Day 3: 10/1/2022: Kingston to Thorn Hill, TN

I was on a major roads most of the morning but they mostly had good wide shoulders to ride on. The shoulder disappeared before I got into Clinton and the Saturday shopping and running errands traffic picked up.

Pic below of Clinch River before I got into Oak Ridge.

I eventually made it out in the rural area and was on TN 170 heading east.  My turn by turn printed instructions had me turn off 170 and ride in hills and hollows to TN 33.  I followed the instructions, I thought, exactly as printed and all the turn distances were adding up correctly.

 I made it to a major road, which I thought was TN 33, and I was supposed to take a left and then immediately turn right.  There was a road to the right, but it was not the name of the road for which I was looking. I looked at Google Maps on my phone to try to determine where I was, but my dot was still on 170, so I thought my Google Maps was wrong.  I turned off my phone and turned it back on again to see if the map updated, but nope, still the same.  

Thinking I was on TN 33, I turned right and started riding toward Maynardville, thinking I would just change my route.  I rode for about 2 miles and I noticed on Google Maps my dot was moving, and it was almost at the place where I had turned off 170 earlier.

I decided to call Lisa knowing she could look at the tracker and tell where I was and she confirmed my location and sent me a pic (below) of the loop I had unintentionally just made.  I was headed west on 170.  I decided to turn around and stay on 170 to 33, then head to Maynardville. 

Highway 33 was a high traffic road.  When I got to the original turn off 33 on my printed directions, a decision had to be made.  Turn off into more hills and hollows or stay on more major roads.  Hating riding in traffic, I took the risk and made the turn.  The rest of the route went smoothly and I rode thru beautiful country (pics below).  

After I turned off 33, I lost cell service, but Lisa was watching my route on the tracker..  When I regained cell service, Lisa had texted me the following text: "You are heading south." Shortly after, she texted me this: "Okay nvmd, looks like u are heading northeast again."  She also attempted to call me a couple of times trying to make sure I stayed on the right route.

The unnecessary loop I took was disheartening, but all in all it only added about 8 miles to my day.  For a while there, I thought I was in the twilight zone.  In addition to getting turned around, my cell phone unexplainably went from 78 percent to 15 percent :)

I camped underneath a pavilion at abandoned church about 3 miles before my intended destination.

Total miles today: 93.7