2026 Natchez Trace ride - Day 12 - Nashville to Bryson City

The best pic of us entering North Carolina, but I'm acting as tripod

This morning it's last of our whirlwind of hotels. When we're done with today's ride we will be in a rental house for a week.  It will be so nice not to have to unpack every night and then pack up every morning.

It will also be nice to have a kitchen and be able to cook real appetizing food rather than Hotel breakfast.

All that being said, I woke up took a shower and started packing my gear. I took a batch of stuff to the bike and packed it away, then went to look for hotel breakfast. I just couldn't take another pre-made egg omelette. I got a piece of sausage and a couple of boiled eggs. I made one small waffle and the yogurt.

Then I headed back to my room, loaded my hydration bag with ice and water. Packed up the rest of the stuff and put it on the bike. Then I rode around to the front of the hotel and waited for everyone else to get done.

Getting the bikes ready

We pulled away at 8:00 but only went about a hundred yards to the nearest gas station. The ice chest I have been carrying at self-destructed yesterday, so I didn't need to buy ice.

We left the gas station and within minutes we were on the freeway heading towards Chattanooga. We're not staying there we're just going to pass through and hit another freeway. It's not much to say about freeway riding. I don't like it and avoided as much as I can but there really wasn't any other way to get us where we needed to be.

I hate freeway riding.  I feel like a bug looking for a windshield to SPLAT

We had written for about an hour and a half when John pulled off the freeway. I suspected he was looking for a gas station on the bathroom and I was right. Just before we pulled off I had noticed that we'd entered Georgia. I made a comment about it and everybody looked at me like I was crazy. I said I swear that's the sign that I saw. Then I pulled up the map and sure enough the freeway dips about a mile into Georgia and then comes right back out and John just so happened to have exited right at that point.

Our brief trip into Georgia

Anyway, we got some snacks , gassed up, and got right back on the freeway.

After another 45 minutes we finally exited onto Highway 74. You listen divided four-lane highway and even though there are the occasional stop lights, everyone was traveling about 70 miles an hour despite the speed limit being 55.

Lake Ocoee along highway 74

We had gone about 40 miles when Angela started feeling ill. We stopped to the small gas station and she picked up something to help her feel a little better. I asked if we should look for lunch and everyone said yes. I searched around on Google and found somewhere about 4 miles away. It was called The Copper Cafe.

When I zoomed in on the map I noticed that the state line went really close to the cafe and thought it was possible some of the cafe was actually in the state of Georgia. This was so fresh on my other Georgia claim that nobody believed me.  But we left to go get some lunch with me and the lead.

We drove South to the little town of McKaysville.  The town was packed with people and cars everywhere. We managed to find three parking spots close to each other. Then walked the short two blocks over to the cafe. There was seating outside and it felt pretty good, but there was a blessed air conditioning inside so that's where we sat.

The Copper Grill

We studied the menu for a little while then went up to the counter to order. I got a Reuben sandwich and I should really stop that. It tasted pretty good but they're just so greasy and probably not great for me.

While we were waiting for our food to come out John noticed a sign on the back wall and it said "Georgia Tennessee Line".  John asked the waitress if the sign was for real and she said yes that really was the state line running down the middle of their restaurant.

Standing in both states at once

Karen asked where they paid their taxes, and the waitress said they paid taxes in Tennessee because that's where the front door was. I felt Vindicated.

We parked by an Ice Cream store but were too full

Pathetic tripod picture of us at the North Carolina state sign

After lunch we continued following highway 74. We had another 40 miles or so. We started to see a lot of white water rafting companies and great big old school buses with rafts and canoes strapped all over them. Through the trees beside the road we could make out a river, and occasionally a big enough Gap would let us see that, sure enough, there were people rafting down the river.

Mountains with rain in the distance

We passed this oversized chopper somewhere and I grabbed a pic

When we were about 40 mi from our destination the road became wet. A rainstorm must have just come through before us. The last time that happened we got dumped on and I kept looking up to see if the rain was going to come in on us. It never did, but the rain had cool deer even further. We are now in the high 70s and it felt wonderful.

