TheSouth2011

Day 4

Monday, 30 May 2011
Murray, KY to Clarksville, TN
75.6 miles, 6h08m, 12.3 mph
Elapsed Time: 8h24m, Max speed: 38.2mph
Total Climbing: 4924t, Max elevation: 706ft
Total mileage: 314.8

Another long, hot day.

I started at about 8am and rode down KY121 to the Tennessee line. The most interesting thing to happen was that I saw another touring cyclist. Unfortunately we encountered each other on a hill. I was climbing, he was descending. And according to the touring cyclsts' code, we did not have to stop. He probably thought I was just a poser anyway, since I wasn't carrying bags.

We actually met another touring cyclist the other day in Chester. Ed was riding from his home in Reno to New York City. He had never really ridden before, and he decided to ride across the US. I suspect a mid-life crisis gone horribly wrong. Anyway, he's a nice guy. We met him at breakfast.

Anyway, Tennessee was better than Kentucky. Replacing the two-foot shoulder and a two-foot rumble strip was this...

A freshly paved road with no rumble strips or pavement markings of any kind.

After a few miles I reached the road I would stick for most of the day. US 79 had a nice wide shoulder and nice smooth pavement. But very little shade. Did I mention that it was hot?

This is the Tennessee River. You might remember it from such rides as the Natchez Trace '09 Tour.
I think this is my fourth crossing.

After a few long climbs and long descents, I saw Linda waiting along the side of the road. You know what that means. She had to head back to St. Louis to catch her flight back to Maryland. Which means that I had to carry my own bags from here on out.

Linda was sad. I was sad too.

But it was too hot to stand around being sad, so we hung the bags on my bike and I rode off.

I went down a big hill, then up a long climb, and I was at Fort Donelson--site of a Civil War battle. You know me, I never met a historic site I didn't like.

Actually, I didn't like this one too much. To get to the Fort I would have had to ride back down the hill to the river and climb back up. So, I looked at the exhibits in the visitor center and checked the stuff that wasn't too much work...remember it was really hot.

The Confederate Memorial was pretty easy to reach.

And this canon and Confederate earthworks was pretty close.

After the excitement of Fort Donelson there was nothing left to do but hammer out the miles to Clarksville. It took a long time. It was hot (as you know), so I stopped fairly often to stock up on drinks. Ever since that day in Louisiana when I almost ran out of drinks, I've been paranoid about carrying vast quantities of liquids. I even bought a new insulated trunk bag that lets me carry, like, four or five bottles of Vitamin Water, which is way more than I can drink before I reach the next store around here.

All of US79 was nice, except for the part that was under construction.

I went Australian for a while because the wrong side of the road looked better.

And then for a while I had the whole thing to myself.

Finally, I reached my hotel. And I ate.

I deserve a short day, so I'll ride down into Nashville in the morning. With the rush hour traffic. It will be hot, no doubt.

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