2026 Natchez Trace ride - Day 20 - St Louis'ish

Finally got a sunrise photo - over the McDonalds

I woke up at 4:30.  I took my time showering and packing, then reheated my breakfast burrito from Buc-ee's. Then I loaded the bike and went over to gas it up and grab a few drinks. At the end of all of that I didn't get away till we'll after 6:00. Even then I wasted about 15 minutes trying to find some place to get a picture of the sunrise.

I was heading for the Missouri museum of the Civil War in St Louis , and Google wanted to take me right through the heart of Nashville . There were other routes, but Google said they would all take 2 hours longer than the Nashville route .

I finally let Google had its way and I headed up the freeway. The day started warmer than I had expected, it was in the upper 70s. 

After an hour as on the outskirts of Nashville and hit stop and go traffic. Google assured me that it was only a 20 minute delay and that I was still on the fastest route. An hour later I didn't feel that much closer to Nashville and Google was still assuring me it was only a 20-minute delay and that I was still on the fastest route . On top of that the temperature had risen to 90°. 

I finally got fed up and pulled off. I spent several minutes trying to get Google to route me around downtown but everything I tried would just put me right back over to another freeway headed right back to downtown. I finally picked a steakhouse that was on the west side of Nashville and put that as my destination. It took me 20 minutes to get over there and I figured once I was on the west side Google would route me up the west side, but no right back to the heart of nashville.

I finally gave up and got back on the freeway and again hit stop and go traffic, but this time it was 6 minutes. After 15 minutes I finally cleared the traffic and was routed back out of the heart of Nashville with open roads. I don't think I'll ever want to go near Nashville again.

It took me 3 hours to do what Google originally claimed would take an hour. And to make matters worse the temperatures were up into the hundreds by 10:30 and I was sweating pretty bad.

I pulled off at a rest stop and then Googled for a super Walmart along my route . There is one about 10 miles ahead so I set that as my waypoint. When I got there I went in to their camping section and bought a small ice chest. Then I bought a bag of ice and a couple of bottles of water.

I dumped the ice in the water in the ice chest then took my evaporative vest and dunked it in. When I put it on it felt wonderful.

From then on I stopped about every 45 minutes to dunk my vest. I stopped for lunch at an Arby's , and after I drink my soda I filled the cup with water a couple of times and dumped it into the ice chest. My vest was soaking water up faster than the ice was melting.

It didn't make the heat go away but it helps me survive it.

When I was about an hour away from St Louis I noticed black clouds on the horizon. There was no rain whatsoever in the forecast but we all know how that works.   I was riding along from the rain hit out of nowhere. Within seconds I was soaked to the skin. I had about another mile to go to get to an exit with a gas station and by the time I pulled under the awning, I was thoroughly soaked.

I gassed up and went inside to use the bathroom. The rain was coming down steady but nothing unusual. As I walked out to get back on the bike there's 78 absolute massive downpour and what looked like gusts of wind coming straight down out of the sky.

I was parked well underneath the awning, but the wind was whipping every direction and there was nowhere to stand that wasn't getting soaked. More and more cars kept coming off the freeway and trying to get under the awning.

I looked on my weather app and there is a storm with bright red Center passing straight over the top of us. I stayed for nearly half an hour as rain banned after rain band kept passing by. One time the sun even came out for a few minutes and most of the cars left just to have it all hit again.

I thought I was safe under the gas station roof

I was drenched and tired, so I looked up a nearby hotel and booked it. Finally when the sun came out and there were no more dark clouds I got on the bike and rode the 15 minutes over to my hotel. It was just a cheap Super 8 but it will do.

At least there was a much better selection of food nearby than last night. I went and got a Korean rice bowl with bulgogi and kimchi. It wasn't the best I've had but it sure hit the spot tonight.

Bulgogi rice bowl with kimchi

I got quarters from the lady up front and ran all my wet clothes through the dryer. Mostly because I don't want to pack them in airtight bags and have them go moldy on me.

I also set my shoes and helmet over the air conditioner to dry out. I'd turn on the heat up to 74, then the AC down to about 65 and back and forth. AC still helps dry clothes because it pulls all the moisture out of the air.

Drying my shoes on the AC.  It worked

I'm not going to repeat this morning's mistake tomorrow. I will have everything packed and ready so when I get up I just take it out to the bike and get going. I want to be on the other side of St Louis long before rush hour starts. 

