Final morning and long trip home

Epilogue Day 8   May 10,  2014       Driving Nashville to Atlanta

At our final breakfast, Paul Wood is wearing some of his gifts. Bob Long is admiring those lips.

It was bittersweet saying goodbye to everyone at breakfast. Great group. The same five of us who had driven in the van from Atlanta to Natchez back on Day 0 headed out early to drive back to Atlanta. I stayed again with Helen and Peter Falco for the night, and we went out to a super Italian restaurant for dinner.

When I posted my blog on our final day, I did so before the evening really got underway and before our late fancy dinner.

Here's the happening scene down on Broadway, where I visited a few honky tonks and enjoyed the music. Before going into the bars, I went a couple blocks farther to see their new Music City Center that was still under construction when Janet and I were here in 2012.

It is so huge, taking up several city blocks.

One of the streets actually goes right under it.

I also got this photo of the "Batman" building.

This is the group playing at my first honky tonk, a place Janet and I had liked. At some point, Paul and I texted to learn where everyone was, and I decided to join the rest of the group at a honky tonk almost directly across the street.

Lonnie and Lorraine (the tandem team) are off to the left there as we watched in Standing Room Only. Pretty soon, someone said we should go try another bar, so we all strolled out and went to Tillie's:

Here are quite a few of us enjoying the honky tonk music at Tillie's: Left to right in front are Susan Long, Paul, Lorraine and Lonnie, then Nate is behind, and behind him I see Ken and Bob Long.

Eventually it was time to walk the mile or so to our restaurant. I'm sure glad I was in Paul's group or I would have gotten lost. Over hill, over dale, cross the tracks, and we finally got there. It was a fine evening in our own little room off to the rear of the restaurant.

Not a great photo, but I wanted at least one of our final celebratory dinner. The chef would describe choices to us in delicious detail, and we had several incredible courses. With full bellies, some of walked all the way back to the hotel, using up a few of those calories. What a fun evening it was from beginning to end.

And what a fun bike tour it was from beginning to end also. I hope to do another with Paul Wood soon.

On Sunday, I said goodbye to Helen and Peter Falco and drove home without stopping except once for gas. I was so glad to see Janet again.

Look what was waiting for me when I got home! Janet had gotten me a trophy celebrating my accomplishment. Here it is up close:

What a nice way to finish a big ride. Thank you Janet.

Completed the Trace!

Day 7    Franklin to Nashville, TN    32 miles.    576 total miles for past 8 days

The highlight of today's short ride was this double-arch bridge, at Mile Marker 438. It's an icon for the Trace Parkway, completed in 1995 and winner of that year's Presidential Award for Design Excellence. If you look up close, you can see some of our group riding on it.

Today's planned route changed several times this morning due to the weather. The previous prediction was for afternoon storms, but rain began at 8:30. What we finally did was unload the van at Mile Marker 440, and we rode south. Right off the bat we got to the famous bridge. If you are ON the bridge, here's what you see looking west:

You can see how high over the valley we were! But you cannot marvel at the beauty of the archway unless you depart the Parkway and take a short walkway off to the side. That's what I did to get the top photo and this next one below.

This is merely a 2nd photo after the top one where I zoomed in so you can see our riders a little better.

In the rain, we continued south to where we ended yesterday, at Mile 429. Some riders stopped there. Others turned around and rode back so they could reach the very very end, presumably at Mile 444 (the advertised total length). Two of us, Myron and I, continued just three miles farther south to return to an historical turnout we'd skipped the day before -- A War of 1812 Memorial.

The inscription is dedicated to the U.S. soldiers who died in that war, and who were buried in unmarked graves along the Trace. It also noted that soldiers marched to battles on the Trace. This war was fought during the heyday of the Trace being an active transportation route (greatest from 1780 to 1830). Just to prove I didn't steal the above photo from the Internet, here's a selfie! hahaha

You can see my fogged-up glasses, and my little cap to shield my glasses from the rain.

