Day 6: 10/7/21: David Crockett State Park to Home

 We rode a short distance from the park to Lawrenceburg, where we had a nice breakfast at 40 Square restaurant on the town square.  It had a variety of decorations ranging from a bicycle guy (looks like ET) purchased in Africa, photos of numerous singers and actors, and a chicken coop (pics below).

Lawrenceburg is David Crockett's hometown and there are reminders of that around town (pics below - top one is on the side of a downtown building).

It has a quaint, nice town square (pics below).  As you can see in one of the pics, there is currently a lot of street and sidewalk construction around the square.

It was very foggy for several miles before the sun broke through.  Bob and I rode together for several miles and then came to a decision time.  The route I developed took us off U.S. Hwy 64 onto back roads.  When it comes to hills, back roads typically have steeper climbs than U.S. highways.  Highway 64 had a nice, wide shoulder on it, so Bob decided to continue riding on it, and I chose to take the back roads.  So we split for several miles, and agreed to join back up at a Hwy 64 creek crossing.

Back at home, Lisa had been having a low grade fever since yesterday afternoon, and decided to be tested for COVID-19 today at 11 a.m.  She called me and told me she tested positive for Covid, but she didn't want me to come home and be around her.  She is in quarantine for 10 days.  We have our first grandchild due in Kansas possibly next week and at least one of us wants to be able to go to Kansas to help the new parents any way we can.

Bob and I were heading to a campground in Winchester for the night, and we would split up and head home tomorrow.  I decided to change my plans and head home today to be close in case Lisa needed me.  Then Bob changed his plans and his wife drove to Winchester and picked him up and took him home.  So we both made it safely home today.

Total miles today: 104.1

Total miles this trip: 467.8

Day 5: 10/6/21: Mousetail Landing State Park to David Crockett State Park

 It stormed pretty much all night last night.  The tent pad we were on was crushed, hard packed gravel. Since so much rainfall came in short periods of time, pools of water formed under our tents.  We both must have some pin holes in our tent floor because we both woke up to very wet floors.

Weather-wise, today was a good ride.  We stayed mostly dry, and had only a couple of short sprinkles of rain.

It was another good day of biking on primarily low trafficked roads.  We rode a few miles on the Natchez Trace Parkway.  Pic of Bob on the Parkway below.

During a grocery store stop in Hohenwald, I took my tent out of its stuff sack, partially set it up, and spread out the rainfly and ground sheet on the parking lot so they could dry.  The sun was out and the pavement was warm so they all dried quickly and I repacked them.  Then, as I was entering the grocery store to buy some items, a store employee was coming out and mentioned to me that someone came inside the store and reported a person was setting up a tent in their parking lot.  I told him it was me and I was just allowing it to dry.  He stated he figured that was what was happening as he had just seen Bob in the store.  We both got a good chuckle over this.

We made it to David Crockett State Park. This is the only state park during this trip that I have not camped at on a previous bicycle trip.

Total miles today: 65.6

Day 4: 10/5/21: Montgomery Bell State Park to Mousetail Landing State Park

We had some bad neighbors at the campground last night that ignored park quite hours.  They were still having loud conversations outside past 11:00 p.m.  I'm not sure when they finally went inside and I was able to go to sleep.

Our route today was full of adventure.  We traveled a few miles on a gravel road which eventually led to a creek.  The creek water was pristine, very clear and cool.  The kind of creek you would really want to play in on a hot day.  We had to fiord the creek, again having to lift the front of the bike or remove panniers to keep them from being partially submerged (pics below).

We were then in a back road and ran across the group pictured below.

The group consisted if about 12 wagons with folks from different states.  They told us they started in Santa Fe.  I'm sure the guy could tell from our reaction that we thought Santa Fe, NM, because he quickly told us Santa Fe, TN.  They were traveling about 100 miles in 4 days.  They usually travel to Tammy Wynette's place, but couldn't go there this year due to flooding.

A short distance after seeing the covered wagons, we came to a creek crossing where the bridge was closed.  We were able to push our bikes over the dirt mounds blocking the bridge and continue on our route (pics below).

The rest of the ride today involved a lot of steep ups and downs in the rain.  We were fortunate that the rain stopped just long enough for us to pitch our tents before it started back up again.

Total miles today: 73.7

Day 3: 10/4/21: Henry Horton State Park to Montgomery Bell State Park

 The nut pictured below is the type that fell with a loud thud all through the night around our tents.  At about 5 a.m., one was a direct hit on my tent and woke me from a sound sleep.  

Also, at some point in the middle of the night I thought I smelled a skunk, and became concerned about what to do if a skunk tried to get my food, which happened to be in my tent with me.  The guy in the campsite next to us confirmed that there was a skunk scratching on his tent in the middle of the night.  He said that he shined a light on it, and, fortunately, it ran off.

Today started with a buzzard fry.  We were sitting near the entrance to the state park when a very loud pop happened almost right above our heads.  I didn't know if we were being shot at or what had happened.  I looked up just in time to see a buzzard with sparks coming out of it falling to the ground.  He/she had unfortunately got into some transformer wires on a utility pole and got fried.  A park ranger came out of the office and asked if we were okay, and we said yes but the buzzard's not.

We found a great restaurant near Columbia called MarcyJo's Mealhouse (pics below). 