One last note.  I had planned to ride to Chillicothe tomorrow to see my grandkids, but there is some big quilt thing going on in Hamilton Missouri, and it sold out the hotels in Chillicothe.  So I've changed plans to head straight for home.  It will probably take 2 days rather than the 3 I'd planned by going to Chillicothe.

2026 Natchez Trace ride - Day 19 - Chatanooga and Chicamauga Battlefields

I got my Great Smoky Mountains photo

I woke up at 4:00 and could not go back to sleep. I just lay there resting, listening to my book. and playing Free Cell Solitaire. If I got up now it would be pitch black when I got up to the tower. I wouldn't be able to see a thing (foreshadowing).

Finally at about 5:30, I got up and finished packing. Last night I showered, changed clothes, and packed everything so I wouldn't make so much noise this morning. Nannette even did my laundry so absolutely everything I have is clean. I quietly carried everything out and put it on the bike then came back in to make myself a couple of eggs and toast. 

Last night I realized we still had two packs of bacon. So I cut them into quarters and used the pot-frying method to cook all of that bacon. We used some of it over our dinner salads but this morning I was amazed at how little bacon was left. Maybe about half of one pack. Maybe someone (besides me) had midnight munchies.  I snagged a few pieces for myself to eat with my breakfast. 

At about 6:15 I put the last of my stuff on the bike, ran through checks, and was pretty sure I had everything ready to go. I kissed my wife goodbye and she told me to drive safely. Then I got on the bike and headed up the road. 

Packed and ready to go - even have working headlights

I stopped to get a picture of the neighborhood sign

It was 64° and felt just a little cool. I had on my mesh jacket and was doing fine. There was a little bit of fog in the air but not too much. I took Highway 74 East until it met Highway 441 and then followed that into the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. My goal was to get up to Kuwohi Overlook Tower.  I thought about trying to get there in time for a sunrise but I didn't really want to hike in the pitch black. 

This was my third ride of this road this week. Went all the way to the top and back a few days ago and now I'm going to ride all the way to the top again. I turned off the main highway on Kuwohi Road. It's 7 miles long and was a really nice little road. No sharp turns and pretty scenic vistas now and again when I got to mile 4 I started to see that we were ascending into the clouds. That didn't bode well. 

I spotted an elk on the way in

Beautiful views lower down

First little whisps of fog

Soon I was riding through a fairly thick fog and still had a couple of miles to go. When I reached the parking lot it was fully covered in fog and clouds. I saw a couple of people coming down the trail and asked them how the tower was and they said it was fully socked in. But I'd come all this way so I sucked it up and started the hike. 

2/3 of the way up the trail and still foggy

Still fog - I don't think this is where I could see the tower

The trail was pretty steep and I had to stop fairly often to take a break. I'm definitely not in the best shape but I'm also pretty stubborn and really wanted to get up there. I was about halfway up when the first Boy Scout passed me walking down and carrying a sleeping bag. Soon more boys came down, carrying bags. Some of them had pillows. A couple had big blankets. 

A short memory detour - when my son Kyle was a Scout we were going to go on an outing that we needed to hike 5 miles. One of his friends was named Ivan and Ivan's parents were in their late 40s when he was born. So he didn't get a whole lot of strenuous activities with his parents. Ivan showed up to the scout outing carrying a beanbag and a thin blanket. I'm not sure what would have happened if we let him try to carry that 5 miles in and out, but nothing good. We ran back to my house and I got him a sleeping bag, a small pillow, and something to carry it all in. Good memories. 

Anyway back to my hike and the Boy Scouts coming down. None of the sleeping bags were rolled up, several of the boys had them around their shoulders or tied around their waists. Two boys were just dragging their bags on the ground. I did comment that they needed to pick them up or they would destroy the bags and both boys said they didn't care. Finally after about 10 or 12 boys, I saw the scoutmaster walking down. He had on a backpack and his sleeping bag was tied nicely on the back. I asked how the sleepout went and he just shook his head and kept walking. I never saw another adult, which used to be required. I wonder just how far downhill scouting has gone. 

Finally I was getting near the top. I came around one corner and through the fog I could barely make out the tower. It was absolutely covered with clouds all around us. There was a bench to sit on so I thought I'd sit there rather than climb that last few hundred yards and then go up the big ramp to the top. Everybody coming down said there was nothing to see from the tower.  One group had waited up there for almost 2 hours since sunrise. I never saw a thing. After 15 minutes I turned around and started back down. It didn't even occur to me to get close enough to get a picture of the tower in the fog. 

