I woke up with Dad yesterday morning, and we went to the continental breakfast downstairs. We got to spend another 3 hours together that morning. We bypassed the Nashville traffic by taking my bike and his car to one of the people he works with. While he was talking to them, I went and did some maintenance on my bike. I have been riding without front breaks for about 1000 miles. I decided to fix those for when it started to get mountainy again.
He took me down to Lebanon, TN and we went to McDonald's for some coffee and another bite to eat before I left. It was really good seeing him. Can't wait to see Mom either in a weekish.
So I left from some run-down old bar's parking lot. It was a 67 mile ride to Marianne's house in Cookeville. What a great ride. First, I did it in about 5 hours, so I finished WAY ahead of when I planned to be there. Second, it was so pretty. It was certainly one of my favorite days of riding. I was biking through these really small mountains with awesome views the entire way. I had lunch on a closed bridge over a beautiful little river with mountains surrounding me on every side. I saw a ton of cliffs, a bunch of dear. It was just a great ride. Not too hot, and pretty fast.
I got to Cookeville, and I didn't really remember how to get to Marianne's house. She met me at a local ice cream place, (which was super good, waffle cone, yah.) and we went and saw the trains in the middle of the square. It is apparently the only touristy thing to do in Cookeville, so now that it is off the list, I am going to consider myself a local.
We raced back to Marianne's house, she in her car and me on my bike. I would have won, but she swerved over the double yellow line and got right in front of me at a red light. That is called cheating if you are curious. Play by the rules.
I hung out at Marianne's for a while, and then her mom made such a good dinner. Barbecue chicken, veggies, rolls, fruit, and this unreal chocolate pie with ice cream. I thought my brain was giong to explode it was so rich. A homemade meal is a beautiful thing.
We went to Walmart so I could restock on a couple of things, then headed over to Poet's Coffee, the local coffee place. I got a Diablo, which is a coffee with steamed chocolate milk. Really great. Marianne and I played banana grams for an hour. All of a sudden, I feel these hands over my eyes. They were girls hands certainly. I was more than slightly confused. I turned around, and there was dang KELSEY MOODY. It was awesome. She had been texting Marianne the entire game of banana grams,(which is upsetting, because I thought I was playing well against her, but really she was just delaying to keep me there for Kelsey. Which means I actually suck at that game. Dang it)But she was in Knoxville and came to visit for the night. What a great surprise. It doesn't help that I was beyond tired, and felt like a zombie. But it was great to see them both.
We got back to the house, and I fell asleep on top of the covers on my bed. I woke up the same way. So I was pretty passed out. They are still asleep, so I should go wake them up.
What a great surprise.
509 miles from the coast. I am getting pretty close.
Just saw about your trip on Clemson site. Awesome and inspiring to say the least. That too on a bike is just too damn awesome. Somehow all endurance trips have a lot in common isn't it, be it bike trip across US, South America or life.. Wanted to greet you when you get here, but sadly am leaving this weekend for a conference so won't be here on Monday.. Want to catch up after you get back, badly want to know how the experience was and what you have learned. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for inspiring all of us,
Sumod