Wet roads warned of rain, but it must have turned off our route

The road dried out again

Even though there was a lot of traffic on the road the river was very pretty beside us. At one point we had to stop. There is a police car ahead of us with stocked all traffic. Several people with life vests and swimming suits were kind of walking around the area and when John called one he came over. One of his customers had been smacked in the face with a paddle and had lost some teeth. The police were blocking traffic long enough for them to get the person into a car and drive them for medical care. Sure enough just a couple minutes later the police waved us all past.

White water rafters

Launching rafts and kayaks

We eventually reached the turnoff to our rental home. We were here two years ago and liked it so much for staying here again. Google Maps told us to go past flip a U-turn and come back but there's no need for that. We just turned left onto our road. It's behind the gate so John entered the code and we all rushed through. Then we had three miles of incredibly Winding Road to get to the house. It's not terrible but it does wear on you after a while and I remembered every turn from our last visit.

At the house we unloaded our stuff and I checked on Nannette.  I've been texting with her all day as she took the shuttle to the airport boarded the plane and recently had landed. She had her rental car and was on the road. She was going to be about an hour and we decided that we would meet her in town to have dinner. We settled on the Iron Wok Chinese restaurant.

Dinner was pretty good. Nanette and I split sesame chicken and really enjoyed it.

After dinner we went to the local grocery store and picked up eggs and fixings for omelettes.

John Angela Ron and Karen have been playing a card game all night while I worked on the blog.

We are now in the Eastern Time Zone so I shouldn't be very tired at 9:00 , but I am. I'll get this blog finished and then I am going to sleep. 

Daily Miles: 294

Total Miles: 2994

Total drive time: 64h13m

2026 Natchez Trace ride - Day 11 - Natchez #3

Selfie on the Natchez Trace

By now it's a pretty typical morning. Wake up, shower, dress, start packing, carry a load of stuff to the bike, go eat some breakfast, back up to the room and finish packing, carry the rest of the stuff to the bike, move the bike over to where the other bikes are, go sit in the lobby and wait for everyone else.

We left just after 8:00. First stop was a gas station. I had gassed up last night so I just bought a bag of ice for the ice chest.

I saw this tiny frog on the ice machine.  He moved all over

Karen's intercom has been having trouble. Her microphone keeps dying so she can't join the conversations. Ron worked on it for a little while but couldn't get it to keep working longer than a few minutes. Finally he gave up and we got back on the road.

Right now it's also become a little typical that we start our mornings by driving through neighborhood streets for some reason. This time there's actually a really good reason , we followed the GPS to Elvis childhood home. It's now some sort of a museum and tourist attraction. It's Sunday so it doesn't open till 1:00. 

World famous downtown Tupelo Mississippi

John has been giving me grief for a few days because everywhere we stop I immediately look for shade to go park in. Whatever the opposite of a lizard is that's what he says I am. But when we pulled into the Elvis parking lot he drove around in a circle and went right to the biggest spot of shade he could find . It didn't happen to be a parking spot but it wasn't open so who cares. 

Elvis Birth Place

Karen and Angela went and walked around the grounds. Angela's the big Elvis fan

In the meantime, Ron went back to working on Karen's helmet. Yesterday I ran a test to see if it was the intercom or the helmet mount.  I swapped Ron's intercom with Karen's intercom, and the problem stayed with the helmet. That's good news , it means the intercom isn't broken and that's the expensive part.

Ron couldn't get the microphone working by the time we needed to leave so Karen was stuck just listening to the conversation rather than participating.  And if you know Karen, that's a real hardship for her.

The GPS led us quickly to the freeway.  Just a minute after we got on, we rode past our hotel!!  What the heck was with all the meandering through back streets if we were 1 minute away from Elvis home via freeway??

Just shortly after that we exited and turned onto the Natchez Trace Parkway.  John announced over the intercom that the next scheduled stop was a visitor center.  He asked if anyone wanted to stop there.  I replied "It depends on how much of this Diet Code I drink by the time we get there" and he said "Good Point".