Stock photo of Kuwohi tower

I was back down fairly quick and got on the bike to head down. I told several people about the tower being fogged in but nobody turned around, just like me. They all wanted to see for themselves. 

As I rode back out the fog slowly cleared at about the same place it had started on the way in, so nothing was going away as far as I could tell. But by the time I got back to the main road, there were beautiful views all around us. Just the very top of the mountain was socked in. 

I turned north and continued my ride up towards Pigeon Forge, Knoxville, and eventually Chattanooga. 

More beautiful views lower on the mountain

Empty roads and fun riding on my way out of the park

There are very few cars on the road this morning. I'd only seen four or five on my way up and was only seeing a few more on my way back down and out. But as I got closer to the north entrance, there were more and more cars until there was a fairly steady stream coming into the park from Gatlinburg. 

I skipped the visitor center and took the Gatlinburg bypass, which dropped me into Pigeon Forge. When we were here earlier this week, we barely got into Pigeon Forge before we stopped for lunch then headed right back out.  Riding all the way through Pigeon Forge was pretty eye-opening. There were theme restaurants everywhere, multiple roller coasters, and a tower with a gorilla climbing on it. It looks like it is meant to be visited by families with little children. That's probably the result of Dollywood being just outside the town. 

Is this a hotel?  King Kong is climbing the tower for some reson

When I was getting close to turning on the freeway, I started to see the Buc-ees signs.  I wasn't ready for lunch, but I was perfectly fine to pick up a sandwich to eat later. I gassed up the bike then went in and got a sliced brisket sandwich, a big breakfast burrito, an apple pie, and a large drink. I'm going to leave early in the morning to try to ride during the cool of the day so I figured a breakfast burrito would be fine to reheat in the morning. 

I got on Interstate 40 heading west towards Knoxville. The temperature had been steadily climbing and it was now in the upper 80s. I guess I rode through Knoxville, it was just interstate through semi-populated neighborhoods.  Eventually I left Interstate 40 to get on Interstate 75 towards Chattanooga. I was starting to cramp up so I pulled off the freeway for a break.   I pulled up Google Maps to see where John and the other riders had gotten to. To my surprise they were only about 5 miles away from me. They had come north and west up the Tail of the Dragon and then headed straight up to get on Interstate 40.   Very surreal to be that close after such different paths.

I got back on the freeway and continued riding toward Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Battlefield. By now the temperatures were in the upper 90s. I was taking fairly big drinks out of my hydration bag every 5 minutes or so but I still felt like I was dehydrating. There were a few clouds in the sky but the sun was just beating down on me. 

Finally the GPS led me to an off ramp. I was well under a quarter tank of gas but it was also close to 2:00 and I had lots of things I wanted to see so I just kept going. It felt like I was going through a few neighborhoods and on some pretty narrow roads when suddenly there was the battleground. I don't know if I came in the main way everyone else does but I got there. 

I parked in the shade then went into the visitor center. The ranger pointed out the various parts of the museum and said there would be a video in 10 minutes. There wasn't a whole lot to see but I was just so grateful for the cool air. The video is about 25 minutes long and there's no way to do the battle justice in that short of time so there was lots of abridging being done. 

Fascinating how many horses it took to pull a cannon and they had many cannons

Once that was done I asked the rangers where a picnic table with shade was and they pointed me across the street. I rode over and got my Buc-ees sandwich, some Gatorade, and my apple pie. Then I set up the tripod and took a picture of myself eating a picnic lunch. 

Perfect casual picnic - took about 6 tries to get that casual

After lunch I opened the National Park Service app on my phone and started the audio tour for this battlefield. I didn't find a commercial tour. The Shiloh and Vicksburg tours I bought had 40 or 50 audio segments. The national park only has eight. I rode slowly through the park at about 15 mph, looking at the various monuments and trying to get straight in my head where various events happened. The eight audio segments were helpful except they kept saying it happened to the north or happened to the east and I have no idea which direction was which. 

Audio spot 1 - the most important part is that I'm in the shade while listening

Beautiful roads to ride slowly on

Standing up to try to get some breeze

Finally had to take the helmet off.  Sweat was pouring down my neck

Every monument seems to have canons around them

The Georgia memorial, that's where Longstreet's core poured through a gap in the line

Looking toward Snodgrass hill where General Thomas made his stand, no shade out there

I was sitting listening to one of the audio tours when I received a text message from my daughter Klair.  I had shared my Google Maps location with her and she was texting to say that she was following me around the battlefield. I should have told her about the National Parks app and she could have listened to the same audio I was listening to. 

