(I got home a week ago but have been running non-stop since my return.)
I didn’t get away from La Follette until close to noon and got to ride through the northwest gusting winds from hurricane Sandy through Knoxville and Nashville. I promised myself before getting on the road that I would clear my head and focus on the ride, but after looking at houses in Tennessee I was pretty preoccupied and had to remind myself to stop thinking about it.
West of Nashville I stopped at the Loveless Café. The Loveless is a fairly famous establishment that serves classic southern cooking in huge portions. If in Nashville or on the Trace it’s a highly recommended stop. The food was good and the service was great.
I rode part of the Trace that afternoon and started again the next morning in 27 degree temperatures. That was a new record low for riding (previous was 29) so I had all my cold weather gear on. I kept thinking about the Stay Puff Marshmallow Man, or the Pillsbury Dough Boy, or the Michelin Tire Man and trying to decide which of them I resembled most closely.
The first stop on the Trace was at the grave site of Meriwether Lewis.
After riding a section of the the Old Trace that wandered through the trees I took a break in Collinwood when I saw a sign for a welcome center. It was a little chilly for the unheated restrooms along the parkway. I was greeted at the door and encouraged to help myself to hot coffee and cookies and refill my water bottles. The people were so nice I hung out for a while chatting with them.
One of the most surprising things I saw along the Trace was an over 20 mile stretch after a sign reading “Tornado Damage April 2011”. I didn’t stop to take pictures, but it was staggering the damage that went on for miles. The forest was simply snapped off about 15-20 feet off the ground. I would look to the left and right and see homes not very far away that had undamaged trees. It was like the tornado had followed the road.
The original plan was to ride the entire parkway to Natchez but I bailed after about 300-350 of the 450 miles and headed for east for home. I was clearly preoccupied with other things and decided to do the southern part of the Trace when I was more focused.
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