The best way to describe today would be random. Incredibly random. Unfortunately, I have already used this word to describe a different day, so I will have to think of a better descriptor for today.
The day started out like any normal morning – get up, back up our bags, eat breakfast, sit around for a little while, listen to the route, and then start out on the ride. We left Nashville pretty quickly and crossed the river over a really neat pedestrian bridge.
About 45 miles in, we came upon a group of riders standing around on the side of the road. Turns out there had been a small run-in with a traffic cone, leaving Pete with a hurt hand/wrist and Roshan with a broken bike. I’m not sure which one is worse. Pete’s wrist can heal with Roshan’s brand new carbon frame was cracked (and it is not possible to fix carbon once it is cracked). Sad.
Once our support van came to help out, we got on our way again. Unfortunately, I only got about 5 miles farther down the road before I had a flat. When I turned my bike over to figure out what the problem was, I found an object in my tire that should not have been there. When I removed it, it turned out that I had managed to get a 1-inch nail imbedded in to my tire. Awesome. Strike one.
While riding through Tennessee, Bryce began thinking about “the hills of Tennessee.” This, naturally, led to him thinking about the song, “Proud to be an American.” Randomly, Bryce, Jody, Travis, and I burst in to song. It was fun. I’m sure we were a sight to see – four cyclist wearing orange spandex riding down the side of the road singing “Proud to be an American” at the top of our lungs. Fun times…
Before arriving at our lunch stop, we passed in to Kentucky. 
We were also able to get the Tennessee state sign as we left. Very exciting. 
However, because we had to wait on the side of the road for so long after the accident, we didn’t arrive at our lunch stop as early as we normally would have. Our support team had us rack our bikes at lunch so that we could make it to Mammoth Caves in time for a tour.
We go to Mammoth Caves just in time to go on the Historical Tour.
It was pretty interesting. The caves are definitely much larger at Mammoth Caves than Carlsbad Caverns.
I guess that’s probably how it got its name… At one point during the tour, we had to go through this area known as “Fat Man’s Misery.” It was an incredibly tight walkway which is approximately 200 yards long. I was not very happy about it. 
But Tim talked to me about ice cream the entire way, so I made it through. Like I’ve mentioned before, ice cream makes me happy…After the Caves, we drove to Leitchfield, the city where we were staying for the evening. We were invited to speak at the Lion’s Club which, luckily for us, happened to meet at the local Pizza Hut. The group treated us to a yummy dinner. There just happened to be two other guys passing through Leitchfield who were also cycling across the country, but to raise money for Autism research. One of the guys in the Club made some pretty off-color jokes about Autism. Only in rural Kentucky… Strike two.
We left the meeting to go to our lodging for the evening. Now, I would like to point out that we have stayed at many different types of places. But today topped them all. We are staying at the local fairgrounds. Yes, in the arts barn at the fairgrounds. It’s just plain creepy. There are random campers and vehicles inside the barn.
Lenore and I decided to sleep in the van. 
Luckily, they unlocked a building with running water, or we would have been using a Port-a-Pottie for the evening. Strike three.There were no showers at the fairgrounds. However, fortunately for us, Leitchfield just recently built a new firehouse. And the firehouse just happens to be located just a short walk away from the fairgrounds. So, we all grabbed our showering stuff, walked over to the firehouse, and took showers there. Strike four.
Final strike of the day (you didn’t think it was possible to have this many strikes, did you?): there was no internet at the fairgrounds. This, in and of itself, does not constitute a strike. I would not expect a fairgrounds to have WiFi. But we all wanted to check our email (it seems like we have been living outside of civilization for the past few days…). So where did we go? McDonald’s. But not just any McDonald’s. We went to the local McDonald’s inside the local WalMart. However, McDonald’s didn’t have any plugs, and my computer is piece of crap and has absolutely no battery power at all. So I sat in the entrance of WalMart, plugged in to one of their outlets, using McDonald’s WiFi. Strike five.
I am now going to go to sleep inside the van. I pray that no crazy person decides to stalk us at the fairgrounds at night. I’m just a little (ok, a lot) creeped out. We will definitely be locking the doors of the van tonight…
End of the fortieth day. And it was haphazard.
