Monday, May 26, 2018. Blue Licks State Park Kentucky

Monday, May 28, 2018.    Blue Licks State Park Kentucky

We have spent the last two days riding the Horsey 100. I’m not sure how many people were riding, just a guess maybe 1000 or alittle less. Not sure about that. It was a bunch. We really love riding in the Lexington area, with all of the beautiful horse farms and race tracks. The roads are made for cycling. Smooth, rolly, hilly and for the most part not much traffic depending where you ride. 

I want to tell you about a couple of things that happened the night before the ride. We went to Georgetown College to check in and look at what vendors had for sale. The good news was we couldn’t buy anything because we didn’t have a way to carry it home. The bad news is I’m sure that I found something that we needed. Oh well! Maybe next time. We were staying in a hotel a couple of miles away, so we got on the bikes and headed out. On the way, we stopped at the Dollar Store to get some breakfast food because the hotel didn’t have any. While I was in there, a lady and I started talking. She asked if I was the biker. I said yes. She asked about our ride and then said, that is so exciting, my sister and I walked four miles of the Appalacian Trail several years ago. It was so much fun, we had a great time and would love to do it some more. I said why don’t you. She answered, my husband had a stroke and then my sisters husband had a stroke so I have to take care of him. I said so you are where you are supposed to be then. Taking care of loved ones is more important than anything. We talked for a couple of minutes. She wished me well and we left. After leaving we rode up to the traffic light and was waiting for the light to change. All of a sudden a car drove up beside us and the lady I was talking to handed a $20 bill to me. I was kind of stunned and said what is this for? She said I really enjoyed talking to 
you. Thank you so much. Have dinner on me tonight? Thank you. And she drove off! Well, that’s a new one. Have never had anyone hand us money out of a car window. We know for sure that God puts people in our way for us to talk to. In fact we always say, I wonder why we were supposed to talk to that person. It was a very humbling experience for me. I am so glad I took the time to talk with her. 

After that excitement, we stopped at the gas station for milk to go with our cereal. When I came out of the store, Hap was talking to a guy about the trip and the Horsey 100. All of a sudden his wife got out of the car and said haven’t we met you guys? It turned out we had met them the last time we rode the Horsey 100 about four years ago. We had a great time riding with them back then. They also have a tandem. Another Godinstance???? We made arrangements to go to dinner and we rode to the hotel before anything else could happen. They picked us and took us to dinner with two other couples, Lisa and Todd and Patty and Jeff. What a great time with new/old friends! 

Saturday, we met everyone at the official start of the ride. It is so much fun riding with tandems. Especially with people like these who ride fast and also safely. I had forgotten how much faster tandems are on the downhills than a single. It was an awesome ride. My back did super well (is that a word? Super well??). I was surprised but so happy! We rode with them until the last part of the ride. We chose to ride the 70 mile ride instead of the 100 mile ride. I didn’t want to be greedy. I didn’t  want to push it too far. And we have a couple of difficult days coming up after the Horsey ride. We were pretty tired after the ride. There’s a big difference from riding a fully loaded bike at slow speeds compared to riding an unloaded bike on a fast day ride. I think our legs were in shock. But they did really well. We did get a lot of funny looks though. Everyone else was on lightweight carbon fiber bikes while we were on heavy steel bikes with front and rear racks. 

Sundays ride was more of the same. Another awesome day of chasing and trying to keep up with the tandems. We loved it! Wish we had our tandem with us. But it really comes down to we are happy riding any bikes. Mt bikes, touring bikes, racing road bikes, tandems, recumbent bikes. Doesn’t matter. It’s all good. After the ride we stopped at the after ride dinner. We were tired 
again. But a really good tired. My back totally surprised me again. Thank you Lord! After eating, Bill mentioned that they had found a pub nearby and did we want to go? Ya think? Of course. We spent quite a while talking, and drinking nice cold beer while Hap and Todd played with the giant Jingo game. Have you ever seen two engineers playing this game? At least they didn’t pull out their calculators or protractors. What a fun time! After the beer though we still had the two mile ride back to the hotel. It was alittle tricky but no problems. And nobody handed me any money from their car either. After showering we rode to Wendys for dinner. They really have great salads. No trouble sleeping tonight!

Monday, May 26, 2018.  Georgetown KY - Blue Licks State Park

After breakfast in the room, we left Georgetown about 8:30am. We knew it was going to be a hilly hilly day. We have ridden from Georgetown  to Maysville in the past. The climbs came early and often. The temps and humidity was very high. There is a threat of thunder showers most of the day due to the storm Alberto that is hitting the Gulf Coast today. We rode over all the hills and 
dales. I went back to my 2.7 mph climbing. Instead of speeding down the hills at 40 mph and zooming up the other side like yesterday. I went down at 30 mph and came to a screeching halt going up the other side. 

We were only going through one town today. There was a restaurant there we just didn’t know if it was open on the holiday. We did find one little store open so I went in for some cold drinks. Three cyclist stopped to talk. We had on our Alpha One jerseys so one of them said, what’s up with the jerseys are you riding for a cause. So we spent awhile talking about Alpha one. Turns out they were all surgeons from Minnesota. Interesting conversation! Wonder why we were supposed to talk to them? 

