New State! New Time Zone!

This morning about 20 miles after departing Lafayette we exited the northwest corner of Georgia and crossed into Tennessee at Chattanooga. Before the trip I had heard lots of bad things about bike riding in Georgia but I thought it was terrific and has set a high bar for the rest of the 8 states we will visit.

On the map our entry into Tennessee follows the Tennessee River. We thought that meant it would be somewhat flat. Little did we know the banks rise steeply from the river so even a quarter mile displacement can mean a 200 foot elevation change.

Not far away, but a long way down

Crossing the Tennessee River on TN-156 via the Shelby Rhinehart bridge 

At South Pittsburg we stopped for lunch at this great little cafe called Harvey's Pirate Restaurant (Aaarrgh!), run by two elderly women and full of locals. All the staff and customers were full of questions and advice for us. One gentleman had lived in LA and suggested we should go there instead of San Francisco, which we could do just by hopping on I-10. When we told one woman how we were on this cycling trip while leaving our wives home to deal with the Harvey mess, she responded by saying "I wish my husband would leave me alone for awhile."

One of the fun things about a trip like this is how your body incinerates calories. I have been eating roughly double what I normally would, and it all tastes amazing. Last night I had a huge salad with gyro meat, an order of lasagna, bread, and onion rings. Today at lunch I had a BLT and fries. This is in addition to snacks along the way. And now it's 3 PM and I'm hungry again. It's fun just to be able to eat and eat and not worry about gaining weight. If anything, I probably worry about not getting enough.

Anyway, shortly after the break we encountered a wall of a climb called South Pittsburg Mountain. It rises just over 1000 feet in about 2 miles, averaging about 10-11% gradient. I was standing on the pedals grinding away in my lowest gear (34-28) and making about 3-4 miles per hour. As they say in South Pittsburg, Aaarrgh! At one point I had to resort to zigzagging back and forth (called "paperboy-ing") in order to keep from falling over. I figured if it was good enough for Tour de France winner Chris Froome on the Peyragudes, it was good enough for me.

After the climb there was a long, pretty stretch of rolling hills on a high plateau. We were both feeling pretty good and spun along at moderate pace, knowing we had the extra hour from the time change working in our favor.

Our route intersected US-41A between Sewanee and our hotel in Monteagle. Much to our delight there is a great little bike path that connects the two so we did not have to ride on the busy highway, which made for a nice finish to the day.

82 miles and 5667 feet of climbing today. Into Nashville tomorrow.

P.S. I would love to know who is reading the blog so if you are so inclined "sign the guest book" by writing a comment. Also, let me know what you'd like to hear about and I'll do my best to work it in. -Al