Thursday, July 10, 2003

Wildersville, Tenn.

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We are halfway to Nashville. One more day's ride and we'll be in the heart of country music. Maybe someone will write songs about us... "Here they come, Triple A's best. None more gimpy than the rest. They ride and talk, but none too well. At least they aren't serving time in jail..." Which is obviously why we need someone ELSE to pen us a tune...

It was a great riding day. Forty plus miles each through rolling, green Tennessee landscape. Friendly people. Lots of waves and smiles from onlookers. Both Glen and Lane rode today.

We were corralled in Bolivar, TN by the staff at the local paper who had heard we were coming through. They not only posed for this photo with us, but also gave us directions to Joe's Restaurant, where we had a scrumptuous breakfast. There, we were fortunate to meet a local bail bondsman, who is now handling that little mix up we had in Memphis. You just have to love it when a plan comes together while you are munching on biscuits and gravy.

We believe this is called a "proof of life." At least the boys were still verifiably breathing, albeit somewhat heavily in the humidity, when we passed through Bolivar. The town is actually named after the South American liberator Simon Bolivar, though they pronounce it somewhat differently.

Shortly after this photo was taken, Glen almost lost it on Joe's bike because he missed Bruce's hand signal to stop. Glen couldn't get to the brake levers and ended up sitting on the top tube of Joe's bike, slowing it down by dragging his feet. Hmmm....  A "process improvement opportunity" for next year, Joe - let's make sure to run guest riders through a basic equipment familiarization course before letting them close enough to us on the road in order to prevent injury to the real riders if the guest falls down and goes boom.

One unforeseen adventure today was a tread separation on a tire on the van. After waiting for over a half hour for AAA to show up, Glen and John took matters into their own hands. Thankfully, Tammy and Bob from Ohio Willow Wood were on a return trip to Ohio when they spotted our caravan on the side of the road. They graciously loaned us a jack, when helped us remove the van from Glen's chest, where it rested for almost 20 minutes (see yellow shirt in photo below).

Thanks, Tammy. I mean, Glen's complaining and whining were REALLY getting to us before you arrived.

The moral to this story is "be careful what you are doing on the side of the road, because you never know who might be driving by."

Tomorrow, we put in another day's ride and reach Nashville.

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