Just before we got to Millersburg, I felt a funny wobble in my front tire as I was going down a steep hill. Uh oh, thats not right! We stopped and sure enough we had our first flat of this trip. We found a large piece of glass in the tire. Hap put in a new tube and we were on our way. While we were stopped at least three people stopped and asked us if we needed help. Nice! A couple of 
miles later my wheel felt funny again, going down a big hill of course. Sure enough same tire flat again. We were just outside of Millersburg so Hap pumped it up and we rode to the restaurant. It was open. Yeah! We ate some tenderloins for lunch. There was only a couple of people in the restaurant so Hap got the wheel and fixed it in the air conditioning. He just put on our new tire he has been carrying and another new tube. Problem solved!

After leaving Millersburg, we started climbing again. Whew! Long climbs. That’s about the time it started to thunder. We came around a corner and there was a very steep, very long one. Along with two dogs that ran out at Hap who was in front. I like to keep him in front of me as a decoy..... Well, I forgot all about shifting because I was looking at the dogs. Just as it got steep I realized I was in way too high of a gear! Oops. My bike came to a complete stop. That’s when I figured out my feet were tied to the pedals. I did get my feet out just as the bike started to fall over. My head was saying to myself, don’t hurt your back! I was able to jump off without falling and sort of catch the handlebars on the way down. So the bike landed on its side with me holding the handlebars. That was a close one. I got back on the bike, now on the steepest part of the climb and the bike 
in totally the wrong gear. Mmmm.... Oh and the dogs were standing in the road down the hill still barking at me. My only option was to go down the hill, shift the gears then turn around and go back up. So thats what I did. I decided the dogs would just have to keep barking. It all worked out, I finally made it to the top and Hap said what happened, what took you so long? I said didn’t you see my bike laying down, it fell. What? Is everything ok? Yep, no problem. Let’s go! 

At one point in the climbing, I said well we must be on top now, Hap said, no that house up there is on top. I said, well I just hope that we get to climb up there. And if we don’t have to climb up there lets just do it anyway. OK?? Finally, we came out onto US Route 68 and made it to Blue Lick State Park. Thunder Boomers were getting closer, and torrential rain was predicted. So we stopped in the lodge to see if there was a room. Sure enough there was. Just as we went to the dining room for dinner the skies opened up and it just poured. Good decision! 

Saturday, May 26, 2018. Georgetown KY

May 22, 2018 Williamsburg KY - London KY

Before we left Williamsburg, we stopped at a Dollar Store for Gatorade. It was going to be another hot, humid day with lots of climbs. We started out on busy Route 25. There is nothing worse than starting out in the morning with a big climb and a busy highway! I struggled for awhile in the morning, but felt better later in the day thank goodness.

We finally crossed over Interstate 75 and headed into the rolling countryside.Beautiful country we are riding in. It was another day of downhill at 30mph followed by uphill at 2.7 mph! Whew a tough one. When we got closer to Corbin the traffic panicked up. We ended up on a narrow State Highway 25, just when everyone else in the county wanted to be there. We stopped several times to let traffic pass. In Corbin we stopped at the Brown Cow for a cheeseburger before continuing on to London.

We had two choices for places to stay in London. The Budget Host and Campground. We could do either one, camp versus hotel. Just before London, sure enough the thunder boomers started. So we raced (as much as you can while climbing) into town and went in McD’s to beat the rain. Just as we got inside the rains came. See how it all works out! No sweat! So the decision was made for us, its a hotel for tonight. Good decision too since it rained most of the night. We walked next door to the Cattleman Steakhouse for dinner. Not so good, but our belly’s were full!

May 23, 2018 London, KY - Berea, KY

As soon as we left Mt Vernon, we started climbing again. This is Kentucky after all, the land of hills and hollars. The hills in KY are generally shorter and steeper than the hills of the Ozarks. Those hills are long, steep climbs. When we road across the US in 2013, (Circleville OH-Boise ID) we got to experience the hills of Missouri. They sure took us by surprise. When crossing the mountains out west your looking at not so steep climbs, generally 3-6%, but you could climb for five to twenty miles. The Appalachian mountains are alittle steeper than out west, but not quite so long, with a few exceptions. 

The ride was just so pretty once again. We rode through a heavily forested area in the middle of nowhere and had one of those sneaky little climbs. Your riding along, in this case, along a river, you get to a corner, turn right and all of a sudden your reaching for the granny gear. Oh I forgot, just before we got to that turn, we heard a big truck (logging truck) coming down the hill. He was making a lot of noise shifting, braking and going very slowly. We both got to the turn and went uh oh. It was a tough one, but we made it. 

We saw another snake in the road. They sure do make them big in KY. This one almost stretched across one lane of the road! And he was looking at ME! It looked like a big black snake. Whew that was a big one. 

We were headed for the OHKY Campground in Berea.  For once we didn’t have any thunder boomers chasing us in the distance. There was no threat of rain. When we got to the campground we found out that the Trans Am cross country bicycle route goes through Berea.

We were pleasantly surprised to find a group of ten cyclists who were riding cross country. The lady at the campground told me that they don’t let other tenters stay there, just cyclists. That was nice of them. We are finding more and more campgrounds don’t allow tents, just RV’s. 