It felt really nice to get back on the parkway.  The temperature dropped by 6 degrees, and with the shade from the trees it felt cooler than that.  The trees and the neatly trimmed grass all combine to feel serene.

Back on the Natchez Trace Parkway

It's just so nice

While we were riding I got to thinking about Karen's intercom problem.  I actually have a spare helmet mount with me.  It's not the same one.  It's meant for a half helmet.  I got it so I could use it almost like a walkie talkie in the car if Nan doesn't feel like riding some days.  My mount has a hardwired microphone rather than a remotely mounted one.  But it's plenty long to to mount on Karen's helmet and get the mic down near her mouth.  I decided to make that offer.

Right as I decided that, John asked if we wanted to stop and I said yes.  When we stopped I took my spare mount over to Ron and told him what I proposed.  We then stood around for 10 minutes trying to figure out how to add my mount to her helmet.  We finally decided that her mount had to come off first.  We did that then stuck mine on.  It seemed to work but within minutes it had come loose.  The mounting pads just weren't sticking to the helmet.  Eventually Ron got some duct tape out and managed to stick the mount on pretty good.

When it was time to go, Karen got on the intercom to thank me, SHE WAS BACK BABY!!

We headed down the parkway.  I feel it gets redundant for me to say "it was beautiful" and "the road is so well maintained" or even "it's so peaceful and serene".  But all those things are true.

We stopped after 20 minutes to see another indian mound site.  This time we actually went to the big info board and read about it.  These mounds data back to about 200 BC.  The natives didn't live here but they routinely came back to bury their dead in these mounds.  So they are very important and sacred to the native.

Mounds out near the tree line

Zoomed in on a mound

When we got back on the bikes, Karen's intercom wasn't working again.  Ron tried to turn it off and on but gave up pretty quick.  We were stopping again soon anyway, so we went down the parkway.  Peaceful, beautiful, relaxing. blah blah blah.

Our next stop was a park on the Tennessee river.  John and I pulled over to a nice shaded are to park and walk around, but Ron stopped early and had Karen take her helmet off.  He sat there working on it while we took pictures.

Ron working on Karen's intercom

Selfie at the Tennessee river

A panorama of the river

The Tennessee river and the Natchez Trace Parkway Bridge

The lighting was bad so my pictures didn't turn out well, but the river was huge.  In the west we call something 30 feet wide a river.  But out here in the east it takes a quarter mile or more to be a river.  Just behind us was a big bridge spanning the river.  I tried getting pictures but the glare and reflections made them all look terrible.  And to top it off, I forgot my hat so my selfie has my scraggly gray hair sticking up and at the same time plastered down with sweat.

Eventually Ron rode over.  He'd had to completely reset her intercom.  He had no idea what Karen had done to get it so messed up, but it was working now.  That was the last of his problems with her headset for the day.  Karen was able to talk with us through the rest of the ride.

Back on the road and the first thing we had to do was cross that bridge we'd seen.  I guess it was built specifically for the Natchez Trace Parkway to cross.  The views on the bridge were impressive but none of my shots captured that.

Tennesse river from the bridge, and my finger.  I need remedial photo taking 101

Crossing the bridge.  It was more impressive in my head

It was 11:00 when we crossed the Tennessee River and we were getting hungry so we pulled over and tried to find somewhere to eat.  No one but me had cell service, and mine was pretty sketchy.  I managed to find a BBQ place about 20 miles ahead of us and not far out of the way.  John couldn't add it to his GPS so I told him I'd let him know when it was time to turn.

We got back on the road.  We hadn't gone far when I heard Angela say "Cardo mute my microphone".  That's the voice instruction to her intercom to mute her mic so it doesn't pass on wind noise to everyone.  Then I hard Karen say the same thing, then Ron said it.  I thought I'd make a joke so I said "Cardo will you talk to me since no one else wants to?"  and to my surprise the intercom system responded to me.  I didn't hear the response but it surprised me.

I didn't hear anyone talking, but with all the muted mics I didn't expect to.  So we're riding along and we get down to 10 miles so I announce it on the intercom.  No response.  We go farther and get to 2 miles and I announce it.  No response.  1 mile, no response.  As we come to the intersection I say "THIS IS OUR TURN" but I don't see John put on his turn signal so I honk my horn.  Nothing.  I start blaring my horn and get nothing.

