STL2ATL Days 10-12 – Nashville, TN to Tims Ford State Park

Tennessee is a pretty state with an oddity, at least as far as I am concerned. For the route that I am traveling, southeast from Nashville to Chattanooga, there are often no roads other than interstate 24 and US highway 41. I could have chosen long looping routes to take rural roads but I opted for the more direct path, even thought it meant riding much of it on US-41.

If you click or tap on the map above, you will get to my RideWithGPS collection for this tour and be able to see a map of each individual day’s ride, along with an overview of the entire tour from St. Louis to Atlanta.

Day 10 – Nashville, TN to Murfreesboro, TN

I really had to leave Nashville. I was eating way too much. The night before departure, I had gone to Hattie B’s Hot Chicken and eaten a dark quarter and the grits and the potato salad and a beer. Oh yeah… and most of a peach cobbler. Oh man was it good!!!

To work that off, I rode 43 miles to Barfield Crescent Park in Murfreesboro. The photos on the park website are beautiful and the website says that there are 12 primitive campsites. Perfect! Unfortunately, you cannot actually camp there unless you meet some arcane rules. I do not know what the rules are but riding into the park on a bicycle does not satisfy them. The woman on duty was very nice, very apologetic, and very firm that law enforcement did patrol the park at night and would run me out so, yes, I had to leave. Fortunately, her husband offered to load my bike and panniers into his car and drive me to a hotel. Thank you, Tim!!!

The ride was almost entirely uninteresting other than seeing the cutest Tennessee State Police car that I have ever seen. I will post a photo when I get somewhere with better internet. I followed US-41A almost the whole day. It had a good wide shoulder pretty much everywhere so, although the road looks scary in Google Maps satellite view, I was rarely close to traffic. When I did have to ride in the traffic lane, drivers were invariably polite and gave me a wide berth.

Day 11 – Murfreesboro, TN to Tullahoma, TN

This part of the state was much prettier than what I rode through on the previous day. I saw everything from a warehouse district to verdant rural areas to high dollar residential areas with houses to rival anything that I have seen in Ladue or Town and Country back home. I took pictures, too, which (as you have probably guessed) I will post later.

The only hard part of the day came at the end: a three-mile ascent into Tullahoma. Ugh. But I had a hotel and a shower waiting so I soldiered on. Once at the hotel, I learned that they did not have laundry facilities on site so I had to ride an additional two miles to a laundromat. Trust me, it was worth it!

Day 12 – Tullahoma, TN to Tims Ford State Park, TN

I took an easy 24 miles ride into Tims Ford State Park. I had lots of pretty roads and was set up at my campsite in time for lunch. It was not quite a rest day but I had an incredibly relaxing afternoon reading in my camp chair.

And guess what: I took sunset pictures which you cannot see (yet).

The only excitement was the severe thunderstorm watch. I moved my tent underneath the picnic pavilion, just in case. And… nothing happened. We got a few sprinkles while I was taking a shower but that was it.

Now I am going to close my laptop, pack up my campsite, and ride up the hills into Sewanee. TTFN. (Sheesh, did I really write “TTFN?!”)