Day 10 
Dover, TN to Grand Rivers, KY via the Trace! 

Today started with great optimism knowing that much of my journey today will be along the Nachez Trace which, while it is still a road with cars, it is expected to be picturesque and a less traveled route by cars through a National Recreation area. Music to my ears. Though I have gotten quite good at dealing with the logging trucks and semi’s looking forward to a more serene ride. Not sure if I have mentioned it previously but my tactic is to let them pass by, count — one-one-thousanddddddd and then be ready to steer into their massive wind storm they cause while slightly squinting my eyes and closing my mouth and momentarily quit breathing to not allow any of the dust storm they create to enter any orifices. They sometimes come SO friggin close they quite nearly clip my handlebars, leaving only inches separating survival and disaster. Surviving semi’s is now kind of my super power as my new and improved tactics seem to be working quite well. 

I packed up and was off the porch by 7:22, rolled down the hill into town and went to Mickey d’s for breakfast. They had a breakfast burrito which sounded good but it actually wasn’t. And it was super wimpy. And compared to the first Mickey d’s I went to back in Grove Hill, I wasn’t met with any curiosity at this one, more like weird looks but it’s cool. I’ve been getting weird looks my whole life so it’s totally fine. 😉

I then headed over to the Piggly Wiggly before hitting the Trace. This was going to be my last Piggly Wiggly visit as the Trace will take me into Kentucky and I won’t be near any of their other locations sadly. I stopped in every Piggy Wiggly I saw along the way, one because they had a good selection of produce, yogurt, juice, chocolate milk and I mean…it’s called Piggly Wiggly, what’s not to love!?! Plus Miss Daisy. It all just makes me giggle like a 12 year old freak every time I say it, people here probably think I’m nuts. “Excuse me, is there a Piggly Wiggly near by (chuckle, chuckle)? Maybe my next trip I will write the corporate office and ask to be sponsored by them and I could have a Piggly Wiggly cycling jersey. You’re laughing but people that know me well know that I am NOT KIDDING. Ok tangent. Apologies. 

So leaving town I immediately started in on the Trace. Now it all made sense why folks had mentioned I was going to enjoy riding here. If only I could do 2000 miles on this. Super smooth road with little traffic and nice tree lined scenery on both sides. I entered the National Recreational area that is partially in Tennessee and partially in Kentucky, 170,000 acre park. The lakes the land is between are Kentucky Lake and Barkley Lake, both being man made and Kentucky Lake being the largest man made lake in the eastern US. I get a little confused by this by the Tennessee River runs thru the Kentucky Lake? That’s what the map looks like. Whatever, will google later. Land Between the Lakes was mainly rolling hills but totally manageable. When I was feeling especially industrious I would pedal like a mad woman on the downhill and be able to make it almost 75% up the next hill before having to pedal which was a treat. Then there were a few long stretches of flat, quiet road.

I noticed in Tennessee that my whole hearty waves by people in cars had slowly diminished and folks in TN seem to lift usually just one or two fingers off the steering wheel to acknowledge my existence but not everyone, it was spotty. 

I rode past some bison today. They’re a little more intimidating than llamas and horses and cows so I didn’t talk much with them. 

More importantly I rode by Don Glennon! My very first fellow touring cyclist. I was so happy to see him and chat! Maybe even a little too hyper. I even pretended like I was a true cyclist, scoping all his gear and tires etc. Was interesting to compare setups. He was on his way to Florida and he was bright eyed and bushy tailed on Day 1 of his tour! Lucky duck still smelled like soap and fresh laundry. We chatted for probably 20-30 minutes. I’m sure he was thinking “stop talking!!!” But I was just so happy to see a fellow tourer! 🙂 After exchanging pictures (my pic of him is lost from my phone pooping out) we parted ways. You can check out his blog too biketrippin.com

I finally got to the border and crossed over into Kentucky. Nice job Kentucky, they had a welcome sign so of course I stopped and took my picture next to the sign. Then, since I was jipped coming into Tennessee, I walked across the road to the Tennessee welcome sign and took pictures there too. Again…no confetti and no balloons. 

Shortly thereafter was a big visitor center. I stopped in and read about the history of the area and saw some of their exhibits. They also had some Coast Guard Auxiliary Boating Safety handouts there…woop! Woop! That’s my people! Go USCG Aux! We are EVERYWHERE, muahahahaaaa! 

I noticed a new enemy on the road today. I saw a chunk of tire in my shoulder I was riding. Big rigs seem to litter pieces of rubber all along the shoulder. If it’s small I just plow over it and if it’s big I have to check for traffic and plan a swerve around it. I planned to roll over this chunk. But…when I got close I was nearly frightened right off my bike! It wasn’t tire rubber at all! This was the first of a few snakes sunbathing in my shoulder! Danger Will Robinson! 

Once I got to the other side of the Recreation Area I was right near Grand Rivers, KY. I setup camp at Barkley Lake at a Corps of Engineers Campground (Corps of Engineers created the dam for the lake which was to prevent flooding and at the time a good resource of hydroelectricity) and rolled back into town to have the bike shop look at my front derailleur which was having issues and my chain kept falling off. I also was missing a screw on the cleat of my shoe which as it turns out why I had fallen previously. It wasn’t ALL my incompetence, my cleat wasn’t releasing properly because it was bolted properly to the shoe! She charged me $10 for the screw and to adjust the derailleur and I left to go to dinner. I don’t know what I was thinking but I didn’t really test the “fix” before dinner. When I got done with dinner and tried to ride back to my campground, I quickly realized my front derailleur was jacked and she had adjusted it a bit too far the other direction. This was a good note to myself that I need to rely a bit more on my own self trained knowledge. Back at camp I busted out my bicycle manual. Prior to leaving home, I took a UBI manual and copied it to about 20% the normal size for a travel edition and laminated the important pages i.e. derailleurs! (my arch nemesis) It’s actually a super sick mini manual now. Highly recommend it. I’m timid with repairs so it took approximately 500 times the amount of time it should have but then voile! Fixed!

After this I took a nice hot shower. The bathroom door said to keep it shut to keep the bugs and snakes out which was a little disconcerting but I inspected all the shower and bathroom stalls for snakes before hopping in the shower. I didn’t want any chance that I would have to run out of the bathroom naked and screaming. 

Walking back to my campsite I met Shae and Ike. (Sadly, again, photos lost on cell phone) Ike was a retired NYPD officer…of the K9 variety. Shae said she saw me roll in to camp and had wanted to ask me about my trip. She also mentioned she will start to hike the AT soon with Ike. I told her I was going to stop by her campsite to chat more, nothing entices me to conversation like backpacking and I did pop by a little later. Oh my goodness, Ike was such a lovey dovey guy! At some point I had to apologize to him and tell him I was tired of petting him. He was super frustrated by this. Lol. It was Shae’s birthday week so she reserved a site, had her RV setup and had friends coming and going all week. She was equipped with a kayak, a canoe, a few bicycles and toys galore for her visitors. I was nearly tempted to stay another night and go kayaking but alas, the road calls. Was awesome hanging by the campfire with she and Ike…in a chair instead of sitting on the ground, ha! Good company makes for a good evening!