These things are all over down here and make a lovely pungeant aroma! The next picture gives you an idea of how "rolling" the countryside is, a bicyclist's nightmare! Following that is a typical layered rock wall along the road, common all through these hills. Then we have an abandoned home, the type that always make me think that once upon a time someone probably raised a family there, a family that laughed and cried and loved. The next picture is a twist on the usual roadkill I rode past: a roadkill gummy worm! Last, I made dinner by flashlight!

Today I continued to ride south though hilly country. The day started off cloudy but cleared by afternoon and warmed into the upper 60's. There weren't any towns of size today, but I had plenty of my own food with me and enjoyed cooking it. Miles ridden: 51.5

Day 14

First picture is a house on a hill just outside of Waverly,Tennessee, just a cute little house. Then I came to a creek with an obvious swimmin' hole, with the rocks on the right to jump off and a rope hanging down from the tree on the left. The water looked deep there. Third is a picture of a horse-drawn wagon in a yard. Fourth is a dead tree that looked cool. Last is my "Stealth" campsite. The leaves were deep and rustly and I figured I'd hear anyone coming.

Friday, April 16, 2010. We packed up camp and pedaled 15 miles to the town of Waverly, where we had breakfast at McDonalds. I rode out to Wal-mart, which people said was "right down there at the edge of town", and it was actually 2.5 miles each way! I picked up a few things I needed, then rode back into town. We headed north out of town, and after 8 miles we came to the fork where we planned to go our separate ways. I headed west and then South when I hit the river. The place I was going to camp was 6 miles off the road, so instead I just "Stealth camped" in the National Forest. Miles ridden: 42.9

Change of plans

Well, we reached almost to the Kentucky border and we pretty much ran out of "Spring". The trees were barely leafing out, and more and more the campgrounds are closed as you go north. A cold front came through, too, and the temperature dropped. So I decided it was more interesting in the deep south than in the farmlands of Indiana and Ohio this time of year, and I decided to see more of Western Tennessee and Mississippi. I headed west and then south, and should cross back into Mississippi tomorrow. It's been very interesting. Lots of history down here, mostly civil war-type stuff, and old houses and buildings, and tobacco farms. Nothing is growing in the fields right now, but it's still GREEN, and getting greener as I head south! I'm still keeping up with my daily journal and when I get to a place with internet where there aren't so many people and distractions, and so much noise and commotion, I'll catch up my blog and try to post pictures. I've taken a lot of cool pictures. Be patient!

LobLolly tree

Informed reader and good friend Kathleen says: "LobLolly Pine? Probably so named due to lobbing it's cones on wayfaring bicyclists!" Thanks, Kathleen, I...um...feel better knowing that! Kathleen gets the souvenir pinecone from that tree, which I will cheerfully lob her direction upon returning ome! By the way, I've loved the comments and emails from everyone, it helps me feel not as far from home!

Day 13

We start off with a picture taken just outside of Centerville, Tennessee at the turn-off to Minnie Pearl's hometown of Grinder's Switch, which I didn't realize until now was a real town! The next picture is just some of the rolling hills of Western Tennessee. We crossed the Duck River half a dozen times, this picture is just one of them. Must be a good fishing river, we seen quite a few working at it. 4th pictures is my bike and tent set up at Loretta Lynn's campground near Hurricane Mills, Tennessee. Incidently, Hurricane Creek winds through the area and probably there was a mill near there somewhere, hence the name. Last is some of the "furniture" on a patio next to the bathhouse at the campground. This isn't the lawn swing I sat on (see below), that one was on the covered porch and I didn't take a picture of it.
Thursday April 15, Hope you all got your taxes mailed! Ha ha! Today is my bicycling companion's 69th birthday, and I can only hope to be in as good shape when I'm that old, which would be a miracle since I'm not right now at 49! We packed up camp and headed out 15 miles to the town of Centerville, which is a twin-town with the tiny town of Grinder's Switch, hometown of Minnie Pearl (with the famous hat with the price tag hanging off it!). Nice little set of towns, very homey and quiet. We decided to ride on another 15 miles to where our road crossed under the freeway (I-40) but when we got there the truck stop was closed down. It was another long, dry, hot (87 degrees) ride conserving what water we had left. It as a very hilly road, to boot! But we made it, to the turn-off to Hurricane Mills, home of country singer Loretta Lynn. There was a small country store at the turn so we stopped, and one of Loretta Lynn's daughter's, Cissy, was in there. She looks a bit like a blonde verson of her mother. We went up to the campground on Loretta Lynn's ranch and got a tent site, which was pretty far removed from the bathhouse! It was pretty, though, built on a tree-covered ridge and you could look out over the rows of hills going off into the distance. Little squirrels were running around the campground, lots of oak trees to keep them happy. In fact we had to use our feet to sweep the acorn tops out of the way to make a place to put our tents. Up by the bathhouse there was a huge covered porch with a wooden floor, and there was a lawn swing up there, so I took my book over and happily swung and read until almost dark. Miles ridden: 43.7

