Day 74: Nashville, TN

Day 74

July 29, 2015

Miles: 28

Springfield to Nashville

It was great having an unscheduled day off yesterday. Renting a car and driving to Mammoth Cave was a lot better than riding 160 miles round trip to the caves.  As Brian pointed out, it did feel a little weird driving after all these days on the bike. I don't know how people do it - drive everyday! 

We woke at 7:00a and were sipping on a cup of coffee by 7:30a.  We had another heathy breakfast this morning. I sure do love my oatmeal!

Good stuff

We left the hotel at about 9:30p.  We wanted to get into Nashville around 12:00p. We made great time and again weather, wind and elevation were in our favor.  The ride itself was just ok.  We were on a road for a while with lots of traffic, but a least we had a small shoulder to ride on.  Along the ride, we noticed many 'Share the Road' with cyclists signs and drivers seemed to be considerate of us. This was a bit different from our experience in Kentucky.  We got the sense that it wasn't just the dogs, but some drivers too in Kentucky that didn't really like the cyclists. Perhaps because of the one guy who yelled out his window ''get off the road', and another revving his engine as he passed us, and a few others as they passed by us hitting their horns for long bursts, not the approving couple of short beeps we get from drivers who are encouraging us. Steve and I talked about this a bit.  Kentucky seems to have a different culture from the other states.  We likened it to our experience riding our bikes through Connecticut. They too were angry at the cyclists on the road. A real sense of entitlement - as if they own the road or something. The difference however, while in Connecticut when we experienced this we would just yell back - 'share the road', but in Kentucky we were afraid that it might result in a gun fight and of course, we only have mace so lets face it, it would be an unfair fight. So we simply ignored them!

During our 28 mile ride today we encountered some interesting things along the way. Like the sign below - that's too early for kids to go back to school!  Kids need their summer vacations!

What up with that? What are they thinking? 

Nashville within 10 miles

Nashville in sight

We arrived in Nashville by 12:00p.  We requested early check in to the Hampton Inn and they were able to accommodate us, so we were in our room by 12:10p.  We took showers and then went across the street for some lunch.  We rode straight through so we were pretty hungry.  We asked for a restaurant recommendation and the locals recommended The Row.  It was a great little restaurant close by the Inn, which offers genuine food and drink, and features pictures and stories of different country music legends displayed on the restaurant walls.

On way to The Row

Quinoa Burger for me and Meatloaf sandwich for Steve

Steve touring the restaurant reading the stories on the walls

We are here in Nashville for the next five nights and six days.  Andy and Paige will join us on Friday.   Whoo  Hooo!   Its seems odd that we will not be riding our bikes for four full days, but I'm sure we will get over it.  Steve and I plan to explore Nashville tomorrow;  tonight we plan to lay low and relax to get ready for our wild weekend with the kids!

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Here are some bonus shots of Mammoth Cave.

While at the Mammoth Cave we were asked where we were from by some of the others exploring the caves.  I guess the accent teed them off.  I don't know :).  When we told this woman about the cross-country trip, she just couldn't believe it.  I told her that we have met so many making the ride cross-country along the way. I told her about 250 people annually do it.  This didn't change her opinion; she just replied by saying yeah out 330 million.  This had us thinking how close we are to achieving our goal, and how for others it may seem crazy, but for us it still seems like just a long bike ride.