Our first century!!!

Today was a landmark event, we completed approximately 110 miles in just under 10 hours, loaded down that's a pretty long haul. This has led us to about 24 miles north of Jackson, MS. And just shy of 130 miles north of Natchez, MS. We are Big Easy bound!!!! Some highlights of the past few days have been low traffic along the Natchez Trace, miles of cotton fields, arrays of flowers, a visit to Elvis Pressley's birthplace on Tupelo,MS, and a beautiful ride into the sunset this evening. Followed up with a great dinner, a hot shower, and a full "campsite" having two other groups riding the same route sharing this space with us. Tomorrow or the next should be a full moon, we are both excited for this!


More to come once we have Internet access

Chatt town and Chili mac

We've ridden from Chattanooga, TN, to Huntsville, AL the past two days... The mountains out of Chattanooga greeted us with goldenrod, blue corn flowers, and a beautiful dark purple flower that I don't know the name of.  The yellow and the purple next to each other is breathtaking- Really it is! As we cruised into Alabama, the landscape changed to cotton fields, swamps, red maple trees and yellowed soy bean plants... we are constantly reminded of how wonderful it is to travel by bike and absorb the landscape.

The road around Raccoon and Signal Mountain led us into Stevenson, AL, a slightly creepy small town off of Hwy 72.   It looked like it was once a vibrant town and train depot, but now I would guess they've got meth up in the hills.  That being said, we bought what we could from their food source (a BP station), a box of mac n' cheese and a can of chili, made our way to the edge of town and camped in the city park.   

The next day started with a sleepy ten miles, an american flag mural, and a mountain dew for breakfast.  Oh Yeah! Then a detour for replacement parts, and some delay with traffic.  Along hwy 72 we unexpectedly ran into one of our favorite people, Eleanor McDonough on her way to Huntsville for work. Double Yeah! When she pulled over Emerson thought he was being propositioned- Bow chicka Bow WOW... But then we all laughed and promised to meet up in Huntsville for dinner. Triple Yeah.

We arrived In Madison, AL last night, and stayed with my Aunt Becky.   When we mentioned our stay in Stevenson to her she said, "you can get killed in that town,"... um, great.  But Eleanor came over for dinner,  and the ever-lovely Aunt Becky made us a delicious dinner and the BEST PECAN PIE EVER.   It will fuel us as we head to the Natchez Trace today!  Can't wait for some long scenic roads and "historic fun".

This post is long because we won't be able to post again for a while. hope you like it okay!

Morning of day 3

Waking up in a house after two full days of riding is nice.

Yesterday we rolled into Chattanooga at around 3 pm to meet up with some of Hollies family friends, Mark, Priscilla, and Ralph the dog. They graciously offered up their home for the evening along with hot showers, a great meal, homemade cookies, and a cozy bed. Touring is seeming pretty lush so far.

So for a ride re-cap we spent Monday morning meeting with various friends who rode us various distances from Worlds Fair Park in Downtown Knoxville. There were stops to shoot off fireworks, people had to split off and go to work, hugs were given, good-byes were said, screw-drivers had.

Shane was able to ride us all the way to Lenoir City where he treated us to a hearty lunch, Thank You!! More good byes said and its down to Hollie and I.

Road conditions overall were good, Hollie attached an American Flag to the B.O.B trailer which most folks were quite receptive to. Sweetwater offered us the viewing pleasure of the worlds smallest horse drawn carriage complete with a suspension system. This guy was on a mission barreling down the hwy at a solid 5 mph, no one yelled "get outta da road" at him. Stealth photos were attempted and failed.

We made our way to Riceville about 70 miles from Knoxville were we set up our tent in a field for the evening. Dirtbaggin' it!! We had the cutest dog as a guest for the evening, we deemed her PYT as in pretty young thing, burritos + margaritas for dinner and its bed time.

So its time to hit the road again!

Making our way towards Madison, AL and the Natchez Trace!! We'll update again soon... ish.

Leaving in 2 days... we think

So!  This is us, our team of two. And we are here to entertain you! This blog is to relay the adventures and misadventures of Emerson and Hollie as we ride our bicycles across the 'ole USA, via the Southernmost route. We originally planned to leave Sunday, but things came up and we postponed a day.... Now we're leaving Monday Oct 3 @ 7am, taking Kingston Pike/Hwy 11 to Chattanooga.  Hell yeah! We are now two days away from departure.  Gear acquired, bikes tuned up, farewell party had.  You' think we'd be ready as can be.  There's still some lose ends to tie up, like squeezing in an 8- hour mountain bike race, checking the route, and ... um, packing. One tube of toothpaste, two flasks of whiskey-check double check.   We're taking one day at a time, and we've got a place to stay in Chattanooga, but the only thing Emerson's mentioned about our first stop is a mandatory stop at Lamar's, for renowned fried chicken...  we will keep you posted.