Day 12

Finally I'm getting pictures posted. On top is a picture of the downtown square of Columbia, Tennessee. Next is one of many mansions we passed leaving town, this picture was taken while I was riding! The poster in the next picture was on the little store in Shady Grove, for a Civil War re-enactment coming up, and I liked the part about "Battles daily at 2:00"! The only armadillos we seen were road kill, sorry about that. And last, this is where we camped that night. Later in the evening a few other bicyclists arrived too and set up tents.

Wednesday April 14. The bike part arrived and my friend's bike was soon fixed and we were ready to roll. We pedaled west out of Columbia on Hwy. 50, over hill after hill. The scenery is great. It's tree-covered rolling hills, and everything is so GREEN: the grass, shrubs, and trees. There are little salamanders scurrying around in the dry leaves on the roadside banks. You have to look quick to see them before they dart under something. The locals call them "puppy dogs" or "water dogs", and they use them for bait for catfish. A large percentage of the homes are made out of brick, mostly red brick, and there are low fences/walls made out of flat field stones along in front of many of them. We went through a town called "Sawdust", then passed a road called "Fatty Bread Rd". I was still musing over that when we passed "Totty Lane". We pedaled up a huge hill and down into the town of Shady Grove, which consisted of the Duck River running through the bottom of a tiny vally, and a little store with a wooden floor, and it doubled as the post office. A handful of houses among the trees. We got bottles of chocolate milk and drank them, then pedaled back half a mile to the Trace and camped at a wayside near the Shady Grove exit. Miles ridden today: 28.5

Day 11

By the way, I know that I could turn the pictures upright, but it makes them so small. You'll just have to turn your head. And if you click on the pictures you can enlarge them and see more detail.

My bicycling companion has had a malfunction of the bearings on the front bike wheel, so we had to change our route this morning. On our way out of the campground we stopped to look over the historical stuff from Merriweather Lewis. He's the "Lewis" part of the "Lewis & Clark" corps of discovery team that went from St. Louis all the way out through Montana to the Pacific Ocean around 1805, to explore what was out there. In October 1809 he was staying at a wayside Inn here along the Natchez Trace and he died of gunshot wounds at the Inn. Some say he shot himself, some say he was shot. At any rate, this is where he died. See pictures. The old building is a recreation of what he Inn looked like when Lewis stayed there. We seen wild turkeys along the road 3 times this morning. The road was hilly and winding. In the "road" picture, if you look waaaaaay out there you can see the road we just rode before we climbed the hill I was looking back from. When we were a few miles north of there we angled off to the east for a very hilly 27-mile ride to the town of Columbia, Tennessee, which we discovered is the hometown of President James Polk! Lots of lovely old mansions and plantation-style houses with columns. Lots of traffic, too, making it hard to stop and take pictures. This one I did get shows a captain's walk type deal on the roof...something I'd like to have on our roof! Oh well! Lots of apple trees and tulip trees in bloom. We went to a bike shop in the downtown square by the courthouse and notified them that a package containing the needed bearings part would be arriving there Fed-Ex tomorrow. Then we went off our own ways for the afternoon. Most of my afternoon involved shade and rest! I did wander to a McDonalds for a Filet of fish and a hot fudge sundae. Miles today: 42.7; sunny and 86 degrees.