We rode over to where they were all camped. It was alittle disappointing to find out that they didn’t even provide tables to the sites. That was a bummer. So we walked around, found a table and carried it over. The bathrooms and showers were quite a walk away also. Oh well, that’s the best we got. Once again, we were told that they had WIFI and then discovered that it didn’t work. There should be a law against campgrounds, hotels etc who say they have WIFI and you can never get it to work. 

We rode down to a gas station to see if we could get a beer. We got caught again with “this is a dry county”! KY is a funny state that way. Some counties you can get a beer and some you can’t. The lady at the campground made the comment that you could get alcohol at a restaurant and then drive home drunk, but you can’t buy beer to take home to drink. For dinner we had baked beans and a Lipton noodle dish with chicken in it. I didn’t have any veges, cause we didn’t see a grocery store today. After we ate I was able to get our laundry done. We have three pair of shorts and two cycle jerseys, so I pretty much have to do laundry every day. 

It was an early night, so we tried to watch a movie I had recorded on my Ipad. But we weren’t successful. We both fell asleep! Good night, Irene. 

May 24, 2018.    Berea, KY - Lexington KY

The plan for today was to ride to the South side of Lexington and go to a park that had pickleball courts. We were hoping to play today and then stay at a hotel close to the park, so we could play again in the morning before riding to Georgetown KY. 

We totally changed our route from the one I had planned in the Ride with GPS and our Garmin. So we had some navigation “issues” again. It’s tough trying to stay on backroads. And since we were riding into south Lexington, traffic picked up. We passed a Krogers on our way into town, so we stopped for lunch and for dinner supplies. It was not an easy task to even get into the parking lot. A lot of traffic, but we finally made it by using the handy sidewalk. 

So I go in for salad supplies and a sandwich that we could take with us to the park where we planned to play pickleball. Sounds simple?? First off, I turned right in the store and the salad stuff was on the other side of the store. The store was packed, so it was slow going. I finally found the deli section and asked if he could make us some turkey sandwiches. He said, I make the best sandwiches in the city, then he described how he made them in detail. It was actually a panini. He said go do your shopping and come back. I got all of our salad fixins for dinner and went back to him. He still wasn’t done. I must have stood there for at least 15-20 minutes. Hap sent me a text asking if I got lost. I finally got the sandwiches. Then we had to get out of the parking lot onto a very busy four lane street, that had a bike lane. We got in line, yep at least ten cars inline with us and waited and waited. The light went through three cycles with our row never getting a green light. No wonder there was such a line. 

After we finally got out of the parking lot, we only had to ride a few miles to the park. Mostly uphill of course. By the time we got to the park, we were starving! We ate our sandwiches and then got out our pickleball paddles. Several people showed up to play, so we spent several hours trying to remember how to hit the ball. After we got done playing, we had to ride about two miles to the hotel (uphill——-not kidding). Our legs were pretty dead after our 50 mile ride and a couple hours of pickleball. But the salad I made for dinner was exceptional! 

May 25, 2018.    Lexington KY - Georgetown KY

After breakfast at the hotel, we rode back over to the park (downhill woo hoo!). All six courts were full. We had a great time and met so many nice people. We played for several hours again. Boy it was hot and humid! 

After playing we put on some bike shorts, for our short 25 mile ride through the city to Georgetown. We stopped at Jimmy Johns, our new fav sub place, for some lunch. The plan was to ride to the Legacy trail that started near downtown Lexington and ends at the KY Horse park. We have done this same route before, on Katie’s Tour of KY. One year, I think 2001 or 2?? We pulled our border collie, Katie, on a week long Tour of KY. She loved it. We miss her so much. We hope that God gives us another dog, one of us sooner than the other....... 

We used Google maps to route us to the trail. It was a great route, with low traffic roads. The trail was really nice, with lots of cyclists and runners on it. The trail ended at the KY Horse park. The Horse Park is huge. It is a really neat place to see some beautiful horses. They also hold a lot of different sporting events there. Our route to Georgetown, took us right through the Horse park. We weren’t sure if you were aloud to ride there or not. But what the heck, we got in a big line entering the park. Not sure what was going to happen. When we got to the gate, the girl looked at our bikes and waved. So we waved and went through the gate. We were following the GPS which did a winding route through the park. We saw several police cars. I said just act like we belong here. And if anyone stops us tell them that Linda at the gate said it was ok to ride through here. She was the one with long dark hair. They didn’t stop us, but one started backing up toward us. We were climbing a hill (of course) so Hap said, hey he’s backing as fast as we are riding! There was a lot of people and cars. We eventually ended up on a narrow lane, headed for the back of the park. It seemed like the right direction. Then the road turned into gravel, always a bad sign. Then we came to a locked gate. Well, dang. I noticed a little opening way down the fence line, so we walked the bikes through the grass and wrangled them through the narrow opening onto another gravel road. But this road led to a big farm, with a big barn and a large semi truck coming down the gravel road toward us. Uh oh. We got off the road and followed him, thinking there might be another gate at the end of this lane. But first we had to go through a big, dark tunnel. I hate big, dark tunnels. Luckily there was no gate and we got out on a real road. It was even the right road! We had several miles to get to Georgetown College. 

We are signed up to ride an organized two day ride, around the beautiful lanes, and horse farms near Lexington, Georgetown and Versailles called the Horsey 100. They had several ride options of anywhere from 30-100 miles per day. We have been down here at least ten times to ride this ride. Two times, we pulled Katie in her trailer. So we will see how this goes. It will be fun to ride without all of our gear on. 

