Straight south.

Arrived in Chattanooga, Tennessee on Sunday night and decided to hang out Monday and catch up on things and get my next few days planned. 

Chattanooga was a really cool place. Reminded me of Richmond in a lot of ways. 

Last summer Chattanooga was a big competitor for Outside magazines 'best river city'. Richmond did win. Most people that I spoke to seemed annoyed with what the magazine had to say about their city, which was pretty much 'the city was cool and outdoorsy, but the food sucked...'  

Either way, I liked it. It has a lot of things that I think Richmond has potential to get done in the future. 

Just explored the area by bicycle. Picked up some supplies and had a frustrating clicking sound on my bike taken care of. 

Went into a hot dog shop for some lunch and a few beers to finish out the day. Met 

Jack and his 'work wife' Erica. He met me after work and had another drink next door. 

Jack plays in a band called 'hot damns'. Yes, just like Richmond's own hot damns. And they play Americana music too?!  What a coincidence. Had a good conversation about life and such. He offered me a place to stay except I had already checked into a hostel earlier.  

This was my hostel bed. Liked it a lot 

There was an art walk overlooking the river. This was one of the sculptures. 

Like fish down a waterfall. So real. 

I rode South from Chattanooga on Tuesday. Crossed into another time zone

and a bunch of state lines all in one day. 

 

 I went from Tennessee into Georgia, Georgia back into Tennessee, and Tennessee into Alabama. I didn't expect that to happen. 

Mostly flat roads running by rivers and lakes.

Made my way into Scottsboro Alabama to camp out on this huge lake. Sorry but I can't remember the name of it 

The next day was a shorter ride west to stay with a host in Huntsville. I saw that there was a cave on the way and made time for some sightseeing. 

Cathedral Caverns!  I haven't seen many caves in my life, but this one was huge. Supposedly Alabama has thousands of caves all over the state. 

This was cool. A crack on the ceiling that looked like JFK 

I met David at the cave. Former lawyer turned beer brewer/musician. The state park allowed him and his band to record a couple of Sigur Ros cover songs in the cave a couple of years ago (and he wrote his own lyrics to the songs in English).

He sent the recordings to the band and they really liked it. Sigur Ros Invited him backstage at their show in Birmingham last Friday.  He was stoked. 

So kept riding after the cave..

I made it to another warm showers host that allowed me to stay for a night. 

Rob (friend of theirs on left), Marjorie and her husband Michael. 

Marjorie was so nice. She prepared an amazing dinner for everyone. Seems I have been spoiled with good food a lot on this trip.  

Fun fact!  Her husband Michael, has a father who was a rocket scientist for the Germans during WW2. At the end of the war, his father was captured by the US and given 15 minutes to decide the option of either coming to America to train our scientist, or staying behind to let the Russians decide his fate. He came to Huntsville.  Even today a huge NASA town. Look it up. 

 Marjorie and Michael are avid cyclists and have done a lot to organize riding events and to make Huntsville more bike friendly. She really took care of me and I enjoyed talking to her. Thanks again! 

Thursday I rode west towards Florence. Some sketchy roads and bridges, but Loved the flat terrain. 

After almost 900 miles, I had my first flat tire too. 

To add to it, I mistakenly rode onto the interstate when I should have been on the highway parallel to it. After a mile I was lucky to have found a gate to the separation fence. 

Scary for a moment..

But most of the way made for good Alabama scenery.  Mostly gigantic cotton fields. 

BUT FLAT ROADS!

I stayed with this wonderful family that night. I can thank my good friend Alex Shaw and his in laws for it. Alex's brother just got married to Francis Saturday and this family is his now wife's family's next door neighbors in Florence. 

(Catherine, Kevin, Frances Jane and Emma)

Catherine was an avid cyclist at one time and had done a bit of touring in the past. 

Again, they were extremely hospitable to me. Not only allowing me, a complete stranger,  to crash last minute at their home, but wining and dining me with a delicious home cooked meal. Southern cooking and hospitality at its best. A great family to stay with. Thanks again guys!  

This blog post is toooooo long. But almost done...

Met these cool guys on the road!

I usually try to wash my bike clothes and dry them using a bathroom hand dryer for 30 minutes, or just riding with them on my rack the next day.

Sometimes roads are like this..

And sometimes they can be like this..

Friday I made it over to the Natchez Trace parkway. A historic parkway that runs from Nashville Tennessee to South of Jackson Mississippi  I want to miss the 

Ozark mountains and head more south. 

I met Mike once I started the parkway. He had started at the southern part and was finishing up. He is only the second bike tourist I had seen since starting. 

He was just finishing up his journey. 

Unfortunately the parkway is part of the National parks. With the government being closed and all I have seen this:

It only affects me by limiting my bathrooms and potential campgrounds along the way.

More more state on my belt!

So much more I could add for the past few days!  But I'll get to it once I leave Jackson, Mississippi. 

Really stressing which route I want to take for the rest of my trip. Head towards the southern route? Or head towards southern Utah?  