Eventually I reached the section of the battle where General Thomas led his core to halt the Confederate advance and save the whole army. He became known as the Rock of Chickamauga for those efforts. The next big part of the story took place when General Grant took over. But that happened over in another area called Lookout Mountain.  I pulled up Google Maps and tried to search for the Lookout Mountain battlefield but my phone kept exiting and popping up a message that said the phone was overheated and needed to cool down. That happened to me on another one of these battlefields. I stuck the phone in beside my hydration bag, which still has ice in it, and soon I was able to plan my route.  But as soon as the route was planned, Google Maps warned me that the battlefield would close shortly after I arrived so I needed to get hustling. 

The ride took me down through the heart of Chattanooga. It was hot, traffic was slow, and I didn't dare stop for gas. I kept drinking out of my hydration pack and eventually made it across town. Once I started up the side of Lookout Mountain, I was on a beautiful little road that climbed slowly up to the top. I was following three other motorcycles, all Harleys, and felt very cool. Near the top I turned into the battlefield and they kept riding. I made it to the entrance before they closed the gates, flashed my National Parks pass and I was in. 

The only view I could find of Lookout mountain

Looking down at Chatanooga from Lookout Mountain

Trying to show the slope

One of the confederate gun emplacements

Another view more west, this is where I planned my hotel

I didn't think to bring my Gatorade in with me, even though it was warm and I was soon thirsty, but I didn't care because it was quite a view.   General Grant's plan was for a part of his army to come over by Lookout Mountain and just pretend they were going to attack. They were just supposed to hold this part of the Confederates in place while the real attack took place somewhere else. But once General Hooker's division attacked the base of the mountain, they didn't stop. No one ordered the soldiers to climb the mountain and attack the Confederate army on top but they did and they won. It completely demoralized the Confederate army. They had every advantage and failed to stop the attack. 

From the top of Lookout Mountain I was able to look down and across at Chattanooga. Lookout Mountain is 1,500 feet above the ground surrounding the mountain. The Union troops had to climb 1,500 feet while being attacked by the other troops at the top. I was 1,500 feet above Chattanooga and could not imagine how someone would just climb up this thing and attack it. I walked around the battlefield area and took pictures and marveled at what those men had to do. 

After about 45 minutes I figured it was time to make plans for the rest of the day. It was almost 6:00. I still needed to get a hotel, dinner, and maybe make a bit of a start on tomorrow's ride. I sat on a bench in the shade looking out across Chattanooga and started looking for hotels. I probably could have ridden all the way to Nashville and gotten the same hotel with the rest of the group but I didn't see much point in that. The husbands would be up and gone super early in the morning and the wives wouldn't get up until it was time to go to the airport. 

I picked something about an hour down the freeway and found a nice quality inn for $70. That's the other thing, they're in a Hampton Inn for about $160. I'm a cheapskate. 

I booked my hotel, planned the route, then searched for a gas station along the route. Then I walked back out of the national battlefield, got on my bike, and headed down. I was kind of piddling along down the road, going slow, when I realized I had about 10 or 15 cars behind me, none of whom wanted to go down the road slow. So I twisted the throttle and picked up the pace. Took me about 10 minutes to get back down off the mountain and another 5 minutes to get to a Circle K. I gassed up, bought a cold Gatorade, a cold bottle of water, and a hot pretzel. The starch and salt sounded good to me. 

I drank about half the Gatorade, then dumped the cold water bottle over my evaporative vest and put it on. I got on the interstate and started heading northwest. The sun was getting low and the shade really helped but it was still over 100°. I drank more of my hydration bag and it was nearly empty by the time I pulled off to my hotel. 

I got checked in then pulled up Google Maps to see what there was to eat. There was a McDonald's, a Sonic, four or five barbecue places, and a whole bunch of Mexican restaurants. That was it for about 3 miles surrounding me. I'd had more than enough barbecue and Mexican over the last few days and wanted no more and neither McDonald's nor Sonic sounded very good. I sat grumbling for a few minutes then decided to get me a few McNuggets and some fries. I'm really not that hungry anyway. 