Monday, May 21, 2018. Williamsburg KY

Saturday, May 19, 2018.   Fairfield Glade TN - Wartburg, Tennessee

Woke up to pouring rain at 7am. Nice! But by the time we ate breakfast (oatmeal, bananas, almonds and pistachios), the rain had stopped and the sun was peaking through the clouds. We have enjoyed our stay at this condo at Wyndham Resort in Fairfield Glade. The biggest problem especially if you are biking is all of the amenities are at the top of the hill. Also, the amenities were all in different buildings. The Racquet club that had tennis as well as eight outdoor pickleball courts was on the right (at the top of the hill). The gym (with three inside pickleball courts) was on the left (at the top of the hill. The mall with retail shops and restaurants was on the left (at the top of the hill) and the fitness center was on the left (at the top of the hill). It took us awhile to find everything. Once we figured it out we were fine. 

We left the condo and climbed 0.9 miles to the checkout office (at the top of the hill). When I asked for a receipt, she sort of hesitated and said well I don’t have a receipt but I can give you the charges that I have.............uh what was that? We spent almost an hour trying to figure out our bill. Crazy. It looked like they over charged us over $270! The girl just kept saying I don’t know why that is there. But I don’t THINK your card was charged. Eventually we ended up digging out the Ipad (it’s always on the bottom of course), and looking at our VISA charges. Eventually we figured it out. But come on guys..... 

The sun was out when we left the resort area. We had mostly downhill for about four miles. Then we had another four and a half miles of really nice pavement, low traffic hills. But then the dreaded gravel dirt road appeared. We were entering Catoosa Wildlife Area. The road looked well traveled but was gravel. After doing a map check, we decided that this was the correct way to go. When we looked at our route, the GPS route made it look like we were going to go mostly downhill for much of the day. We had two plans for the day. Plan A: ride to Windrock Campground in Oliver Springs (45 miles). Plan B: Ride to Wurtberg and stay in a motel (25 miles). The weather report was once again unfavorable, translation? Storms in the afternoon again. 

I’m not sure how to describe the next 15 miles. I did a lot of 2.7 mph riding. There is nothing more fun than climbing very steep switchback roads on gravel with a heavy load. As I was riding I was thinking my theme for the ride today was attitude and balance. This was the sort of day when you are bike touring that you don’t want to have a bad attitude. It was also the day that your balance on the bike had to be spot on. Loose gravel..........

The further we went, the steeper the hills got and the threat of rain grew worse. For much of the day the rain came down steadily, the

I’m not tired.....are you tired Hap?

Whew!

Whew? Long day in the saddle 

rest of the day was sunny. Go figure! We kept checking the GPS and my phone and both assured us that Wurtberg was somewhere out there. For roads that seemed to be in the middle of nowhere there sure was a lot of four wheel drive traffic. I told Hap that I thought it was a bad sign when we started to get passed by Jeeps, with extra gas tanks hanging on the back. 

There was one switchback that neither of us could even ride up. I’m not sure I could’ve even ridden it with my mt bike. Heck, I had a hard time trying to push my bike around the corner! I got to the top of one hill, where Hap was standing and I heard him say, huh the GPS says we were 
supposed to turn at that road back there. I didn’t even see a road. Well, that’s not good. I sure didn’t want to have to climb back up what I just went down. Hap walked back down the road to 

see if he could see a turn. Nope, no turn there. My phone said (google maps for bikes)  there was a turn about 400 feet back. But no turn there. Well, that’s handy isn’t it? So here we are on gravel

roads, in the middle of a wilderness area in Tennessee, standing in the rain. Guess it’s time for a Snickers bar!

When I looked at Google maps, it sure looked like we were on a road that goes to Wartburg. The road curved all over the place, and had several switchbacks, but at least there was a road. It was at that point we decided that 25 miles would be fine for today. I called the only hotel in town and made a reservation. I barely had a signal, and the lady on the phone didn’t speak English very well. So I think I made a reservation..... It’s always reassuring to know you have a target spot. As we were riding, another four wheel vehicle passed us and we flagged him down. They said the road to Wartburg is all the way back at that crossroads, several miles back. After looking at his map, he said well we don’t know where this road goes, but the phone says it goes there. Good luck!

The sun popped out again for awhile, just as I was climbing a steep ....... (there goes my attitude). I’m just glad we had 700 plus miles of training for this road. Needless to say, we weren’t breaking any speed records today. But we were moving forward. As we were riding, the  jeep that stopped before came back down the road toward us. He said, yes this road goes to Wartburg and it turns to pavement in alittle while. Thank you so much!! That helps the attitude! 

But first we had a huge downhill, very steep, slippery gravel and mud (it was raining again!) that took us down to the river. Scary downhill, but we made it. And THEN we went back up the steep gravel hill. About half way up the road turned to pavement. Thank ya Lord! But the fun wasn’t over yet! After we crossed the bridge over the river, There was a VERY steep climb that looked like a wall. I may have broken my 2.6 mph limit. Not sure, too busy trying the balancing trick. This hill had to be 20% plus. It was a doozy. After the climb I started wondering if this was the hardest climb we have ever done (on a tour with gear). I decided the hardest was on our mt bike trip when we road our mt bikes from Denver, CO airport to Durango CO airport. We stayed on dirt 

roads and trails (Colorado Trail) the whole way. We did several steep climbs at 10,000-12,000 
feet elevation. That was a challenge. But today is up there too.