MarcyJo is the sister of Rory Feek, who was married to Joey.  Rory and Joey were a husband and wife country music and bluegrass duo.  Joey (wife) got cancer and passed away in 2016 at the age of 40.  The waitress said MarcyJo and Rory are from Kansas, and that is the reason for the Kansas reference inside the store.

The weather was near perfect during today's ride.  The route again today was on mostly quiet country roads.

One community we went through was Bending Chestnut.  A few pics below of information regarding the community's name and a couple of buildings at the primary crossroads.

When we were checking in at the campground at Montgomery Bell State Park, a lady from California, named Shelia, asked us about our bicycle trip.  I overheard her telling the campground attendant that she has a reservation, but she had parked her RV near the state park's lodge and unhooked her tow vehicle to find the campground.

As we were pitching our tents near the campground office, Shelia came over and asked if one of us could do her a favor and ride with her to help her find her RV, and then drive her car back to the campground, she would drive the RV.  This would allow her not to have to hook her tow vehicle back to the RV, which she said is a pain.  I went with her and was able to help her with this matter.  As many times as folks have done good things for me on my bike trips, it felt great being able to help make someone else's life a little easier.

Shelia is quite the adventurer herself.  She is 78 years old and has been traveling the country in her RV alone, except for her little dog, Snowy, for the past 10 months.

Total miles today: 66.5

Day 2: 10/3/21: Walls of Jericho to Henry Horton State Park

 Slept well last night in spite of some sporadic rain showers.  We saw a break in the rain on weather radar, so we broke camp at about 5:30 a.m. to keep from having to do it in the rain.  

We rode in a steady rain most of the day.  On one isolated rural road we had to traverse a stream over the road twice.  The water was so high that our front panniers would have been partially submerged if we left them on our bikes.  So we removed the bags, toted them across the stream, and then returned to push our bikes through the stream.  Pics of Bob below pushing his bike.

Pic below of some country scenery from today.

We did not go through any cities or towns today and only went through a couple of very small unincorporated communities.

We made it to the state park and the sun eventually came out.  We tried to dry our belongings out the best we could before the sun went down.

Total miles today: 72.4

Day 1: 10/2/21: Athens, AL to Walls of Jericho Trailhead

 Began a Fall bicycle tour this morning.  I met up with Bob, my riding buddy from Chattanooga, in Hytop, AL.

We are going to several Tennessee State Parks during this tour. Today's ride was very pleasant with a tint of Fall in the air.  Fall decorations are starting to pop up everywhere, and cotton is opening up. 

Hytop had their "Hytop Days" today, which is the town's Fall festival.  There were several folks at the festival enjoying the food and activities.

Limestone County Courthouse in Athens (pic below) with Fall decorations.

Total miles today: 85.5

8/4-8/5/2021: Athens, AL to Henry Horton State Park, TN and Return

I wanted to do an overnight bicycle trip, but something different than my usual trip to the Walls of Jericho.  I decided to head north to Henry Horton State Park in Tennessee.

The route today was excellent, primarily on back roads with very little vehicular traffic.

I was on the Richard Martin Trail, which is a rails to trails in Limestone County, for about 5 miles (pics along the trail below).

Elkmont, AL, was the first small town I went through.  Below are some pics around the town.

The next, very small, community was Veto, AL, which is right at the Tennessee border.  The Richard Martin Trail continues from Elkmont to Veto, but has some rough spots in that segment.  So in Elkmont, I decided to get on Veto Road, a paved road which is part of the signed Limestone County North Loop bicycle route.  Below are some pics around Veto.

After entering Tennessee, I rode through Prospect (pics below). 

Below are pics of scenery from my ride.

The only major, but still small, town I went through was Lewisburg, TN, which was about 12 miles from my final destination for the day. 

Just outside Lewisburg, I found a lady's wallet laying beside the road.  It had a small amount of cash and several important items in it.  I could not find a phone number to call.  On Google Maps,  I looked up the address on the driver's license.  Fortunately, the residence was located right on my route about 4 miles from where I found the wallet.  I stopped at the residence, knocked on the door, and a woman older than the lady on the driver's license came to the door.  As soon as she opened the door, I could tell she recognized the wallet, and she had a look of concern on her face.  I'm sure she was wondering how this guy on a bicycle ended up with her daughter's (I presume) wallet.  I explained I found it by the road, and told her where I found it.  She then thanked me and we parted ways.

A few miles down the road, I was making a left turn onto another road when a yellow sign caught my attention.  I thought it might be another road closed ahead sign like the one I ran across earlier this trip that caused me to add about 3 miles to the trip.  Because I was paying attention to the sign, I missed seeing the nice, neat, loose pile of gravel in the middle of the road at the turn.  My front tire hit the gravel mid turn and it was as if my tire was on marbles.  Below is a pic of the skid mark I left through the gravel.  Me and the bike ended up on the road, but no harm was done to either because I was going pretty slow.

I made it to Henry Horton State Park, and met my friends from Chattanooga who were camping there in their RV for a couple of nights.  We had a good visit, and enjoyed sitting around the campfire talking.  Below are pics of a couple of birds of prey housed at the park.

A little information below regarding the park's namesake.

The next morning I got up and headed back home on a slightly different route.  I was on Alt US Hwy 31 for several miles.  It was not extremely busy and had about a 4-foot wide shoulder, but there were several large dump trucks and semi trucks that passed by me at about 60 mph.  To me, that is not a pleasurable riding experience.  As soon as I could, I found secondary roads to take the rest of the way home.

Total miles there: 81.4

Total miles back: 74.0