I set out this morning knowing I would have my nice comfortable bed to sleep in tonight, but also knowing I was going to put in a lot of miles to get there. The day started with about a 10-mile ride to Cindy's Cafe for breakfast.
I really didn't ride through any large incorporated cities today, but I went through a couple of very small unincorporated communities that had some interesting old buildings along the main road.
The first was Water Valley (pics below).
Then there was Campbellsville (pics below).
It was a beautiful day for biking, and Middle Tennessee has some very nice roads and scenery to enjoy (pics below).
This group 6 cyclists passed me in their pace line on one of the roads. They had a good pace going, and the conversation with them consisted only of hello while they were passing. That's them in the distance. I was too slow with the camera to get a closer shot.
On another road, another cyclist passed me on a triathlon bicycle. He did slow down for a few minutes and rode and chatted with me before we said our farewells and he rode off. He competes in triathlons, so his pace was also quite quicker than mine. Still on this trip, the turtle on the Rock Island Spur Trail has been the only thing I have passed.
I saw this interesting yard decoration (?) near Prospect, TN. It made me pose the question to myself, "Which came first, the tree or the truck?"
If you can't tell from the photo, the truck bed completely surrounds the tree, which goes through the bed into the ground.
Eventually, I made it to the best view of the day...
HOME!!!!
I found this trip to be challenging. The cooler weather was nice on most days, but there were a couple of days when that cooler weather combined with rain and wind pretty much demoralized me. Then there were the Missouri Ozarks which was a very strenuous portion of the trip.
On any bicycle trip like this, where you are exposed to the elements and terrain continuously, there are going to be days that wear you down, but if you hang in, it will get better. The challenges make you enjoy and appreciate the better days. I've always said, "My worst day on a bike is better than my best day in a car."
Total miles today: 111.8
Total trip miles: 1799.0
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