Thank you everyone for all of the support while I've been on the road. It helps more than you know  

Until next time...

Detours through the smokies.

I spent two nights in Asheville resting and hanging out with Brent. Worked out perfectly since Wednesday was a rain day. 

Brent- Friend from Richmond who works as a utility arborist for the power company. 

Spend about 4 hours in a coffee shop catching up on tracking miles and people I have met and helped me out along the way. Also trying to find a safe way to ride into Tennessee... 

Talked to dozens of locals and called friends about the best way to get into Chattanooga TN. 

It seems that there were really no solid roads that were going to feel safe unless I I wanted to go north and then cut back south on the other side of the smokies. Everyone had good information on the routes, it just came down to most of them being 4 lane highways with lots of trucks and traffic (highways with on/of cramps, riding on small shoulders with tons of rumble strips. 

Last minute Thursday night, Margo called and said they were going to Bryson city over the weekend to paddle the Nantahala.  So Stoked!!I chose to break up my route into two days and go have fun for the weekend!  

The French broad river off the parkway. 

Decided to climb up the parkway again and ride into Sylva NC and then to Bryson City on Friday. 

More tough climbs, but not quite as bad as climbing my Mitchell. The views were amazing. 

This section had a lot of tunnels. I went into this one thinking it would be short. It became pitch black and I couldn't see anything. I didn't know where the wall or opposite lane was, but wanted to get the hell out of it before a car came flying through. 

I was better prepared for the next one. I listened to hear how long the tunnel was depending on the sound of a car passing through.  Also this- 

The next tunnel seemed even longer. I flagged a car down and asked I'd thy could ride behind me with lights on. A much better option. 

More climbing.. Amazing views...

Made it to the top!  It was about 15miles all downhill to my destination. 

I ended up staying in Sylva NC with another warm showers host, Ron Huff. There are so many things I could say about Ron. He was an awesome person and I talked with him for hours about all sorts of things.

He has been biking all his life (mostly bike racing when he was younger). He was a land surveyor and his company was CSA 

(Think civil war!) and his logo had a compass. Notice which direction is missing.  A true southerner.  But he had so many good things to say about it that I had never knew (NOT AT ALL the 'possibly sometimes perceived' stereotypical southern pride sort of thing). 

Ron collected and worked on Vintage bikes (mostly 1985 and earlier). He must of had hundreds of mostly vintage bikes in his shop.

He said land surveying has kept him really busy, but he was planning to open his shop up for business to the public when he had time.

Ron took me out to dinner with his wife, daughter and grandchildren after I arrived. He let me sleep in his shop that night and then picked me up the next morning for coffee and breakfast. Pointed out places where the movie 'deliverance'

was filmed on Main Street. 

This was one of Ron's friends that came into the Shop before I left. He had just been attacked by a dog while riding. The twist of the story is that the dog jumped out of a moving vehicle and knocked him down hard. This was the damage. CRAZY. 

That morning Ron showed me some better routes to get to Bryson city. It was awesome that he wanted to ride with me to the outskirts of town. 

Thanks again Ron. 

Friday was a short and sketchy ride into Bryson city. Large highways and not a lot of shoulders. Luckily it was only about 35 miles.  Regardless-really happy I got to see this girl!

Margo, Katie and Penelope drove up late Friday night to paddle the Nantahala river for the weekend. Margo brought up my paddling gear, and I borrowed a boat from Jeff ( Jackson kayak rep- thanks again!) and we ran the upper on Saturday.  So much fun. 

Watched some people coming down the Cascades section on Sunday. Huge lines with lots of consequences

Crazy raft lines!

Saw a few of these too. 

Anyways, had a great weekend. Loved every moment of it. But while everyone had to make their way back home to Richmond, I would continue to go West. Saying goodbye again was like leaving Richmond. Thanks again for all the help and amazing weekend. 

(Penelope, Margo, myself, Jeff & Katie)

Since I was really uncomfortable with the roads, Jeff was really cool and gave me a ride through the mountains into Chattanooga Sunday night.  

Jeff dropped me off downtown and I found my way to stay with another warm showers host. 

I had been in contact with Roger for a few days in Asheville trying to find a better bike route through the smokies. A super nice guy all around. He and his wofe provided me with a delicious dinner and a really comfy bed for the night. 

Sat down and had a great chat with Roger and his wife. He is has completed a couple of small bike tours and is heading out to do one tomorrow!  He is also planning to do the trans American route next year. His kids have been or are currently on college swim teams. Apparently they are awesome at it!  His daughter is currently swimming for Cal. Fun fact: his daughter is roommates with Missy Franklin.  Remember the swim star of the past summer Olympics?!

Roger suggested some great scenic routes across Tennessee and into Alabama. He took me out for coffee and breakfast. 

It does get lonely riding by yourself a lot of times. Especially after a great weekend with friends from RIchmond. Its great to have people like Roger to talk to when you arrive into a new place and have no idea where I might bike to next.  Good luck on your trip Roger and thanks again for all the help. 

Now to spend the day exploring Chattanooga-Richmond's rival to best river city 2012.