I turned back north and rode to the end of the Trace Parkway. But you know what? After every single reference saying it was 444 miles long, it ended at Mile Marker 442. I WAS planning to get a photo of me at Marker 444, but suddenly I didn't want a photo at 442. I was so puzzled, I did an Internet search and here is something I found: "But I came upon a shocking revelation: The parkway is only actually 442 miles long, with the final marker at the exit of the Trace near downtown Nashville, proof that my brochure is full of government sponsored lies. It's a parkway conspiracy!"

Well, at least that helps to answer this puzzle. The map of the Parkway has a continuous dotted line showing where the original Trace was, and once it gets close to Nashville, it goes directly there. Whereas, the Parkway diverts a bit westward and ends about 20 miles to the southwest of downtown.

The very famous Loveless Cafe is what was actually at the end of the Parkway. That's where we ate lunch. It's so popular, we had to wait 45 min for our tables. I took a nap on the rocking chairs outside (it had stopped raining). Janet and ate here in Nov 2012 when we stayed in Nashville for a week. It started in 1951 and now serves 450,000 guests per year, and 7000 of their famous biscuits each DAY. I had their excellent fried catfish and of course their biscuits with a choice of their famous jams. Janet and I had had their pork BBQ, which is served on a corncake pancake. Janet has adopted that when she's served pulled pork at home.

A funny thing happened during lunch. The boys played a trick on Thurman (the jokester himself). He's in the green shirt just to the left of center, as they were ordering. A bit later, the waitress announced loudly that everyone had to sing Happy Birthday to Thurman. We all knew it wasn't really his birthday, but he played it up royally and danced around and took bows. He didn't miss a beat even though it was a complete surprise.

We then drove in traffic to our Sheraton Hotel in the downtown. Actually, we stopped first so the group could see up close the full-scale replica of the Parthenon in Centennial Park. When I made it to my 11th-floor room, I could not believe my view:

That's the state capitol! Incredible view.

Now tonight we will all go out to our celebratory dinner, and then I plan to visit some honky tonks. Actually, I should go down to Broadway right now and see some, since dinner isn't for another three hours. I just wish Janet were here again with me to enjoy Nashville the way we did in 2012.

We had a great ride, a super vacation, wonderful new friends, and I learned lots of history and geography.

Murder on the Trace

Day 6    Florence, AL to Leiper's Fork, TN    104 mi

This monument marks the grave of Meriwether Lewis, who died on the Trace in 1809. This was only three years after his epic "Lewis and Clark" Corp of Discovery trip ended. He was most likely murdered, although some speculate he committed suicide. He was only 35 yrs old.

It was another warm day, and again with tailwinds to make riding 100 miles very pleasant indeed. What was different about today was that we all were shuttled from Florence to the Parkway, and at the end of the ride, from the Parkway to our hotel here in Franklin. So, no riding on regular roads to get from and to our hotels. The Parkway is so nice and safe, and we had 100 miles even with the shuttling.

They do an amazing job of getting all our bikes, luggage, and us into the trailer (in this photo), the van, and the car that belongs to the Johnsens (which has a 4-bike rack). When the ride is over, Rick and Pam Johnsen have to drive that car all the way home to Seattle.

Once underway at Mile Marker 330, the weather was cool and we all pedaled along nicely for 10 miles to the Tennessee border for photos.

As we rolled up to this sign, Bob laughed that out here in the South, it was pretty strange for the border sign to start off mentioning King Charles II. We all took lots of pictures and continued on.

This portion of the Old Trace was also called Sunken Trace, just as we had on Day 1. Only this one wasn't as sunken. Still, I find it cool to see these sections of the original trail.

We had our usual fabulous rest-stop treats, carrot juice, and other goodies overlooking a stream at Mile Marker 364. Sorry, no photos. We continued on, and the scenery was as nice as ever, but I took only this photo prior to the lunch break:

Yes, we get a variety of scenery, and this field of yellow struck me enough to pull out the camera. I saw two wild turkeys next to the road today, but both scurried into the woods as soon as I tried to stop for a photo. And they were THIS big!!

Our lunch was at the Meriwether Lewis site. Before eating, I toured around a bit. This photo describes the monument. They had several items there honoring him and his brief life. One thing I found coincidental was that to reach this site, you turned off the Parkway onto TN Hwy 20. Well, he was born in Charlottesville, VA right off of VA Hwy 20! I've passed the sign on VA Hwy 20 noting his birth so many times!