Finally we made it to Wartburg and rode to the motel. There was a festival going on in town, but we really needed a shower first. We showered, ate a snack and walked back downtown. Just in 
time for the festival to be over. Well darn. We talked to a lady who was packing up her stuff, and she said it was over at 5pm. We missed some great music. Well darn! When she heard what we were doing, she took our picture. We asked about restaurants. She said they are all closed. Well darn! We walked to the grocery store and got some frozen dinners and some salad fixins. Honestly it didn’t matter what we ate, after this day we just wanted food and rest. Hopefully tomorrow’s ride will go alittle better than today. But this is what makes bike touring interesting isn’t it?? The important thing is we were safe, dry and well fed!

Sunday, May 20, 2018.             Wartburg, TN - Caryville TN

The motel didn’t provide a breakfast, so we rode over to Subway for a breakfast sandwich. We started out in beautiful sunshine. Haven’t seen that for awhile. We started out on a nice two lane highway. Some traffic but nothing too bad. A Pretty, rolling road for the start of the day. It was nice to see some sunshine. We have to break out of this rain pattern eventually! There is another threat of storms in the afternoon once again. There weren’t many places for services or water. We stopped in Oliver Springs for a snack. 

As we were getting to Oliver Springs, we had an interesting situation happen. I don’t remember this one before. We were stopped at a traffic light. There were two lanes, one left turn lane and one go straight lane. We had a left turn light, so we started to turn left. Then I noticed the car behind me was trying to pass me on the RIGHT in the left turn lane. He was right on my wheel. I wasn’t sure what to do, I started to move left (but I didn’t want to turn into the fast lane, and I 
realized Hap was right in front of me to the right. I decided to stay with Hap on the right. The guy 

ended up passing us on the left. I looked at him when he passed and saw an elderly man and his 
wife. Neither of them looked at me. Weird, but we all made it around the corner. About a mile up 
the road we realized we needed to be on the road that we just rode over on the overpass. Uh 

oh..... we did a quick turn to head the right direction. We both decided we needed a break. 

After our snack, we headed out the road toward Lake City/Rocky Top. Another beautiful route on a rolly, hilly two lane highway. Not much traffic to speak of. We rode through a valley, that kept getting wider. Spring is finally here, everything has turned green. There was a lot of farmland in the valley. We stopped for an ice cream break in Rocky Top and to check in with our Warm Showers host. We had contacted Michael and Josie a few days ago about staying with them. Warm Showers is the organization for cyclists that we have been using the last few years. We 
agree to let cyclists stay at our house and provide a “warm shower” for no charge, in exchange for other cyclists doing the same. It’s a neat program, that we have enjoyed because we get to meet people from all over the country. 

After ice cream, we headed towards Caryville. They lived on a lake just off of our route. Once we turned off the route, we started the climb. We climbed almost all of the way to their house on the lake about three miles. It took quite awhile to go three miles at 2.7 mph but we made it. Michael greeted us, should us where we could shower and clean up and then said, come on down to the lake, the family is down there. He said you can take the “tram”. Tram?? Instead of walking the steps down to the lake (200 plus!), he had a tram built that shuttled you to the lake. After showering, we took the tram down and met the rest of the family on the dock. What a great set up! They took us out for a spin in their speedboat. We watched their son, Ryan and two kids, ride the tube behind the boat. And then Ryan showed up how to “surf” behind the boat. After we got back to the dock, I swam some so my back would be happy. Michael and Josie, went to a dinner at their neighbors and said, anything in our fridge is fair game. We had a great dinner of seafood, 
scallops, crab leg, shrimp and corn along with fresh homemade bread.  Great dinner! 

Monday, May 21, 2018.       Caryville TN - Williamsburg, KY

Today’s ride started out with sunny skies. We had yet another day of threatening afternoon storms. We had another beautiful ride today. Rolling, hilly (we are in Tennessee!) beautiful two lane road. We had several long climbs at 2.7 mph. Most of the day we were in another beautiful 

valley with hills and ridges all around. We had no issues at all with traffic. For the most part we are following Interstate 75 north to Lexington KY. We had some of the smoothest, fun curvy roads of the trip so far. There really wasn’t even a lot of traffic. We only went through one little town, Jellico that had a deli/market where we could get water and food. We had some fun in the market talking to some people about our trip. And as usual the conversation turned to “How old are you guys?” 

After leaving Jellico, traffic picked up alittle. We passed a school that was just letting out and the parents were all lined up picking up their kids. Uh oh. That meant that traffic was about to pick up. Sure enough, just down the road, groups of cars started passing us. Overall everyone was patient. Just before we reached Williamsport, we started seeing the big, black clouds starting to 
form. Here we go again. We stopped to check the radar and saw that it was raining just in front of us. We put on our raincoats and headed towards town. We have never melted yet! Traffic started picking up again closer to town. Which is much more fun in the rain! We had a choice to make either 20 more miles in the rain, or stop in Williamsburg at a motel. Sure are gettin tired of the rain. We made the correct choice, and headed for a Walmart to buy dinner supplies. For tonight? Our fav dinner, salad with lots of stuff and salmon. As we were getting to the Walmart we had to do the “Walmart shuffle” as usual. What’s the Walmart shuffle?? That’s watching for all the traffic 
rushing to get into the Walmart before the blue light special is over. Cars just get crazy around a Walmart. Some day I hope someone can explain why people do this. There are two lanes each way, plus a turning lane in the middle. A car comes up behind us in the right lane and stops behind us right on my wheel. There is no one in the left lane (or the turn lane), there is no reason 
they can’t just drive around in the OPEN lane. They just sit behind us. Finally we usually (very gently) motion them around us in the other lane. It’s like they say, Oh ok, guess I’ll just drive 

around. Hello..........

