Erin Sanders at Taco Bell. She's going back to school to become a registered nurse.
Erin Sanders at Taco Bell. She's going back to school to become a registered nurse.
Shot-up school crossing sign near Murfreesboro, TN.
Neville and Barbara at the end of the trip in Murfreesboro, TN.
Last Modified on 5/13/98 at 3:31:13
Day's Narrative: I replaced the bad tire this morning. It appears that the threads in the sidewall had separated or broken, which caused the lumps on the tire. Then I mounted up to ride off to breakfast, and discovered that the front tire was flat. Oh well, get off and change it. That was the only flat tire any of us had the entire trip. Since Neville and Barbara and Connie and I were staying at opposite ends of the town we arranged to meet at the Taco Bell on highway 412. I didn't find out until the next morning, but that was only about 1/2 mile from our motel. So I got to the Taco Bell (which was closed) over 30 minutes early. While waiting there I met Erin Sanders (photo), who was getting the restaurant ready to open. Erin plans to got back to school soon at the local community college to become a registered nurse. This was a delightful day for bicycling. There was bright sun, about a 20 mph tail wind, and cool temperatures. It was a fast, low traffic, 50 mile ride to Murfreesboro. We arrived about 2:30. As we neared the town I noticed a shot-up school crossing sign. Most of the time the shot-up signs are of cattle or deer. This is the first one I have seen where the sign was of school children. Sometimes these bicycle rides can get a little scary. We wanted to take one last photo of the three of us in Murfreesboro at the end of the ride, but there wasn't anyone around to take the picture for us, so I decided to just take a picture of Neville and Barbara to record the momentous event. We found a great place for the picture next to a sign advertising hunting licenses for endangered, I mean, migratory birds. Tomorrow Connie and I will drive to Munfordville, KY to spend the weekend with family where I grew up and on Sunday Neville and Barbara will fly back to Seattle. We only had about 2 hours of rainy riding during the trip and only a couple of hours of wind other than tailwinds. That was really incredible luck. Thank goodness we decided to ride from south to north! The lunch we had in St. James Parish that Sunday while riding along the levee between New Orleans and Baton Rouge really a unique experience. I glad we didn't miss that! Meeting and talking to Park Ranger Eric Chamberlain at Mount Locust the first day on the Trace was very interesting. Being able to hear such a personal account about the history of the Inn was really unusual for us and made a real impression. I will always remember the great smoked barbecue in Port Gibson, and the swamps along the Trace were very impressive. We spent a great hour and a half in Tupelo talking with Barbara Fleischhacker-Morgan and her mother. It was a real insight into being Jewish in the South. I'm sure that Barbara and Neville will never forget getting up at 4 a.m. in Waynesboro, TN with the wind and rain howling outside to wait-out a tornado alert. Bob van Arsdall from Chapel Hill, NC sent us this about those green bug catcher bottles in the fields we passed. "Those bug collectors are part of a semi-new thing called 'integrated pest management'. Rather than just spray heavy chemicals whenever a suspicious bug is sighted, one sits those collectors out and can then sample the population of bugs as they get to a field. This allows farmers to selectively use pesticides when the infestation reaches a specific density or threshold." Here are a couple of the more interesting signs we saw: "If you don't like the way I run this business, please note the mistletoe hanging on my coattails." -- Murfreesboro, TN "I can only please one person a day, and today ain't your day! (Tomorrow ain't looking too good either.)" -- Williamsport, TN. Connie was really a jewel, keeping us supplied with cokes, water, bananas and other food. She really worked hard to make this a successful bicycle trip. A sag wagon is often perceived very much like the fire department. You don't really appreciate it being there until you have a fire. This trip we never really had any big problems that required a sag wagon. We were very fortunate. Lessons Learned The loss of our second cell phone the first day out was a real handicap. It forced us to be much more precise about where we were, and where we were going, and it took us several days of floundering around in the afternoons wondering where Connie was and how we could connect up, before we realized how to deal with it. The B&Bs all required three days notice (yes, THREE) to cancel a reservation without paying for the room. We worked around this by not reserving a room until the night before. That meant we could always be sure of arriving the next evening. Worst case, we could be picked up by Connie and driven to the B&B to avoid losing the deposit. We only had problems getting a motel room on Saturday night as expected from our previous trip last summer. We anticipated this and reserved a room on Friday night. However even doing this, we were forced to take a second floor room one Saturday night. Several areas on the Trace had no cell phone signal. Connie tried a couple of times to reach us by calling the cell phone I was carrying, and was unable to get through. Finding a place to buy lunch while riding on the Trace can be a real challenge -- even when you have a sag wagon, as we did. After the first couple of days we always carried our lunch with us. Finding a place to sleep can also be a challenge. I recommend that Natchez Trace bicycling book. All in all, It was really a great ride! © Ray & Connie Poore, 1998
Ride Statistics and Memorable Events
We were riding for 11 days and covered about 737 miles. That's 67 miles (107.8 km per day) per riding day. At that pace one can really enjoy the scenery and have some time to do some other things in the evening.Return