the rest of the time - 1982: Stories of the Young and Dumb, aka My First Bike Trip - CycleBlaze

the rest of the time

I spent a lot of time writing letters to family and friends, including the new ones I’d met along the way. It was all paper and pen back then, and I write very slowly. 

During my stay, Ben took me to:

  • Thornton’s Mansion, a 140-year-old “haunted” house
  • Mall parking lot - According to my notes it was the mall PARKING LOT, not the mall itself. I’m not sure what the significance was, but it must have been a VERY impressive parking lot.  
  • DeSoto Falls - a 104-foot waterfall in DeSoto State Park
  • Noccalula Falls - a 90-foot waterfall in which legend states a young Cherokee woman (Noccalula) plunged to her death after being ordered by her father to marry a man she didn’t love. Even more interesting than that (to me, if not to Noccalula’s family)  is that there was a tavern and a dance hall in the cave behind the waterfall in the 1800s.
Noccalula Falls
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  • Harold, Ben’s brother, also took us to a place they called “The Blue Hole,” an old quarry reportedly 600 feet deep that reminded me of the one in Breaking Away, which is one of my all-time favorite movies.
look carefully at the boat for perspective
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I finally said goodbye to the Wells on 7/18/82, two months and two days after starting my trip. 

Mrs. Wells’ last words to me were, 

“Watch out for crazy drivers!”

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