Back in my room I was eating my nuggets when my youngest daughter texted.  She wanted to know if my 7-year-old grandson could video call me and give me his Revolutionary War presentation. Of course I said yes.   He gave a great presentation but he had a bit of trouble remembering all the names. There was a George guy, and a Jeff guy, and a John, and then some corn guy.  But he did know Alexander Hamilton. It was pretty fun to listen to him. It was fun to see brothers poke their heads in every now and again. 

Now I've been working on the blog for about 45 minutes and getting close to done. I still need to do my 360 photos, then add photos to the blog and that will be done. 

My plan is to, very early in the morning, ride to St. Louis, if not a few hours beyond St. Louis, and stop before it gets hot. I really don't want another hot day like today. Yes I know I did this to myself because I really wanted to see these battlefields but I don't need to do it every single day. 

I'm over 4,000 miles on this trip and I still have at least 1,000 miles to go. I don't dare look at my credit card to see just how much this has all cost. But these are the go-go years of my retirement and my first big trip is worth splurging on. 

Daily Miles: 295

Total Miles: 4103

Total drive time: 97h17m

2026 Natchez Trace ride - Day 18 - Cherohala Skyway

Our sunny moment on the Cherohala Skyway

I got up at 6:00, showered, dressed, and made omelets yada yada yada. 

Karen decided yesterday that she wasn't going to ride today, her grandson was giving a talk and she wanted to stream it live. Angela hadn't slept very well and decided she was also going to skip the ride, which left Nannette.  She looked at me with great big puppy dog eyes and I said if she didn't want to ride today that was just fine so she went back to sleep. 

We topped off our motorcycles with coolant, geared up and headed off.  We all made sure our intercoms were turned on.

The neighborhood mail boxes - where I found my tripod on the ground

Today we are riding the Cherohala Skyway.  This is one of four very famous roads in this area. The other three are, The Great Smoky Mountain National Park, The Blue Ridge Parkway,  and The Tail of the Dragon.   We rode the other three over the last week, and this is the final one. 

Yesterday's weather was cloudy and colder with a high likelihood of rain. But today is supposed to be sunny and warm. We woke up to gentle showers, and it persisted as we took off.  There was Heavy cloud cover which kept the temperature around 68°. John and Ron both had on their heated gear and jackets.  I was wearing a long sleeve t-shirt.

We gassed up and had to pay $5 a gallon. These high gas prices are really hitting this whole trip and making it much more expensive. 

We had to ride 20 to 30 miles to reach the Skyway. When John plans these routes he can't always get the Waypoint precisely positioned , and this was one of those times.  The GPS had us twisting and turning through some little town trying to get to the Waypoint before it would give us directions to the Skyway. John kept apologizing but Ron and I were both just laughing and enjoying the ride. 

We finally reached the skyway and I told John I wanted a picture of the sign near the start, but he blew right past it. That's probably because the sign was absolutely covered with stickers so he didn't recognize it. Every hiking group biking group trail runners and any other sort of organization had put their personal sticker on the sign. Had I thought about it I still would have stopped and gotten the picture, it was hilarious.

Dark and dreary as we start the Skyway

More dreary roads

The temperature has risen up to the mid 70s by now , but it was still heavily clouded over. The Skyway quickly started climbing on the temperatures dropped even more. We stopped at a few overlooks but most of the time we couldn't see anything but clouds.

Climbing higher gave more light but still cloudy.  And my finger

We kept climbing until the clouds turned into fog around us . It wasn't terribly thick or heavy so it wasn't dangerous, but it did make things damp . It reminded me of a time we were on the island of Kauai and had written to the end of the road. Looking out over the Paly Coast it was clear and sunny but right above our heads clouds were forming. 

Here, we didn't have the clear and sunny but we did have the cloud streaming by just over our heads. It was kind of interesting how the trees and the clouds formed a tunnel we were riding through. 

Climbing until we reached the clouds, and my finger again

Eerie tunnels through the clouds

I'm not sure how long we were on the skyway before we turned the corner and found ouselves up above the clouds in bright sunshine. We still couldn't see anything around us except for clouds, so we stopped to get a picture since this could be our only chance. 

We backed the bikes up in a row and this time Ron and I did a better job lining up. I pulled out my brand new tripod and quickly set it up. I opened the phone app on my watch which let me preview the picture. Then I tapped the button which gives 3 seconds to get posed. The pictures came out pretty good.  John went over to check out the scenic Vista, then we started getting ready to leave. A group of three 

Harleys pulled into the parking lot and one was playing Mexican music loud enough to drowned out casual conversation.  I wondered if they wanted our spot to take a picture, but just as we started to pull away they quickly started their bikes and rode out ahead of us. I guess they didn't want to be humiliated by trailing Spyders on their Harley's. 

