Tullahoma, TN -> Atlanta, GA

No shade to the fine city of Tullahoma, but I was glad to leave. I pointed the front of my bike south, the rest of it followed. After an early morning start I took a quick break to rest my feet in South Pittsburg Tennessee. The home of Lodge cast iron. As a proper cast iron junkie I simply had to peek in their company store and have a little look around. The most notable thing, the factory seconds. Anything that's not perfect enough for retail gets stacked in a corner and sold at a steep discount. When I found myself seriously thinking about how to strap an eleven pound cast iron wok to my bike, I decided it was time to leave. It was not until later that I realized that one of their smaller pans would make an ideal sidestand foot for soft ground. Oh well.

Home of heavy bludgeons

I kept on down the interstate until a critical moment in my bike's life came up. The odometer ticked over a fifth digit. Many bikes don't get that far. That was a proud moment and I'm glad to have put that fifth digit on. Here's to five more. Just kidding my body cannot handle that.

I stopped for lunch in Chattanooga. This is another city that I need to spend more time in. Lots of cool shops and restaurants here. Most notable is the old train station downtown. A gorgeous building that has since been redeveloped into a hotel and convention center. They have kept the old tracks and most have rail cars permanently parked on them. The cars have been turned into hotel rooms. Cute. To top it off there is a Glenn Miller rose garden .

Pardon me, boy. Is that the Chattanooga Choo Choo?

My final cannonballing down the highway brought me to Atlanta where I reunited with a high school friend, Nick. He's living out the pandemic here and has been kind enough to show me around this lovely city. We chatted and walked through Piedmont Park, trading automotive horror stories and watching the picnickers. It felt good to see all of those people out. The little things that remind me we're in a thaw.

Probably the best Tinder photo I've taken in a while

We then orbited to a brewery and walked a rail trail to a food hall built into what was a Sears warehouse. Beers and Peking duck was ordered but more came to us. A friendly patron next to us seeking shots to go (Atlanta has informally eschewed its open container laws in some instances) and kindly bought us a round. The waiter, apparently taken with just how horrible my Manderain is, brought us another plate of duck that was destined for the garbage. Good deal. Another walk to another brewery and off to bed.

Man I'm clever

Today's Distance: 216 miles

Total Distance: 2671 miles