A lesson gets applied

August 17, 2016

We enjoyed meeting Noel's better half Sheri this morning at breakfast at the Fall Hollow campground. Actually we had bumped into her yesterday in Leipers Fork - this area of Tennessee is like a small town where everyone knows everyone. Jeanna believes that the ability to distinguish truly excellent biscuits from merely good biscuits is part of her southern heritage. Even though Noel is from Wisconsin, Jeanna had to admit that his biscuits were excellent, better than the famous Loveless cafe biscuits.

A bridge on the Natchez Trace was closed for repairs, so we started off with a detour on some smaller side roads. After about 10 miles the detour paid big dividends when we chanced upon Yoder's Homestead Market. They had fresh baked bread and cookies, and Viktoriya and Kerry spent 20 minutes shopping before they emerged with handfuls of goodies. Only then did they stop to figure out how we would carry all that stuff.

We were not the only cyclists shopping for goodies at Yoder's.

Of course we can find room in the panniers for these goodies...

We got off the detour and back on the trace at the Meriwether Lewis memorial. Even if you don't recognize his name, there's a good chance you recognize"Lewis and Clark", leaders of an expedition to explore the Louisiana purchase and Pacific Northwest. After the 2 year journey, president Jefferson appointed Lewis governor of the Louisiana territory in St Louis. Lewis died while traveling back to Washington DC along the Natchez Trace. There seems to be some doubt as to wether he was murdered or committed suicide.

Meriwether Lewis memorial on the Natchez Trace. The broken column represents a life cut short.

The trace was full of evidence of abundant rain this summer. Maintenance crews were out cutting green grass that is normally brown in August, mushrooms were thriving, streams were babbling.

Mushroom near an open pit iron mine. Does the iron account for the color?

These guys are everywhere in Kentucky and Tennessee.

Could there possibly be more rain in the forecast? Yes there could and our luck in dodging rain finally ran out. We got caught about 3 miles before Collinsville. We hid under a tree for a while hoping the rain would pass before we resigned ourselves to a good soaking. It's a good thing we learned a lesson yesterday about keeping a positive attitude during a downpour.

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