I think try to call John on my cell phone.  It takes a few seconds to do it safely but I didn't hear the phone ring and when he answers I can't hear him.  I am totally confused about what's going on.

So I turn my intercom off and back on.  That takes about 30 seconds.  When it comes up, I hear everyone talking wondering why I'm not telling them anything.  But by now we're a good 5 miles past the turnoff.

In hind sight, here's what happened.  My "joke" with cardo somehow got recognized as a valid command to shut off all audio functions of the intercom.  John says he responded to my joke by saying "I'll talk to you" but I didn't hear that.  So all my announcements went nowhere and we missed lunch because I made a bad joke.

I looked on GPS again and found a couple towns 5 miles ahead and a gas station just off the parkway.  We pulled off and went there.  Someone told us about a cafe 9 miles west, but after we all gassed up, we decided to skip lunch and keep going to get the riding done before it got too much hotter.  It was already 100 degrees and the sun was really beating down.

We stopped by the Merriweather Lewis' grave site.  John announced on the intercom "ChatGPT said we need to stop here but I have no idea who this guy is".  We all were a bit stunned by that.  Karen said "Do you know who Lewis & Clark are" and John said yes.  We waited and John said nothing.  Then someone said "This is Lewis".  John said "Oh.  I didn't know he had a longer name".  We all laughed.

If you don't know, Lewis was governor of Louisiana but he was deeply in debt.  He left to go to Washington DC and try to to publish his memoirs to earn money.  Along the way he left the boat he was on and was shot.  It's unclear whether he was killed or committed suicide.

Monument to Meriweather Lewis

We stopped in the shade to see the Lewis monument

More parkway but now the sun is beating down and it's over 100

We stopped again at a "waterfall".  It was nice to get off the bike and the short walk was nice.  We crossed a few bridges over some barely running streams.  Maybe the "barely running" part of that should have been a hint, but the waterfall didn't really exist.  The water oozed over the rock and just clung to it and flowed down the rocks.

The slow running stream

Ron and Karen at the "waterfall" it's in the bushes somewhere

Now we were on the home stretch.  Just 20 miles to go, but it was hot.  I really miss the shade from the early mornings.

Still pretty but hot

Tennessee is far more open than the rest.  You can actually see horizon some times

Reaching the end of the Natchez Trace Parkway was un-eventful.  We just took an offramp and we were done.  We couldn't actually ride to the end because the final section is closed for repairs.  We followed the GPS through a series of surface streets for about 15 miles until we reached our hotel.  Everyone was very happy to be done.

Ron and Karen gave me back my intercom mount and said thanks.  We got checked in and moved our gear into rooms.

Ron was going to ride into Nashville and go buy a new intercom mount for Karen's helmet so he headed back out.

When I was done removing gear I got on the bike to park it.  On my way I saw a McDonalds next door and decided I wanted a cold drink so I rode over.  Once I was ordering I realized I also wanted something more than jerky to tide me over till dinner so I ordered a 6 piece nugget meal.  I only ate a few of the nuggets, but I ate ALL of the fries.

Back at the room, I started working on the blog.  We were all worried about Ron and Karen kept us informed.  After an hour, John and Angela decided to walk over to a nearby BBQ place to eat and I joined them.

I ordered way too much food.  I got brisket and a sausage with baked beans and green beans as my sides.  I ate about 1/3 and was full.  I got a box to bring it home and have snacked on it all night.

John and Angela also got some good bbq, but their order taker asked if it was their first time eating here  When they said yes, he gave them complementary banana pudding.  My server didn't ask me and I didn't know to tell them, so no banana pudding for me.  Nan will be disappointed.

I've been thinking about getting a new tripod and my friend Mike suggested I go to best buy and see what they have, so I excused myself before Karen and Ron arrived.  But when I got to the room, it was so nice and cool that I couldn't face another hour of hot riding.  So here I sit working on the blog and watching youtube.

