Day 16 - April 27 - Ripley, TN to Reelfoot Lake State Park, TN - Crossing the T.....Part One

Day 16 - April 27 - Ripley, TN to Reelfoot Lake State Park, TN

God Is My Co-Pilot

John’s Story

I looked outside at midnight last night. It was raining. This morning was overcast and humid.

We went to the local diner for breakfast. It was full of tables of old goobers like us. As we left we fell into conversation with a few of them. One had a Gideons International shirt on. I asked if they were having a Saturday morning Bible study at the diner. Yes. He tried to give me stack of books to take with me for further distribution. I politely declined. As we left I heard him say, I think I’ll follow you for a while.

We hit the road, and next thing you know we were being followed by a black pickup with its flashers on. It followed us for 9 miles. I wondered, is he following us out of curiosity, does he think we need protection, is he waiting for us to make a wrong turn (how would he know?), is he stalking us? As we approached the next town the truck sped past us. When we got to town we found the truck waiting.

The pickup that followed us for 9 miles speeding past Ed as we approached Gates.

I approached and sure enough it was the Gideon guy. I asked why he followed us. To protect us, he said. Then he tried to give me $20 that we could use to buy lunch. He was so insistent. He lured me to follow him to the bank where he could change a $100 bill. The bank was closed. Finally he gave up trying to give me money, and instead I accepted one of the books. We finally said goodbye, and left to drive back home to Ripley.

Haywood, aka Gideon Man. For his concern for us and his attempt to finance our lunch, he is granted today’s Road Angel award.

I didn’t want to carry the book for the next 2 weeks, so at the Bogota, TN post office I mailed it to my daughter in Joplin for my grandkids. It’s a book of 365 nighttime Bible stories for children.

I went into the post office with the book and asked how I could get it mailed. The guy behind the desk found a box, provided clear tape to seal it, and gave me a marker to address it. At our local Oklahoma City post office there are signs informing us that if we need packaging or tape, we need to buy them. Another example of small town hospitality, even from Uncle Sam.

At the C-store at Fowlkes we met a motorcyclist on his way to the Tunica , MS casinos for some special motorcycles, crawfish and crab festival. According to him anyway. We could find anything like that online, but a similar event for Camaros, Corvettes and Other Cool Cars. Hopefully when they get there they are well received a riot doesn’t break out 😂

He was meeting another biker in Fowlkes, and as they headed south they would pick up more riders in other town until they were 75 strong at Tunica. I envision a river of bikers getting wider as it flows south.

These bikers were headed in the wrong direction. No crawfish for them.

We were riding a section of highway with nice shoulders when we came upon several long bridges with no shoulders at all. White pickup pulled up behind me, put his flashers on, followed us to the end of the bridges, then went on its way. A special Anonymous Guardian Road Angel commendation is hereby awarded.

Bug Juice comes in many flavors apparently.

Just north of Ridgely I saw a bald eagle being harassed by a few tiny birds. Reelfoot Lake is a mecca for eagle watchers.

Rain falling from the clouds above us but not hitting the ground. An omen of things to come on Monday.

We are about 1-2 miles from our campground. There will be no cell service there. We stopped at a fishing camp for info and discovered we could have a beer and use their wireless.

Lucky for us the fishing camp’s permit trumps the very recent alcohol ban in all Tennessee wildlife management areas.

Giant cypresses at the Blue Basin Cove Lodge, guarded by a large vicious dog in the foreground.

More adventures tomorrow.

Ed’s Story

Another good nights sleep in a motel bed. Ended up having breakfast at Emilee’s restaurant for pancakes and hashbrowns and coffee.

Saturday must be the good old boys morning there. Most of the tables were filled with men eating and shooting the breeze. There were more pickups in the parking lot than you could shake a stick at.

There were actually more than in the picture.

Our ride paralleled US 51 allowing us to pass through towns called Gates, Halls, and Fowlkes.

John talked about Haywood. I heard from some of the other gentlemen at the restaurant that he was a pharmacist who owned, then sold his pharmacy. They said he made a lot of money on the sale and was generous to everyone.

We stopped in Dyersburg for a break before hitting the road again. We bypassed the town on US 51 which saved a little time.

We rode north with a strong tailwind getting us an overall average of over 13 mph.

We didn’t see or hear any trains on today’s ride so I don’t know if the bridge or the rail line is still in service.

Lunch in Ridgely, north to Tiptonville, then northeast to the Reelfoot Lake Airpark. We stopped at the Blue Basin Cove Lodge for a beer and to use their wifi since most likely no signal at the camp.

The proprietor was gracious enough to let me use her phone to call home since the Verizon signal here is pitiful.

Our ride:

Tomorrow we head to Charleston MO where we may spend 2 nights due to impending storms on Monday. We will see.

Today's ride: 62 miles (100 km)
Total: 806 miles (1,297 km)

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