Day 9
Tennessee River Resort to Dover, TN

My alarm was set for 5:30 so I could wake up and check the weather and make an educated decision whether to stay or to roll. Weather looked like it was going to be clear till around late afternoon. I did some mileage calculations and decided I needed to roll and could make plans to stop when it started to rain. Unbelievable I was saying no to a free nights accommodations, I must be ill. I packed up all my stuff and got on my horse and rode out of there at sunrise. 

Right away I was slammed back into the reality of the ups and downs of the Tennessee hills. Mile after mile. Also, the realization that most people do not see cyclists on these roads and are not expecting them as they come around the corner on the winding country roads. I’d hear a truck coming and immediately get as far over as possible and this seemed to work well. 

I pedaled as fast as I could given the wind. Uncle Phil lived on a boat at the Cuba Landing Marina down the road from the Tennessee River Resort and being a boater was well tuned in with the weather. Last night he mentioned the wind direction was a bit abnormal. But…I’m beginning to think that whatever way I’m going is going to be into the direction of a headwind and I should just plan accordingly. 

Out in the country I was scanning the hillside when way up in a distance I saw a gnome village. 

Eventually I pedaled into the first big town, Waverly (and by bigger I mean ~4k people) where there was a CVS I could pop into and get my daily supply of chocolate milk and orange juice. I then popped over to Sonic for a milkshake. There a young man came out named Marcus to ask me where I was going. I told him my whole story, where I was going and the Harriet Tubman bit etc. He was in awe that someone could ride that far on a bicycle. He must have come out about three times to confirm I was serious and really ‘think I could make it to Canada’. I finally said “Marcus, you could totally ride a bicycle all the way across the country if you really wanted to.” He assured me he couldn’t and I assured him that he indeed could! By the end of my milkshake I was pretty sure I had convinced him into believing there indeed was “maybe” a possibility he could do it which was more than when I had got there so I considered that a success. Sadly my picture of Marcus is lost on my old cell phone. 

Everyone kept walking by and asking me if I realized rain was coming. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, sheesh, rub it in why don’t ya! 

I decided I needed to stop procrastinating and ride on. I kept going and going. Up and up. Finally arriving at my desired campground (Whispering Pines Campground just outside Dover) just as the ominous black clouds were nearly overhead threatening to unleash their wrath on my wee little bike and me.

The lady running the campground was pretty much awesome. She said I could pitch my tent on the front porch of the office under cover. She also said I could use her washer/dryer for free. This was music to my ears. She even had dryer sheets! (As we know…this has become my guilty pleasure…dryer sheets…what life has come to) She said she tries to be extra kind to any cyclists that come through because she knows they have it much harder than the rest of her camping patrons. She respects their difficult journey and though has no interest in riding a bike is still inspired by those that do. I happily pitched my tent on the covered porch just as Mother Nature released all her fury and started dumping rain by the bucket full along with thunder and lightening. I spread all my stuff out on the porch, sorted thru things, did laundry, took a shower in their super awesome (clean and hot) shower, made a few phone calls before just relaxing on the bench and watching the rain fall.

Today by my calculations I had reached over 600 miles into my journey. Still less than half way there and not confident I will finish but feeling decent about my progress!