Our goal, this week is to be in Lexington by Friday. We have signed up to ride the Horsey 100 bike ride next Saturday/Sunday. It’s one of our fav organized bike rides. We get to ride through all of the most beautiful horse country. We shouldn’t have any trouble making it in time. Hopefully the rain will stop sometime. 

Is that a gravel road Hap? 

Nuthin better than climbing a steep hill in gravel 

We survived Catoosa Wildlife Area 

It’s even more fun when its wet gravel 

Hap negotiating the last switchback 

Friday, May 18, 2018. Fairfield Glade TN

We have been in Fairfield Glade for the last four days. I found a good deal on a condo here. We didn’t realize that this was a big golf/tennis resort. But we are glad that we took some time off to play some pickleball and Diane could do some swimming for her back. Speaking of backs.......Thanks to all who have been praying for my back while we are traveling. It feels better now than it has in a very long time. Who would have thought riding 700 + miles would do that. I really enjoyed getting in the pool here though. Swimming feels better than anything else.

I just want to back track to May 14, when we rode from Decatur TN to Fairfield Glade. We left the campground at Cottonport Marina and stopped at a store for some breakfast. It seemed more humid from the get go. The theme for the day was climb, sweat, climb, sweat. I only needed two gears today, UP and DOWN! For sure our hardest day of the trip.

My TWO gear day: UP and DOWN

It’s a Plateau!

We started out with sort of medium climbs, then we graduated to bigger climbs. For awhile in the early part of the day we were on some nice back roads, with not much traffic. Then we had no choice 

but to ride on State Route 27. There was some traffic but they all were patient. We stopped for lunch at Spring City at the American Grill. Both of us had hot dogs. Boy that was a bad choice! Not sure what we were thinking. 

After we left lunch, we realized we were in a river valley, and we needed to be on top of the plateau. That’s when the fun began! I can balance pretty good at 3mph. At least I haven’t fallen over yet. We had a little delimna for the day. We were going to Fairfield Glade, but we had some mail going to Crossville. Which was what I thought not too far from FG. So we had to take a longer detour to get to Crossville. And as it turned out Crossville was about 14 miles from FG. AND Crossville was on top of the plateau. And the post office was on the other side of town, down the busiest street on the busiest day (or at least it seemed that way). It took alittle doing but we made it (safely!) to the post office, picked up the mail, and I called an audible before we left town! I just want air conditioning, a cold drink, and a chair! The easiest place to get to was a Long John Silver. As we were pulling in I saw a Dairy Queen just across the street! Are you kidding me? But in order to get across the street we had to fight the traffic again. Not worth it. 

After the cooling off period, we headed out of town, using a side road. We have a little trick. When you are going through a town, instead of riding the main road, there usually is a street that runs parallel to it. We found it, BUT the road was a dead end. Then we discovered that there is one main highway to Fairfield Glade and everyone was on it. A two lane with no shoulder. After some serious searching we found that if we took a longer detour of seven miles or so, we could cut out part of the 

busy road. So off we went, wondering if anyone would at least appreciate us going out of our way, so 

they didn’t have to go around us. We ended up with only three miles on the busy road. Of course mostly up hill. So let’s recap, a long hot steamy hilly day, followed by a long detour, followed by a three mile uphill with cars on my back wheel. Needless to say we were very happy to see Wyndham Resorts where we were staying. 

We got to the resort, and thought the fun was over. But THEN...... we checked in, like normal, and the lady at the desk said, you need to see the concierge for parking passes. We don’t need parking passes. You don’t why not. We rode our bikes here. From Ohio? No from Florida, we are going to 

Ohio.......strange look from the desk person. We went to the concierge, who said what kind of car do you have, we said we don’t have a car. You don’t have a car? No we rode our bicycle. From Ohio?? No from Florida.............strange look........Then he started telling us about the new Wyndham Points system. We are using Wyndham points for part of this stay. What we didn’t understand though was this was a Wyndham RESORT. Not a hotel. There wasn’t any indication when I made the reservation that this was any different than a hotel. The guy asked if we would come to a presentation tomorrow about the new Wyndham points system. After some talking we agreed since we use their points all the time. He said it would be sixty minutes and we would get 15,000 points (a free nite stay) for coming. We said ok, and he asked for a $20 deposit for food. We were both very tired and just wanted him to stop talking so we agreed. Hap signed a form for the deposit and we left. 

We got to the room, which actually turned out to be a very nice condo unit. Then we looked at the paper we signed and it mentioned, TIME SHARES. Uh oh. We also noticed the guy had crossed out 60 minute presentation and wrote in 90 minutes. Somehow that just seemed wrong. The next morning we called and cancelled our presentation  reservation and got our $20 back. I did a search of Wyndham Time Shares (actually we think ALL time shares are bad), and saw some desturbing things. But we got our refund and have been enjoying the resort all week. 

