The Volunteer state of Tennessee is a place that I have become fond of, over the last five years, as my wife's family live here, and Laurie actually went to college in Chattanooga. I have spent many wonderful vacations with my brother and sister in law and their family down here. Reaching the Border of TN made me feel very glad, it was truly a feeling of coming home, despite being a very long State, and crossing it was going to be a tough task..it is the neighbouring state to Virginia and that made me feel very like the journey was nearly finally over.
We started this morning early in Memphis TN, the home of Elvis Presley, and we were heading north east towards Nashville...we had chosen to continue on route 70, a quiet and pretty road, with light rolling hills...the sun was strong already and would later, during the afternoon, hit 89 degree's...temperatures I expected in the desert not in Tennessee.
Nashville was 220 miles from memphis, it was a long road, although I was not going to cycle it all today, we had planned to be in nashville by nightfall. We had arranged to meet another cyclist who was leaving work early from Pennsylvania and was going to drive all afternoon and night to meet us in Nashville to ride the weekend with us...
The least we could do was make an effort to drive a to Nashville to pick him up....how far we would have to drive would depend entirely on how far I rode today...
For the first time this week, I did not have a puncture all day, the bike rode perfectly, and the wind was at our back. After spending the morning riding on the country road route 70...I came to an intersection where 70 and Interstate 40 met each other, I was at a crossroads..Okay let's give the Interstate another whirl I thought...
What I had in mind was simple, the heat was stifling and having it push you meant that you did not get the benefit of it cooling you down. At least on the Interstate the trucks blowing past you would cool you down with their draft....
The only reason we had not been on the Interstate in recent days was that posted signs of cyclists prohibited were all around, even though many cycling colleague's had told me to ignore them, I was daunted at the signs prohibition. The heat made up my mind, I cycled down the on ramp and onto the Interstate I rode..what a relief and good decision it was....
Speed was up, wind at my back, cooling breeze from the trucks and Memphis long gone....the day was a cyclists dream...I managed to cover 130 miles at an average of over 18 mph...that was moving fast..
We packed up the bike and drove the remainder to Nashville where we now wait in the RV for our new companion to arrive sometime in the early morning ....the plan is then to drive halfway back to Memphis to ride back up to and beyond Nashville over the weekend...seems a bit complex I know, but the whole journey is about the abilty to send a message ..and this is the all part of the big plan...
With todays good wind and marathon effort, I have now cycled 1987 miles in 22 days..
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