The stones in the ground behind the sign are all that's left of the stand (inn) where he was staying the night he was shot and killed.

I actually rode my bike a few hundreds yards on this section of the original Trace. I thought I was headed to the site of the Grinder House where he died, but I was going the wrong way as it turned out. Anyway, I "rode the Trace". As it would turn out later in the day, That was Nuthin!

At Mile Marker 397, I stopped at this pull-out for yet another section of the Old Trace. See my bike parked up there at the sign?

This spot was where I had a little adventure. See how the sign is titled not only Tobacco Farm but also Old Trace? Well, there's a 2-mi section you can drive on that goes off behind that old barn and parallels the Parkway and then returns to it. I decided to try it. Mistake. It was rocky, bumpy, gravely, and not fun. I went only about 3-4 mph to stay safe, and just hoped I wouldn't fall and/or get two flat tires.

Here's what it looked like. Not much different than any old dirt road. But I suppose there was some charm in knowing that it was trampled on for thousands of years. Actually, I felt I tiny bit better later when I realized that this section I rode on was the cover photo of one of Paul's books about the Natchez Trace.

See, there it is. I took this picture of the cover of the book. Anyway, I made it back to the pavement in good shape, and continued on to the final rest stop at Mile Marker 408.

Before arriving at that final rest stop, I came across this scenic overlook. This week I have stopped at numerous highlighted "overlooks", but never took a photo, or if I did, did not put it in this blog because they had never been too scenic. Until this one (I thought).

After the break, I pretty much just pedaled on to our finish. I still felt pretty strong. I did come across this sighting along the way:

I actually thought we'd see more of these private family cemeteries, but haven't.

When I got off the Parkway, near Leiper's Fork at Mile Marker 429, and turned left into a junior high parking lot where the van was waiting for us, their marching band crossed my intended path (much as a herd of cows might, hahaha):

The cool thing was, they soon started playing, just as four others of our group rode up. So, it was like they were welcoming us. We all enjoyed them playing, as the rest of us finished.

Eventually we got all loaded up and drove the 15-or-so miles to our hotel in (or near) Franklin. For dinner, we all got back in the van and car and drove into the old historic district of Franklin, and ate at a legendary restaurant:

Puckett's Grocery. With live music, as you can see. LOUD live music, which made it hard to talk and order drinks and food, but it was fun. They sang 70s songs, and we sang along to many of them. They asked who our group was, and I yelled "bicyclists", so they kept calling us the bicyclists when they were working the audience.

Tomorrow we are expecting afternoon thunderstorms, so here is the plan: We have only about 15 miles left of the Trace Parkway that we have not ridden, but we also want to get in more than just 15 miles. And, we don't want to ride from this hotel back to the Parkway due to busy, not-good-for-cyclists roads. So, we will shuttle to the terminus of the Parkway, Mile Marker 444, and ride the other direction back to Mile Marker 426. Then, we will make a U-turn and repeat what we just rode, and end back where we started - at the terminus. So, a total of 36 miles. Then we will shuttle to our hotel in downtown Nashville, and have a celebratory night.

Helen Keller's childhood home

Day 5     Florence, AL    25 miles.    Total inc warm-up ride on May 2 - 440 miles

This is a replica of a statue now in the U.S. Capitol's Statuary Hall of Patty Duke, I mean Helen Keller, learning the miracle of language.

On this rest day, I rode 11 miles across the TN River and west a bit to Tuscumbia, AL to visit Helen Keller's birthplace, early home, and museum. It brought back so much emotion for me; reading a biography of her life and seeing The Miracle Worker as a kid had a big impact on me, and it all came back visiting her home and museum.

Yes, they still have the original pump "enshrined". The miracle event took place just one month after Anne Sullivan (the teacher) arrived at the house in 1887. That same day, Helen learned 30 more words, and 625 words in six months.

This photo shows a portion of the main house on the left, and the smaller cottage on the right where Helen was born - and where Anne and Helen went during that first month to separate them from the family.