Daily Miles: 203

Total Miles: 2700

Total drive time: 58h30m

2026 Natchez Trace ride - Day 10 - Natchez #2

Ready for wheels up at 8:300

Last night John sent out a text saying he wanted to be "Wheels up at 8:30"  meaning he wanted to be on the bikes and moving at that time.  We are usually close to the desired time, but even if we hit it, we still need to gas up and load cups with ice and drinks, so it's not like 8:30 hits and we're flying down the highway at 75mph 30 seconds later.  My point is that I needed to wake up early enough to get everything done and be ready by 8:30.

Which is why my body woke me up at 4:30 and said "That's enough sleep for you".

I lay there for a bit reading news, facebook, and re-reading my blog to see how bad my grammar was this time.  It was pretty bad, plus I'd actually missed a few things so I fixed them.

At 5:00 I got up to shower, but before I did, I remembered all my wet gear from yesterday's rain.  Last night I had lain all my gear out to dry as much as possible but when I checked, it was still wet.  I took my shoes into the bathroom and used the hair dryer set to low to dry them over the next hour.  Then I dried out my helmet liner the same way.

Breakfast was a small waffle, a cheese omelet, a sausage patty, and a muffin.  Pretty meager.

By 8:30 we were all gathered and loaded except for Karen.  We heard Ron answer his phone and say something like "What do you mean you can't carry everything down by yourself?"  He  laughed then said he'd be right up.  We were a few minutes later.

Both John and Ron had "fuel low" flashing on their bikes.  I had gassed up my bike while the bandaged Ron's hand yesterday so still had half a tank.  Ron also wanted to run by Walmart to get something.  Oh, I wasn't supposed to tell Nannette that we went to Walmart.  It's an old joke between Nan and John.

We got to the Walmart.  Ron and Karen went in and I rode over to a Harbor Freight that I saw nearby.  I wanted to buy a cheap multi meter to help diagnose why my high beam headlights weren't working.  But they were sold out.

John and I found a spot in the shade to park and wait for Ron.  We waited about 30 minutes.  He came out with a new pair of gloves that would fit over his bandaged hand, but he couldn't find a good phone mount for his handlebars.

We were finally able to head for the Natchez Trace Parkway by 9:30.  While we waited at Walmart, the bike temp said it was 90 degrees, but once we got out of town and into the greenery of the parkway, the temperature dropped to the low 80s.  It was such a joy to back onto the Parkway.  The low speed, the greenery, no cross traffic, and the empty roads.  The parkway is just relaxing to ride.

Back on the parkway

We had only gone a few miles when we pulled off into a parking lot by a large reservoir.  We stopped on a nice elevated parking lot that gave a nice view out over the water.  We only stopped long enough to get a couple of photos, then headed off again.  We rode past the shores of the lake for about 6 miles and I got a few more pictures.  Then we were once again walled off from everything around us by the thick trees lining the parkway.

Stopped by the lake with a long name

All of us by the lake

Every so often a car or two would come up behind us.  And because we were driving below the speed limit, they'd often pass or we'd pull over to let them pass.

Riding along the shore of the lake with a long name

We were still chatting and joking on the intercom much of the time.  Sometimes a couple would drop off for a bit to have a private conversation.  Last night I watched a video about our headsets to refresh myself on some of the features.  One feature in particular seemed like a very fun option.  So when I knew everyone was on the chat, but the conversation had died down, I called Nannette on my cell phone.  We talked for a few minutes, then I told her to hold on while I tried something.  I pushed and held my intercom button for 2 seconds and heard a beep.  Then I told Nan to say Hi.  She did and everyone in the intercom group could hear her.  Not only that, she could hear them too.  So we spent a few minutes as Nan asked questions about yesterday's accident and how kids were doing etc.  But Nan was just about to leave to take a grand daughter to get nails painted so we didn't talk long.  But it's a neat feature to bring a phone call into the chat.

We knew that part of the parkway was closed for construction and we finally hit the detour around 10:30.  It forced us off the parkway, but we got right onto a large 4 lane highway and the detour miles just burned away.

