Day total 90
Trip total 1443
Today is our anniversary. Did I foreshadow this trip when I wrote my wedding vows? Stating publicly that I fell in love with Nik when we were riding bikes together? Maybe I am giving myself to much credit. But two years later here we are riding our bikes together cross country. Nik bought me a new kick stand today for our anniversary and because my old one had basically rusted away and was no longer able to support weight, and my.bikes got some weight right now.
In Tennesse we did the first real repairs on our bikes. A lot of people ask if we got new bikes for this trip. We did not. We are using the same bikes we have had for a few years. The plan is to wear them out on this trip. I got a new chain and nik had to get new detailer, chain and gears. Interesting to observe the various bike shop cultures. The shop we patronize in Nashville was what nik refers to as a welfare program for otherwise unemployable hipsters. That is to say the staff has really interesting facial hair and tattoos but lacks any sort of customer service competence. In Clarksville an unassuming bike shop called Bike Center were the owner, Sam (former pilot) and employee Dom were incredibly accommodating, spent a great deal of time on our bikes and only charged us for parts. Also while we were at the shop a women from the neighborhood invited us to her place to swim in her pool. You can imagine how great that felt in the middle of a day of biking in 90 Temps.
The generosity of strangers has been a reoccurring theme through this trip. It is not possible to capture how many people have helped us out in some way or another. A warm shower host, Bret, gave us some advice before we left on this trip "let people help you." We have been doing just that pretty much saying YES to everything and everyone and we have been rewarded.
The last few miles getting to our campsite at Land Between the Lakes (large area of land between the Cumberland and the Tennessee river in Tennessee and Kentucky), was all gravel. Gravel roads have been the most challenging part of this trip for me, more than steep hills and long miles it is the gravel that breaks me, and at the end of a 90 mile day it was as my students say "forcing it."
We finally come to the end of the gravel (with only a small temper tantrum on my part) and what do we see it the lake in front of us. Well a couple of female models posing for some sort of semi errotic shot (the purpose of which never did become clear). Anyway I politely excused myself to the most naked models and went for a swim in the lake while trying not to disrupt their shoot to much. The water was warm, the sky was majestic and yes the girls were hot I will be the first to admit it.
The photographer, Johnny, also offered to take our photos (so if you see any high quality pics on this blog they are probably his). He also invited us over to their grill for left over hotdogs and chips. Following our the mantra that has kept this trip if nothing else interesting, we said yes. Quite a fascinating evening followed with a unique cast of characters.
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