I stepped back to take this picture to show how close the pump was out the back door of the main house (you can just see the black pump in the patio structure on the left). The cottage is out of the photo to the left.

I took a tour of the home, and got to see all the bedrooms, the dining room table made famous in the movie with Helen grabbing at everyone's food, and a room that is now a museum. It had hundreds of photos and letters and mementos from her life and Anne Sullivan's, who stayed with her for life. One funny side story is that the tour guide asked me where I was from. Since I was wearing my California jersey, I decided just to say I was from Calif. A man standing nearby, also a tour guide, immediately said, "My brother lives in Petaluma, which is a little town north of..." I interrupted him and said, "I know where it is! I was born there!" Small world.

Here is one of the museum photos I particularly liked. As a child and young woman, Helen was actually quite attractive. The home was built by her grandfather in 1820 on a 640-acre lot. Helen was born in 1880 and died in 1968.

After that visit, I rode to the TVA power plant on the far side of the river from our hotel. TVA - Tennessee Valley Authority -- is all over the place here, so much so that I thought Florence (or Muscle Shoals across the river) might be the headquarters. They're not - Knoxville is, but the Wilson Dam generates so much electricity, I guess they have lots of associated offices here. On the map, the whole area is called "TVA Reservation".

On the ride back across the river, I stopped to take a photo showing our hotel off to the left of the dam:

That tall tower on the left is the rotating fancy restaurant here. In the picture below, you can see only a small bit of the dam; it extends far to the right.

I took this photo from the bridge too, of the huge lock gates. Back when I took the boat trip, I would have gone through open gates like that, just little ol me! This lock raises or lowers 97 feet.

The day isn't over yet, so I may add more later. I was planning to use the jacuzzi for my legs and neck, but apparently I left my swim trunks at the hotel in Tupelo. Ah well, I could use a nap.

This is a photo of our hotel taken from down near the river. My room is top floor, fourth from the left. Nice views I have!

Deja Vu on Tenn-Tom

Day 4   Tupelo, MS to Florence, AL    106 Miles.   Total after four days - 387 mi

The Natchez Trace Parkway passed over where Rick and I cruised on Breaking Away back in Oct, 2010! The structure you can see in the background is a tall lock, with an 84-foot drop. I have gone back to my blog from that trip and copied and pasted a photo of us inside that lock:

I also cut and pasted what I said about this lock: "Rick and I headed off for the day, first going down this HUGE Jamie Whitten lock, an 84-foot descent! That was the highest lock I'd been on yet of the 90 or so I'd been through. Can you believe how high those lock walls are?? This time we were not alone; another cruiser joined us for the mighty drop."

Another deja vu for me yesterday was riding off the Parkway to go see exactly where Rick and I had anchored in the lake above the lock. I surprised myself by actually finding it! I had to walk down a steep incline to the shore to get this selfie photo with the little bay in the background:

This photo is mainly for Rick, since I know he's reading this blog. It hope it looks familiar to him, as it did for me.

After this, I rode to where Rick and I landed the dinghy with both bikes. Yet another deja vu for me was then riding exactly the route I rode that day, up onto the Natchez Trace Parkway. Just now as I have gone back to look at these entries in my old blog, I was happily surprised to find that I said this: "I rode 14 miles north on the Parkway and into Alabama, then came back. Rick went the other direction. I loved it, and someday hope to do a group ride the entire length with Paul Wood, who led the Blue Ridge Parkway ride."

I hope Paul sees that! I had forgotten I mentioned him by name in my blog like that. How cool! And now: Here I am.

The whole experience of leaving the Parkway to re-trace these fond memories of my Great Look boat trip made yesterday special for me. (I am writing this blog the next morning because last night as I was beginning to work on this, all the electricity in the entire hotel and nearby community went out -- for 75 minutes, as I learned this morning. So I just hopped into bed and went to sleep.)

Going back to the day's start, a bunch of us rode up to the Elvis birthplace (the opposite direction of our eventual destination). Of course, I had already seen it. A couple others, Bob Long and Thurman, weren't too interested, so the three of us departed. We rode together the four miles back to the Parkway, and another six to the Natchez Trace Visitor Center. By now, I knew most of the history and info about the Trace. For one thing, I had scanned three books on the subject that Paul had in the van during the all-day drive to Natchez back on May 1. But I did buy four souvenirs!

