Nick and Dale's Great Adventure: Tennessee Edition

 

Franklin was a only few miles from the Tennessee border. 

Although the state changed the scenery was similar as we made our way towards Cookeville, TN.   Back roads and fields were the course of the day with a few hills.

  Along the way,  the road was carved through limestone, including driveways with majestic rock entrances.  I was thinking they could have carved a little deeper and longer so the pitch of the hill was a little better.  No matter, the road was pretty decent.  During our adventure, you pass all sorts of memorials, like the one on Kirbytown Road remembering those who contributed in the 1940's.  There seemed to be water along the way and it turned out to be the Cumberland River.  

The next stop was Oak Ridge, TN.  Oak Ridge is the home of the Manhattan Project and the Atomic Bomb.  After 90 miles the previous day, getting there would once again mean hills.   The road names tell it all, Buck Mountain Road and then Brotherton Mountain Road.  By this point, Dale and I wonder what drivers are doing behind us.  Over the course of the trip, some would pass by gunning the throttle and depending on the modification, leave us half deaf and gasping for air amidst the exhaust.  Some would toot the horn, either after "sneaking up" up on us, while passing us or after they passed.  A majority would just cruise on by, giving us space and keeping things safe.   Finally, there were those who decided to creep along behind us.  I really don't like that so, I stop in the grass.  On this occasion, Dale was close and couldn't unclip fast enough leading to a fall. He was quick off the bike and needed a bit of first aid on a skinned knee.  I'd like to say the view at the top was awesome.  I was nice.

On the downhill side, we came into Monterey, TN which could have been on Route 66 somewhere.  Storefronts on main street with a water tower somewhere near.   The town was well kept but many of the storefronts seemed vacant.  Monterey is also home to the Standing Stone.  The stone was moved to town at some point because there is a marker at the original location of the stone.  We continued along the way passing interesting lawn art like the Giant Chicken.

Leaving Oak Ridge took us on a bit of an adventure.  I may have mentioned previously that Google maps tends to use bike paths, routes, greenbelts and such when navigating in bicycle mode.  Sometimes, the routes are very helpful in keeping us off of roads.   After a bit of difficulty figuring out what Google actually meant, we found the greenway that took us by Melton Lake and kept us out of traffic.  Oak Ridge took us near Knoxville on our way to  just east of Morristown.  This was the day we got a few glimpses of home, the mountains in front of us and signs for Interstate 81. 

  We arrived in the neighborhood of the hotel only to find that the power was out.  Nothing was open and the hotel couldn't check us in, so we would wait for nearly an hour to get into our room.

The next day, our journey would parallel then cross under I-81 as we headed toward Johnson City, the last overnight stop in Tennessee.  The roads were decent and we passed fields, creepy houses and other things.  Of interest, we found a marker for Davy Crockett's birthplace. 

 We were also running parallel to the mountains which, looked a bit daunting.  On our way, I noticed that Dale's rear rim had a bit of a hiccup.  Fortunately, the Trek Store in Johnson City was right in front of us as we got into town.  The rim was cracked and Dale ended up buying a new, more aerodynamic rim (choices were limited to one!).  We ate well at the White Duck Taco Shop which was next door to Yee Haw Brewing, double win!