Day 8 – The Three State Climb

We said goodbye to our home for three days with butterflies in my stomach. We were facing 3 significant descents today and it makes me nervous flying down the hills on 23mm of rubber and needing to call upon 4, 2 inch brake pads to bring me to a screeching halt whenever I ask them to. This is not my idea of fun and we have three of them. We did make it to the bottom and the old saying was never more true, which says, “what comes down must . . ..” Well, you get the picture! We had a long climb to the top and then were off to the AL border.

We had been in AL no longer than 2 minutes and the dogs started to come out from seemingly every house. We did not waste any pepper spray though because those bikers that we talked to on Saturday told us about another trick, an air horn that boats have. This is amazingly effective! The high pitch horn stops them dead in their tracks. Not too much later we crossed into TN and the dogs kept coming.


Another quick descent and we were on the Tennessee River and after crossing it we stopped in Dixie Dairy and got one of the best shakes that we had ever gotten. We were going to need it.

This is the bridge crossing the Tennessee River!

The locals looked at us like we are crazy wherever we go, but this time they looked at us like a parent looks at their child when they give them a lemon for the first time. When we told them the direction that we were headed and the road we were taking their faces got all tensed up and they seemed to want to laugh at us for the torture (and for possibly being completely stupid) we were about to put ourselves through. Well, we both realized why. The hill on Saturday out of Menlo, GA seemed like the bunny hill where beginners learn to ski and we had now graduated to the black diamond. This was a climb that would make those in the Tour de France proud. It went on for three miles and was about a 12-15% grade. Good thing it was morning and we had just gotten a shot of sugar in our systems. We did eventually make it to the top and took a much needed rest. We rode through Franklin Marian State Forest (a wilderness road with little traffic) and then came to the University of the South. This signaled the final descent of the day. The wind had picked up much more in the afternoon and so, THANK THE LORD, I did not need to use my brakes too much on the way down. We turned a corner at the bottom, to avoid riding on a very busy road, and saw a cross at the top of this hill.

The rest of the ride was pretty uneventful but rather difficult because of the headwind that had joined us. We made it through Winchester, TN and made the rest of the 7 miles to Tims Ford State Park in good time.

As we came in the campground we came across this street sign that both Dad and I got a good laugh out of! We both thought that the hill should be pointing in up since we love short downhills and wish to be warned about the torturous uphills.

A quick shower and change and we were off to Shoneys for supper. It was nice. Afterwards, the Best Western Inn very kindly allowed us to sit in their lobby and use their wireless internet. I am sure this will not be the last time we use the lobby of a hotel for internet this trip!