We stopped by the Country Music Hall of Fame. 
Because, again, I hate country music, I opted not to go for the tour. We did a little bit of shopping downtown, complete with a stop at a delicious ice cream shop. 
We then hiked about 2 miles to Centennial Park for the local arts festival. It was really neat. There were tons of local artists with all different types of art and mediums. It was like going to a museum – except it was outdoors and it was free. You couldn’t ask for anything better! While we were in Centennial Park, we ran in to the Parthenon. 
In the past two weeks, we have been to Paris, Milan, and now Greece. We are such world travelers…
We were in lead van and had to mark the route, so we had to make sure we stayed in front of all of the riders. Whenever we came upon a scenic stop, we would park the van, run down to the waterfall (or whatever else we were looking at), hang out for a few minutes, run back up the trail, jump in to the van, and peel out. 
It was adventurous. We had fun.
The roads were lined with trees and there were gorgeous overlooks throughout the route. It was so incredibly peaceful. I’m pretty sure we saw more bikers on the road than cars. So jealous. So incredibly envious that I did not get to ride today. 
I’m pretty sure we looked incredibly idiotic. But we had a great time. 
Some of us attempted to actually ride our bike in the parade, but we were moving so slowly that it made the task nearly impossible. The parade route itself probably wasn’t much longer than two miles or so. But those two miles were completely lined with people, at least 3-4 deep on both sides. It was crazy. And there seemed to be a Strawberry Queen/Princess from every single po-dunk little town around western Tennessee. We even had our own Strawberry/R4WH King and Queen – Justin and Maggie. Fun times for all. 
I had imaged strawberry everything – strawberry shortcake, strawberry smoothies, strawberry jam, and (what I was most excited about) strawberry pie. But, alas, this was not the case. There were abundant strawberry “trinkets,” but not many delicious strawberry creations. I guess the reason for this is that, back during the depression, this area of Tennessee was one of the top producers of strawberries in the country. There was a large railroad that ran through the area, delivering the strawberries to Chicago, and from there, to everywhere else. However, after the implementation of minimum wages, the farmers in the area could no longer afford to maintain and produce the strawberries, so the crop effectively disappeared from the area. Sad. But they still love the Strawberry Festival in West Tennessee and they still celebrate it every single year (with much hoopla and excitement).
We were in no mood to attempt to bike during the hottest time of the day. We all hopped in to the van and were driven to our final destination for the day. We were originally supposed to be traveling to McEwyn, Tennessee; however, with the flooding around the area, the schools were closed and we were not able to get a hold of anyone at the school the day before. Luckily, our wonderful hosts in Hohenwald, Tennessee helped us to find a place to stay that wasn’t too far out of the way. Thank goodness, or we would have ended up in flooded country with nowhere to stay. We are staying in Hohenwald, Tennessee. When I first heard the name, I thought it was called “hole-in-the-wall.” This might be fitting for the town. It’s pretty darn small.
It was very sad. Lots and lots of fields were flooded. We also saw some stranded houses out in the middle of rain water lakes. And we passed a few trucks and trailers submerged in water. It is difficult to imagine someone’s e
ntire life’s belongings floating in murky, dirty water. The church where we were supposed to stay tonight was located in Humbolt, Tennessee. Unfortunately, because of problems after the flood, a large portion of the church (including the gym where we were supposed to stay) ended up covered with sewage backup. Not pleasant. So they found another place for us to stay a few miles down the road. It was so nice of them. We are staying at a Baptist Church in Milan. Sadly, Milan, Tennessee is not nearly as exciting as Milan, Italy. And it’s not pronounced the same way, either. Apparently they like to be different here in Tennessee. For anyone that is interested (and for everyone else who couldn’t care less), the town is pronounced like “my lan.” I guess it has a nice ring to it…
The wonderful ladies (and guys) at FS&H sent me an enormous package full of complete deliciousness. 
And Nancy made the most amazing ginger cookies I have ever tasted. I may gain 5 pounds eating all of the food that was sent. And I’ll enjoy every minute of it. Thanks guys, you rock!
We are so creative. I think we may have gone a little overboard with the pipe cleaners… 
