Fly, TN to Collinwood, TN:

October 27, 2014

Tracked down by Natcheztracetravel.com

Our first three miles we retraced yesterday's ride along the creek and up the hill to return to the Parkway. The weather for the day was even better than yesterday with temperatures reaching 88 late in the afternoon.

I was still so delighted with the new tandem that combined with the beautiful scenery I kept taking what I considered to be well composed landscape pictures featuring the new tandem. Rhona was pretty tolerant of this passing fancy and it served to take my mind off the frustrating mechanical glitches. The computer was no longer working which was a particular problem since it was positioned right in front of my face constantly reminding me of that particular gremlin.

The map showed a loop off of the Parkway along the original Trace which also included a tobacco farm exhibit. Our decision to take the loop didn't seem like a great idea when it turned to dirt with embedded cobblestones. It was a good chance to see how the new tandem stood to the shake, rattle and roll test.

Tobacco leaves were hanging inside the barn. For some reason tobacco which smells disagreeable to me usually smells good when hanging in a barn.

Rhona wandered away into the tobacco field. Not quite Kevin Costner's "Field of Dreams".

An historical location I was looking forward to is the site of Meriwether Lewis' death and burial. At the time of his death he was the Louisiana Territorial Governor traveling back to Washington D.C. on the Trace.

Meriwether Lewis was overnighting in the Grinder Stand (common name for an Inn on the Trace) when he died. He died from two gunshot wounds but the official conclusion was he committed suicide. The Grinder's were not wealthy but shortly afterward were able to move from the area and purchase a great deal of land. Conspiracy theorists believed the Grinders were paid by Lewis' political opponents to kill him.

The monument at the Meriwether Lewis' burial site appeared to be missing the top of the column.

At the Meriwether Lewis site was a compass exhibit pointing the direction and mileage to places that Lewis visited during his brief life.

While sitting having lunch at the exhibit we heard a car drive up and a man call out, "are you Dave and Rhona Fritsch"? I was initially alarmed because I didn't think anybody knew us out here on the Trace and then delighted to learn we were speaking to Randy Fought from Natcheztracetravel.com, the guy who designed our itinerary and booked our accomodations.

Randy said he drove down the Trace today to take pictures of the fall foliage and decided to check on us. It wasn't too hard to find the people on a loaded tandem. His timing was great because I had planned to phone him this evening to to modify our stops for the last two days of our tour. He promised to check on making the changes and would call us that evening.

Randy told us NatchezTracetravel.com was sponsoring their third annual fall foliage contest and he was out checking on the colors. He pulled off down the road and waited for us to come by to snap our picture.

Rhona was disappointed that we didn't notice the announcement of the contest previously because already we had gone far enough south to leave the most brilliant colors behind us.

Because of stopping to see the sites and tinker with the bicycle it was almost sundown when we arrived at Miss Monetta's Country Cottage in Collinwood, TN. Our hostess Dianne Butler had just answered a phone call from Randy checking to make sure we arrived safely. Our accommodation was not a B&B but Dianne was a lively conversationalist who quickly told us a lot about the area. I walked to a convenience store to buy a sandwich and on my way back a local contractor insisted on giving me a ride back to the cottage. He told me Dianne gave him his first haircut as a child and cut his hair until he was old enough for a barber. He agreed she was a "high energy" personality. It was a good day on the Trace!

Today's ride: 66 miles (106 km)
Total: 96 miles (154 km)

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