Wet - Impromptour - CycleBlaze

October 14, 2018

Wet

Day Four: Hurricane Mills, TN to Collinwood, TN

I woke up and looked outside. Even in the pre-dawn darkness, I could see the rain hitting the cars outside my window. I turned on the same Nashville television station from the other day and watched as the same cheerful weather lady confirmed that yes, just as she had predicted, it was raining and was going to rain some more and oh yes - you should most definitely bring your umbrella if you are going outside today.

About 12 years ago when I first started riding, and then bike touring, I would do almost anything to avoid riding in the rain, sometime spending hours under a picnic shelter or in some farmer's barn waiting it out. Since then I supposed I've become (somewhat) inured to it. Really, it's the anticipation of getting wet that's the worst. Once you're soaked, you might as well keep on riding.

Still, it's difficult to muster a lot of enthusiasm for starting out a ride in the rain, especially when it's chilly. At least this morning it was in the low sixties, noticeably warmer than yesterday.

After breakfast at the overpriced Holiday Inn Express I rode out to find that the skies had actually cleared briefly. I had ride a few miles on TN-13 but early on a Sunday morning there was no traffic. Still, I stuck to my plan from last night, and turned onto "Old 13" AKA "Tennessee Gas Drive". This was another great Tennessee back road. I only saw one car in about six miles, and the condition of the road, mostly paved with a few small dirt sections was very good.

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There were a few very steep hills, and on one of those climbs I dropped the chain on my rear cassette and got it stuck next to the spokes. Nothing was damaged, although I came as close to falling off the Fargo as I have since two years ago when Joy and I were riding in soft New Mexico sand.

I stopped in Lobelville (population 897) for a snack, and then rode out into a cold drizzle onto a series of empty country roads. The pattern for the next several hours was: Several flat, easy miles miles along a creek, then a super steep climb up to a ridge, then back down for more flat miles. (Because of the flat sections, today didn't feel as hilly as yesterday's ride, but when I looked at Strava, I saw that I actually had more elevation gain - 4,500 feet - than yesterday.)

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It was raining almost non-stop by late morning. I rode up several steep dirt sections on Lower Cane Creek Road, but fortunately there hadn't been enough rain yet to turn it into soggy mud. That would have been bad. At one point when the rain got especially heavy I ducked into what was either a cave, or more likely a mine entrance and waited for about twenty minutes. I had no cell signal, and once I read all the graffiti scrawled on the rock I became bored, so I got back on the road.

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I was slowly heading toward the town of Hohenwald. About five miles from there I became briefly confused about one of the turns on the remote network of roads, but apparently I chose correctly, and, as expected, found myself on an annoyingly rumble-stripped state highway, where I was passed by more cars in ten minutes than I'd seen in the last three hours. After two miles on this busier road, I entered Hohenwald (population 3,757), which looked kinda grimy, although it probably would have made a better impression on me on a warm, sunny summer day.

I realized I was famished, and stopped at a cafe where the waitress, an older lady, bustled around the place, alternately calling me "honey", "luv", and "baby", as she took, then delivered, my order of cheeseburger and fries. 

The owner of the cafe was one of those business people who's a fan of hand-lettered signs that provide detailed instruction to his employees and customers. Here's a sample:

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Back on the road, I had several miles of mostly flat, tailwind-assisted riding. The rain had slacked off. I was more than halfway to my destination for the day, and felt a surge of confidence... At this rate I'd finish early today, have time to check out the town where I planned to stay, get a good dinner, etc. etc.

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But then it started raining. Hard. Then I left the smooth, flat pavement for a series of rough, desolate broken-surfaced roads that took me up and down multiple small mountains. It rained so hard that I was afraid to open my handlebar bag even for a second to look at my phone, which contained the confusing directions that would get me out of this skein of hilly back roads. I'd seen only a few scattered, decrepit houses and trailers in the last couple of hours. Finally, when the rain was at its hardest, I felt like I absolutely had to check the map before I became hopelessly lost. I saw a falling-down structure with a sagging porch. The place was plastered with "No Trespassing" signs, but I saw no signs of human habitation anywhere, so I walked the bike though the tall grass, and stood on the rotting porch, where I verified that the contents of my handlebar bag were still dry, and that I was on the correct road, and only a few miles from the Natchez Trace.

Briefly got out of the rain here
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The skies slightly cleared for a while when I rode onto the ultra-smooth blacktop of the Natchez Trace Parkway. After my time on the relatively wild and woolly back roads, it was a relief to be on the manicured Trace, with its many helpful informational signs (lettered in the familiar National Park Service typeface), and  markers that counted down the eighteen miles until I exited at Collinwood (population 982).

Where, for the first time today, the sun came out.

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Early this morning I'd reserved a cottage from an older couple, who'd turned the now-retired wife's beauty shop into "Miss Monetta's Country Cottage". This was a great deal for $60. There was a TV in the cottage, and while I briefly considered turning it on to check the weather, I decided I really didn't want to know, so after eating a pizza  I went to bed around 8:00.

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Today's ride: 74 miles (119 km)
Total: 297 miles (478 km)

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