By the time I left, everyone had gone on except Paul, Nate, and Myron.

The four of us rode pretty darned fast to catch up. I can blame myself, because I led the paceline for quite a few miles riding hard, before pulling over and letting others "pull" the group (and allowing me to take this picture).

We reached the first rest stop, with Myron and me all pooped out, while everyone else was still there. As usual, Rod and Lisa found a nice shady spot for us, and had their wonderful spread for us, including carrot juice.

On the right of this photo are Nate (the tall one) and Paul. Lisa is drinking something, Myron is in the middle, and on the left, in matching clothing, are Lonnie and Lorraine who ride the tandem.

I rode off by myself from this stop and soon reached the bridge crossing over the Tenn Tom Waterway. I took some photos in both directions from the bridge, and then on the other side departed the Parkway. I rode up to another road just below the lock and got this photo back at the Trace Parkway bridge where I had just been:

I distinctly remember from 2010 cruising under that bridge and thinking how one day I would be riding over it.

I texted Paul to let him know I was off doing my own thing. I rode on up to the lake to reminisce, and then finally headed off north on the same frontage road I was on 3½ yrs ago. I reached the Parkway where I did then, and let Paul know by text I was back chasing them and would see them at the lunch stop, another 7 miles up the road. Don't tell anyone, but by taking my diversion like that to the lake and dam, I missed about six miles of the Parkway. Didn't ride it in 2010, and didn't ride it yesterday. Uh oh, I won't be able to say I rode the entire Parkway (when we're done on Friday). But you know what? Let's just forget this little trivial point; I WILL DO THE ENTIRE PARKWAY!!

Lunch was off the Parkway, down at a little campground on Lake Tishomingo. Beautiful setting, and great food including a homemade strawberry "soup" (more like a dessert). Rod made me a custom beef/cheese wrap. We got back on the Parkway, and continued on the portion I had ridden in 2010.

We crossed the entire state of MS, and now we entered AL. I passed this same spot in 2010 and took a photo of the sign, but of course I was not in it. So yesterday, Myron took my photo. And, you can see my new Black Bear Adventures jersey Paul had just given me the night before.

As the group continued on into AL, four of us went off the front and I got pretty tired again. We eventually reached our next rest stop (Parkway Mile 327), which was just before the bridge crossing the wide Tennessee River. Since the four of us arrived first, I had time to ride down a side road about ½ mile to see some Natchez Trace historical sights.

So, in today's money, how much did George Colbert get when Andrew Jackson's army crossed the river on his ferry?

Down by where the old Colbert Ferry launched, I got this great photo:

That is the Trace Parkway bridge we would be riding across in just a few more minutes. The river is especially wide due to its being a lake behind the Pickwick Dam, where Rick and I were in 2010.

I returned to the rest stop and actually rested for quite a while. I have included this photo because I'm actually in it!

The two sitting beyond me are Rick and Pam Johnsen from Seattle. Lisa is walking behind them, and to my right is the back of Laura from Campbell, CA. She and her partner, the "other" Bob, are flying back home today (from Nashville Airport, where Rod will drive them). Bob and Laura have another bike ride event they want to do there.

Five of us then rode across the Tennessee River, and left the Parkway a few miles later. We needed to ride 20 miles east to reach the town of Florence, where we are staying two nights. (Today is our rest day.) This Marriott is a lavish resort.

Out my 6th-floor window is the TN River. Actually, it's called Wilson Lake because it is behind Wilson Dam, which is just to the right of this photo. I plan to walk over there for a better view some time today. Its lock is 100 feet tall, one of the largest in the world, and THEE largest in 1924 when it was completed.

For dinner, we all drove into downtown Florence and ate at a cool Mexican restaurant.

The margarita was excellent, as were my fish tacos. Great group. Long day. I feel much better this morning after a good night's sleep. I'm not sure what I will do today on my day off. Right now I need breakfast! Helen Keller's birthplace and museum is nearby, so I hope to see them.