I asked if we should look for food since we were off the parkway and everyone thought it was a good idea.  Google pulled up a list of restaurants along our route.  I started reading off names and food types.  When I hit on a mexican restaurant several people said yes.  So I entered that as a new destination.  It was only 1 mile off of our planned route.  We reached it just before noon and went around to the back to find shade to park in.

Everyone got pretty good food except Angela whose rolled tacos were extra greasy and the chicken was very overcooked.  Karen gave her a granola bar to tide her over.  Back at the bikes, Ron, Karen, and I got out our evaporative neck wraps and vests.  I had loaded the chest with ice this morning.  Much has melted so we soaked the items in that freezing cold water then put it on.  Mine felt great and cut down on the heat.  

Just as we were ready to leave, John got a call and said he needed to take it.  He walked a little way off and started talking.  And the more he talked, the bigger his grin got.  Then he told us he'd just sold a million dollar home.  We all congratulated him.  John has sold homes on many of our trips over the years.  There have been many times we've sat in a restaurant or ice cream shop while John sits in a corner filling in an offer or counter offer.  It's nice that he can ride and still keep his business going.

John giving us his news

When we backtracked our extra mile we found ourselves at the end of the detour and getting back onto the parkway.  By now it was 1:00 and the temperature was up near 100 degrees.  We rode for about 30 minutes before we stopped to see a "swamp".  Sure enough there was about an acre of land covered in slimy water with those trees that have massive root balls.  It looked swampy but it didn't really feel swampy and I bet there wasn't a single gator in the whole thing.  We re-soaked our evaporative gear and set off again.

Bridge across the "Swamp"

The endless swamp, no wait, it ends right over there

We stopped again at a place called French Camp.  I guess it's a famous christian camp with a couple of stores and a cafe.  The gift shops were interesting.  We thought about getting some ice cream in the cafe but I think only I thought that was a great idea.  When we were getting ready to go, we saw a man and his son getting onto a motorcycle.  We chatted a bit about the trail.  He's taking his son on a 3 day trip down and back.  He was surprised by the low speed limit on the trail and said he wasn't going to be able to go as far as he liked.  I told him about my 2 day ride with Penn and he thought Hannibal might be a fun ride in the future.

More scenes on the parkway

Some of the most open area on the parkway

Lots of different looks on the parkway

We stopped another time to see some ancient indian mounds.  There was no real history or trail, so we just took pictures and kept going.

John and Angela looking at an indian mount.  Ron and I are parked in the shade.

Another indian mound

Finally we reached Tupelo and exited  the parkway.  I got cut off by another car and delayed at a stoplight so I rode the last 3 miles alone.  But I had the address and it was no big deal.

We got checked in and I started working on the blog ..... again.  We agreed to meet at 5:15 to get dinner.  There was another Chili's across the street and that has something for everyone's dining limitations.  But wen we got there, they showed us to their only large table.  But the sun was shining straight in and we couldn't get the sun shade to pull down.  Turns out its been broken a long time.  They had some 4 person tables available but it would be an hour before another table that could sit 5 was free.  I told them to go ahead and sit 4, and I was in a mood to go eat something "exotic" anyway.  So I left them to it.

After some google searching I decided to go for a nice Thai Curry.  It was about a mile away.  I also got some pot stickers with my Penang shrimp curry.

Before my food came, I texted a message to John.  "Boy this spicy bulgogi beef is fantastic.  And the huge selection of kimchi is great!".  John served his mission in Korea and he loves the food but seldom gets to eat it.  So me leaving to get Korean would have been a BIG no-no.  I wasted a little bit then texted "JUST KIDDING!!"  I don't know if it really got him or not but I had a good laugh anyway.

My curry and pot stickers were very good.  I'm glad I went for them.  An this time I made very sure to get my credit card back from the waitress.

I gassed up on the way back and bought a couple water bottles.

No I'm doing what I do every night, finishing the blog.  Today wasn't nearly as eventful as yesterday, thank heaven.  I didn't take so many pictures.

Tomorrow its wheels up at 8:00

Daily Miles: 182

Total Miles: 2497

Total drive time: 53h19m