Only 80 miles planned for today was a welcome change from yesterday’s 123 mile day (it was supposed to only be 90). When we have a short day, it takes the pressure off to leave at the crack of dawn, so today we left by 9:00. Shortly out of town Dad gave me a scare. We were cruising right along when a German Shepherd jumped off his front porch and decided to chase us. Dad was lagging a bit behind so the dog didn’t pay me much mind, but Dad needed his new horn to stop the dog dead in his tracks. I turned back around and continued down the hill. I checked to see if Dad was catching up, but he wasn’t there and he didn’t come and didn’t come. I had waited long enough and decided to turn around. I stood on my pedals hard and got back just in time to see Dad on the side of the road talking on the phone. THANKS A LOT DAD!
The roads were quiet and supper last night was excellent fuel for the fire this morning. With a slight tailwind and, according to Dad, a slight downhill we averaged between 21 and 23 for about 45 minutes with only an average amount of energy spent. After a quick stop for ice in our Camelbaks and a candybar, the hills began. Up and down for pretty much the rest of the day. We followed the lazy Yellow Creek (this is pronounced like chick except replacing the “h” with and “r”) and about 15 miles later it opened up into the backwaters of a dam.
The Tennessee Valley Authority (started by FDR in the 30s) built a series of dams, which has allowed them to use the power from the water. Dad says that it is probably the only lingering successful program from FDR’s presidency. As we followed through a tiny town we came across this odd looking stone structure.
Come to find out it is a furnace, and one of the originals at that. It was pretty neat so we took a picture. This area must have iron ore because later in the day we got a picture in front of this one closer to our camp. The girls drove past us as I was taking the first picture so they pulled over and we had lunch together. After lunch we past through the last town of Dover, TN and had an ice cream (not at Dairy Queen, it hardly tastes the same). A nice long hill took us out of town and we turned off for the final 25 miles of this day. Many steep hills at the beginning but toward the end they were less steep but closer together (pick your poison). Just before reaching our campground, we crossed into the fifth state of the trip, Kentucky.
We pulled into our very nice campground (as you can see in the picture is a campground for people with horses) and had to walk the last final distance because our bikes could spook the horses. Wimpy horses.
After a short nap, shower, and arrangement of the trailer we went to supper. We walked down to the park’s restaurant, made a quick look at the menu and Dad began to order. The boy took and the girl, who had to cook all the food, listened. Her jaw hit the floor as Dad listed off all the food that he was going to have. She probably thought he was ordering for the entire family. Before she fainted with shock Abby told her that we had just biked 80 miles and needed to replace the 4-5,000 calories that we had burned. She began laughing and cooked us up a very nice meal. It will come in handy on the ride tomorrow morning!
No comments:
Post a Comment