A Cycle Tourist Is Nothing Without His Bike

April 24, 2015

Dyersburg, Tennessee

It was a fairly uneventful day. Surely, that is not the kind of sentence you've come to expect from me--I hope. Usually I'm able to find a way to turn a perfectly fine "nothing" day into some kind of absurdly stupid blog post. I guess I'm just not feeling it today.

Perhaps that's because there is nothing absurdly stupid about riding all morning under the specter of rain and possible severe storms. The sky was cloudy and dark and it was never a question of IF the rain would come, but WHEN the rain would come. Forty miles into today's ride I noticed the oncoming cars had their headlights on. Not a good sign. I came to a rest area and thought I'd take a break and see what would happen. Nothing happened. So I got back on my bike and continued north on U.S. Highway 53 which, according to some road signs, is called "The Purple Heart Highway." I have a nephew who earned a Purple Heart and sadly died in the Iraq War, so I rode the highway with somber respect.

No more than a mile past the rest area, the rain suddenly blasted down in a fury. By the time I got my rain jacket on I was soaked and, unlike the rains I experienced in Louisiana and Mississippi, this was a cold rain. I kept going anyway because, really, what else could I do? My fingers were soon very cold and my gloves were buried deep in my panniers. I'm not complaining though. I try to be mentally prepared for anything that comes my way. If I survive it, it becomes a great memory. I survived this rain and so did my bike. Now all we have to do is wait for that great memory to unfold.

Which reminds me that I haven't really given my bike its due respect. For this trip I had been referring to my bike as "=" because I think of us as equal partners in this endeavor. I couldn't do it without = and = couldn't do it without me. I pedal and = delivers.

To finish up this uneventful day, I'll provide a some filler in the form of a couple of highly entertaining photos.

I sure hope I don't get the shaft here in Tipton County. Heh, heh. Get it? "Shaft?" Isaac Hayes? Theme song for the movie? Okay, bad joke, but I did try to warn you about that on the Four Friendly Caveats page.

I am one of those rare bike riders who is indifferent toward ice cream, but here is a photo for the rest of you. Frozen goodies galore!

An armadillo keeping up the winning tradition.

Today's ride: 66 miles (106 km)
Total: 639 miles (1,028 km)

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