The resort is actually a golf resort. There are all sorts of activities and restaurants. But mostly we just wanted to play some pickleball. I had contacted the pickleball ambassador and found out where to play. I also contacted someone on Facebook, who ended up picking us up and taking us back to Crossville to play one day. We weren’t about to ride that road again, not even for pickleball. The only catch for us was that the only grocery store was a mile down THAT road. We ended up riding 5 miles out of the way, to get there. While we were in the grocery, the skies opened up and it rained really hard. It was still pouring when we road back to the condo. 

We had several other times to play pickleball with some new friends. It was pretty funny because, the conversation would go something like this. Where are you from, Ohio. What brings you here, we are 

bicycling through the area. You bicycled? Yes. You bicycled from Ohio? No, from Florida? You rode to Florida? No we flew to Naples to watch the US OPen. You rode from Naples? No, we drove to Tallahassee and started there. How did you get your bikes there? Shipped them to Naples. A motorcycle? No a bicycle. A pedal bike? I think you’ve got it.  But the looks we get are funny too. There was a Racquet Club that had eight outside pickleball courts and a rec center that had three inside courts. We preferred outside, but it was expensive to play at the racquet club. 

We were supposed to leave the resort yesterday, but the weather report was terrible. 80% chance of rain at 10am. So we decided to spend another night here. We had a bonus though. Another day of pickleball, a haircut for Diane and a beard trim for Hap. Tomorrow we have Plan A and Plan B. It is supposed to be 80% chance of rain again. So Plan A is a hotel about 25 miles away. Plan B is a campground about 50 miles away. It’s been a crazy weather pattern this week. We have had heavy rain every afternoon, so we’ll hope for the best tomorrow. 

Picture of the “Snake Killer” from couple days ago 

Leaving Cottonport Campground 

Tennessee River 

Beautiful roads

Wyndham Resorts

Getting back from the grocery store in the rain 

Pickleball at the Rec Center 

Sunday, May 13, 2018. Decatur TN

Thursday, May 10, 2018.       Rome GA

Our plan for the next days was to spend most of our days “off” playing pickleball. After all we have carried all the extra stuff. Two paddles, two pickleballs, tennis shoes, extra pair of shorts and shirts each. Not sure where we would’ve found a spot for all these extra things if we were on the tandem. But on single bikes we have plenty of space. When we ride the tandem we have four panniers (bags) on the bike. On our single bikes we each have four bags. For a total of eight bags. Loads of space! The only problem is when you have all of this space you forget where you put things. On the tandem if there is a spot empty, you know you are missing something. 

Before we got to Rome, I contacted the Pickleball Ambassador for this area (North Georgia). Mark answered our message and told us where and when we could play pickleball. We showed up at the courts at 9am (does anyone realize how early I had to get up.......but its for pickleball!). We had about 16 people show up to play on the two courts. We had a great time. Everyone is so friendly. In fact we have found this to be the theme for riding in this part of the country. We made a lot of new friends. It took awhile to remember how to play. We sure do ride bikes better than play pickleball but we keep tryin! Not sure I mentioned that the theme name of this trip is “PICKLIN and PEDDLIN”. After we played several of us went to Schroeder’s for lunch. The owner Sam, is a Veteran and likes to honor all Vets, by taking their picture and putting it on the wall. Sam took Hap’s pic and hung it up. The restaurant has an airplane as a canopy over the front door. YES, a real plane. It was a really neat place to eat. The food was also excellent. Even though we just met these people we felt like a part of the family. It was awesome! 

After lunch, we rode back to the hotel. There sure is a lot of traffic in Rome, not stop fast moving traffic. It was alittle challenging to make our way back to the Days Inn. We stopped at the grocery store for dinner supplies, as well as the ATT store for a new cover for my phone. Hap was looking for a charger for his FLIP PHONE! They didn’t have one. One of these days he’s going to have to get with the new invention called IPhones! At the hotel, I got our laundry done. We had our first rain shower since we left home. I love looking OUT at the rainstorm, from INSIDE a dry room. 

The next morning we packed everything up and rode over to the courts. We had to change hotels because the Days Inn was booked. We about the same crowd to play pickleball with. The biggest difference today was the heat. Temps were in the mid 90’s and very humid. We played for several hours, and then went to Schroeder’s again for lunch. But this time, we went to the downtown location. The food was amazing again. We met so many nice people. What a great day! After lunch, Hap and I went back to the courts to do some drilling by ourselves. We sure do need it! While we were playing two women showed up and played on the other court. After awhile, they came over and asked a question about serving. So of course we started playing with them and hopefully helped some with the rules. Sandy and Marsha have been playing for awhile so I hoped they can use some of the stuff we said. After playing Sandy said, why don’t my husband and I take you to dinner? Didn’t expect that, but of course we said yes. She said they would pick us up at our hotel. Hap and I spent about five hours on the courts this day, so we were pretty pooped. But it sure is great to play again. 

We asked for directions, and they said just go out State Route 27 to the hotel. Route 27 was a four lane very busy road with no shoulders and no patience. We found a route using Google Maps that used side roads to the hotel. It was a longer route, but hopefully not as busy. Well, guess what everyone else also took the side roads. It was alittle crazy on our two lane no 

shoulder very busy highway. By the time we got to the hotel, we were very HOT, tired and frazzled. It must’ve shown when I checked in because the lady at the counter, gave us a bottle of water and two cans of pop for free. The shower sure did feel good. 

