Riding down Hwy 121 was nice. It was flat, had 6 ft. shoulders, the temperature was cool, and I had a nice tailwind. I took a photo of the courthouse in Mayfield KY as I passed thru town.
Continuing south on Hwy 121, I saw a big flock of birds in a field. As I passed by they all took off and swirled around, just like in Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds", except that they didn't peck out my eyeballs.
I stopped in Murray Ky for lunch at Martha's Diner. It was a country place, and I had chicken cobbler, squash, corn, and baked apples. It was good, but not as tasty as the Church Ladies' food at the Florida Folk Festival in White Springs.
On the menu it said Martha was from Kissimmee FL, so when I paid my bill I said "hi" to Martha and we talked a little about Florida.
When Martha found out I was riding my bicycle, she said her brother did a cross-country bike trip this Spring, from Oregon to Florida. I was thinking, pretty cool, but then Martha said that when her brother got home he got food poisoning and died. Well, I didn't know what to say, I think I said something like I was sorry for her loss and I'm glad he got to do a big bicycle ride before he died.
After I left Martha's Diner I was thinking about what she said, and I decided that it was pretty weird. Then I burped and my stomach started feeling funny. So I started thinking, I wonder if Martha's brother caught his food poisoning at his Sister's restaurant !?!!
A few miles later I was feeling fine, but the road changed to a narrow two lane, with hills and no shoulder and a headwind. luckily there wasn't much traffic, but I did have a log truck run me off the road. I am so thankful for my rear view mirror, I was standing on my pedals, watching him barrel down the hill, and I bailed into the ditch at the last moment when I saw he was not pulling over to pass. It was my lucky day !!
When I passed into Tennessee I got on Hwy 76 - 79, and went over a long bridge on the south side of the Land Between the Lakes. The road was nice, flat, with 6 foot wide shoulders. I was going to turn off onto Old Hwy 76 and take the backroads south, but after the logging truck incident I thought I'd stay on the wide-shoulder new Hwy 76. Plus I didn't see any town or campground on the old highway.
I made it 62 miles, into Dover TN, and decided that was enough for today. I checked out a campground, but it was empty and depressing, so I went a ways further and got a room at the Dover Inn.
One more weird thing happened - I went across the street to a small Bar-B-Que trailer called "Hillbilly's". Well, Hillbilly John himself was hanging out and invited me to join him at the covered picnic table they have set up. The BBQ was great, and Hillbilly John was an interesting guy. He grew up in Dover and recently moved back home from Atlanta.
He was a little drunk and gave me some rum for my coke. A couple of times he said Jesus drank wine, too, and then said he's a Jehovah's Witness. We talked a little about religion, fishing, hunting, politics, and raising a family. Then a car pulled up with a guy Hillbilly John called "Redneck". Well, Redneck pulls out a gun, takes out the clip and gives it to Hillbilly. Redneck says he's going into the LBL and doesn't want to get caught with it. Hillbilly puts the clip back in and says OK, he'll hold it for him, but he ain't asking any questions.
I have no idea what was going on, but it's times like this I'm reminded that there are whole other worlds out there that I know nothing about ! I said thanks for the BBQ, thanks for the drink, it was great talking with you, but I better be getting back to the motel. Ha !!