We got a few vistas out through the clouds

Drive by scenic views

Riding around on top of the hills

Masses of wildflowers on some sections

Eventually we descended back into the clouds and there were no Scenic Vistas. But the temperature continued to stay in the low 70s and I was happy. I'll take temperatures like this with the clouds over bright sunny 90s anytime. 

After another 20 minutes the GPS told us to turn left down a small narrow road. We are heading to Bald River Falls.  The road was phenomenal , better than many we've been on this last week. It was narrow and wound around gently. It slowly took us down the side of the mountain, then at the bottom it made a sharp hairpin and started following the river. None of us had any idea what to expect, and when we reached the bridge that runs in front of the falls every one of us let out a gasp.  The Falls were breathtaking. 

The road to Bald River Falls

More of the road to Bald River Falls

It was just so pretty

We went past the falls to the parking area and found a couple spots, then gathered up our cameras and came back. The Falls really were beautiful. They're not massively High, nor do they flow millions of gallons of water, they're just very very pretty. We all took pictures and then just sat watching the falls for a while. 

All of us at the falls

Me at the falls

Back on the Skyway and rapidly descending.  The clouds are clearing

I hope the cloud cover sticks around to keep it cool

The last part of the Skyway was beside a beautiful river

Very nice river

The ride back up to the Skyway was just as nice as the ride down. This little section of Road is really pretty and fun to ride. Once we are on the skyway we only have a few miles before we came out the other end at the town of Tellico Plains. It was a little early for lunch but we were hungry. We picked a Mexican restaurant. I ordered a shrimp taco and a pork tamale. Both were pretty good and the whole meal cost less than $10. 

Over to lunch we talked about the fact that this would be the first ride this whole week where we will have actually ridden the entire plan ride. Usually we get halfway through a ride divert to find lunch and then just ride back to the rental house as fast as possible skipping what remained of the ride. 

We're on a few little back roads for a while but pretty quick we are back on Highway 74 , which is the highway that passes right in front of our rental house. It would take us 2 hours to get home. 

Back roads headed home

More back roads

Crossing from Tennessee back into North Carolina

When we were about an hour from home I told Ron and John to carry on , and I stopped by a grocery store to pick a few things up. Nannette had an upset stomach so I got something for her, then an extra bag of salad tomato cucumber , and for me, frozen peas to put on my salad. 

I got back on the bike and headed for home. About 2 mi shy of home I stopped to gas up the bike so that tomorrow morning I could just get up and go. I also went in and looked through their freezer section and bought a bullet pop. I haven't had one of those in a long time , and I didn't want ice cream. But I really really really want is a Frozen real strawberries Mexican popsicle , but I can almost never find them. 

 95° and it's popsicle time

I got back to the house and started unloading, then began processing  my photos. 

I wanted a really good picture of all of us in front of the house so I pulled out my snazzy new tripod and got everyone outside. That was the first time I noticed that the house had a name. Tranquility Base.  That is what Neil Armstrong named their Landing spot on the first moon landing. 

Great friends after a great week in a great rental home

I worked a bit more on the photos while the others played card games, then we started preparing dinner. Lots of good stuff for salads, leftover pot roast potatoes and carrots, and leftover street tacos. Nobody went hungry. 

Tonight I'm still writing the blog and considering my route home. I will leave first thing in the morning and go back into Great Smoky Mountain National Park to hike up Kuwohi tower. I have wanted to hike up there for a long time. 

John, angela, Ron, and Karen will all ride back to Nashville so that the next day Angela and Karen can fly home. John and Ron will start the arduous 3-day slog back to Phoenix. I do not envy them the long hot days they will ride. 

Nannette will leave about 10:00, drive to Asheville , return the rental car, and fly home at 3:30. 

I will probably take 5 days to get home riding for about 5 or 6 hours each day but avoiding the hottest parts of the day. I will probably also go back by my son Kyle's house and get a hotel with a pool.  They will swim one more time. I get to see them so I'm frequently that it's well worth the extra time. 

Everyone was deep into planning that no one was talking.  That is very notable for this group so I took a picture.

Everyone's head stuck in their phones

Daily Miles: 176

Total Miles: 3808

Total drive time: 88h53m