my four days in cookeville, briefly - 1982: Stories of the Young and Dumb, aka My First Bike Trip - CycleBlaze

my four days in cookeville, briefly

I didn’t wake up the next morning, erm, the next DAY, until 12:30 PM. Fortunately, it was a Saturday so Larry didn’t have to go to work. We went to the Waffle House, which would become our go-to place over the next four days as I rested and took advantage of his hospitality.

Like Denver and St. Louis, I won’t bore you with the details of my stay, but will mention a few things. 

I learned what a “Sioux alarm clock” is. You drink a quart of water at bedtime, and you WILL get up in the morning.

I saw my first real lunar eclipse. We went to a remote place, away from the lights of the city, and viewed it through his telescope. I was raised in an area where I could see exactly three stars because of all the light pollution, and looking through the lens was really cool.

A couple of days earlier we had watched coverage of the Space Shuttle. He did, after all, previously work at NASA, and still had an interest.

Larry Nelson
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I thought I’d just paste what my journal looked like for a couple of those days. This is so you’ll see how much I DON’T put in, as well as what jogs my memories. It appears I ate a lot and watched an inordinate amount of television.

7/3/82
Woke up at 12:20 pm/showered/rode to Waffle House on bikes/pecan waffles/talk to waitress/torrential rain begins/slacks, stops, we ride back/pick up air filter/visit Tennessee Tech University (where LN teaches)/get ice cream/rode  home/Atlas maps/telephone line outside down and being fixed/Mr. Lewis and maps/weather, talk/drive to grocery store/eat pizza/watched baseball game (Cubs 2 Cards 1)/SAHSA slides/"religion" talk/many vacant houses for sale (many in East, I'd noticed)/I wrote/bed/10 miles

7/4/82
Woke up sort of early (bathroom)/wrote Steve/LN woke up and went to get paper/finished letter about the time of the Space Shuttle coverage/watched it/poison ivy pictures/LN not feeling well/ate waffles/I go bike riding/listen to DF/come back, slipped in/LN asleep on couch/awoke/I grabbed OJ, paper, pen, then went outside to write 2 long letters:  Bruce, Pam, Marty/rode to Post Office and mailed them/returned and talked to phone man fixing line who wakes up LN/came in, watched TV:  "A Monkey Named Hellion"/ate PBJ/watched 60" TV/ate watermelon and watched baseball game/watched Peach Tree Race/LN sleeps/read Reader's Digest/wrote in journal/12 miles

poison ivy
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