Sandy and Ray picked us up and took us to a Thai restaurant downtown. Rome sure is a bustling little town. Lots of people and traffic. Once again amazing food, and fun company. It took quite awhile to get our food so we had plenty of time to talk. After dinner we went for for frozen yogurt for dinner. Mmmm....goood!!! 

Saturday, May 12, 2018.     Rome, GA - Ringgold GA

We got an early start because the temps were going to be high again. We had to ride Rt 27 for a little while, but that early it was not as busy. We turned onto a low traffic back road that was even shaded for awhile. There weren’t any services so we stopped on a bridge to eat the sandwich I bought at the grocery store. While we were standing there a man came out of his house and started talking to us. He was carrying a knife with a knife sharpener. He said don’t worry about this knife, I’m just sharpening it. Mmmm ok we said. As we were standing there Hap saw a huge snake on the river bank below us. The guy yells that’s a copperhead and took off running to his house. He came running back with a gun. I think it was a 22 Rifle. Not sure though. When he walked toward the river bank the snake swam away. So the guy came up on the bridge and stood there talking, hoping the snake would come up for air. Sure enough after just alittle while, the snake popped his head out of the water. The guy said, I’ll never be able to hit him, this sight doesnt work and I don’t have my glasses. BLAM! He got it! The snake started spinning in the water. Have you ever seen a huge copperhead spin?? Me neither! Then it started moving under the bridge. The guy ran down the bank and disappeared under the bridge. A few minutes later, BLAM! I GOT HIM! HE”S DEAD NOW! He came back on the bridge and talked awhile longer before we left. Well that was exciting! 

After we left the bridge, the snake and the man with the gun, the road continued to be winding, narrow and rolly. We made a turn onto a State Highway, and immediately started a three mile, steepish climb. The climb wouldn’t have been bad except it was still very hot with no shade. the downhill part was super fun though! Our target for today was the Battlefield Campground near Ringgold GA. We were meeting Jeff and Peggy as they headed home from their six months in Florida. Just before Ringgold, the traffic really picked up. We were getting to the intersection with I-75. Lots of cars. Finally we turned off the busy road, just in time to climb UP to the campground. I kept thinking, its hot but no worries the campground has a POOL! We climbed all the way to the campground. We decided to sit by the pool until they got there. We showered and put on our suits anticipating a great swim. BUT THEN...........the water was freezing. No swimming for me! Jeff and Peggy showed up a short time later, and set up the RV for the night. It was really nice to be in the air conditioning. Thanks Jeff and Peggy. 

May 13, 2018.          Ringgold GA -  Decatur TN

We didn’t get a very early start. But no matter, it was really fun just spending time with my bro and Peggy. By the time we did start it was already pretty hot. We had to ride on a state highway 

for a short way. There was a lot of “church traffic”. Church traffic is when people are either rushing to church or rushing to the restaurant after church. They just seem to be in a hurry. We did our best to stay out of their way. Everyone was fairly patient though. Except for ONE. There’s always ONE! A guy pulled around us right in the front of another oncoming car. We both hit the brakes. But they missed. Not sure why he did that. He had plenty of space or he could’ve waited a nano second to go around. Ah well, we all made it. Thank you Lord! There was only one place to stop for snacks, lunch or water. There was a dollar store at one corner. I’m not sure who invented Dollar Stores, but they must’ve made a fortune. They are all over the place. I bought some drinks, and a package of turkey sandwich meet. We went across the street to a shaded picnic table for our “lunch”. It was nice just to have some shade!! After we ate we went back to the DS for more water and something green to go with our freeze dried meal for dinner. I got asparagus and peaches. We also decided to go alittle further today. Our original route was only another six miles. I called another campground and found us a “spot” another fifteen miles away. By the time we got to the Cottonport Campground, we were cooked. What a hot day! We found our campsite. It was for an RV, but the guy said there’s a grassy spot behind that stone/rock pad where the RV can park. Yes, it was grassy but it was also on the side of a hill. Oh well, at least we have a spot! We went to take a shower and that was also an adventure. Oh, I forgot, there are no bathrooms by our tent site, the bathrooms/shower house was on the other side of the campground. They are batting zero. The shower had no place to put my stuff and when I laid it on the floor, the shower water was flowing towards it. Good thing I noticed it before! The shower had one speed, HOT HOT. Maybe my expectations are just to high. At a campground all I expect is a level site, a good shower, a bench in the shower, a picnic table, electric to plug in our phones, and maybe good wifi (although that’s a bonus). I hate it when a place advertisers these things and then doesn’t deliver. That’s enough of that. The important thing is we had a good meal, we have a safe place to stay, we both are feeling good and now we are headed to our nice clean bed! Good night! 

Hap playing pickleball 

Our new friends at Schroeder’s 

Sam and Hap the Vets 

Schroeder’s entrance 

I like looking at rain from the inside 

On the courts 

Our new pickleball family 

Stop taking my picture! 

Great roads leaving Rome 

Lunch on bridge BEFORE the snake death 

Outside the Dollar Store 

Jeff and Peggy’s rig

That water is way too cold