We had a very restful night. Our hosts had to leave for work very early, so we got on the road before 8. These are our hosts, Jessica and Dewayne.

It’s not easy to write about transit days. We have a mid-morning break, a lunch stop, and an afternoon coffee break. Today we were able to cover 440 miles to our destination. We had overcast skies in the morning. It rained all the way through Brimingham. The sun came out and the temperature dropped to a comfortable 71 degrees in the afternoon. Once we got into Tennessee, the terrain was more reminiscent of western Pennsylvania–long sweeping curves and up and down hills. Finally, some twisties and a most enjoyable afternoon until rush hour and traffic late in the afternoon.

I’m not in many pictures because I’m usually behind the camera. Beth took a picture of me for posterity.

Here’s an interesting vignette. Generally truck drivers are courteous, but sometimes you encounter a guy whose private vehicle is a little car with a spoiler. There was a flatbed truck driven by one of these young speeders. We was hauling a load of heavy steel pipe. He passed us several times. Each time he pulled in front of me just before stopping for a red light. His load was so heavy he took forever to grind through the gears and get up to speed. I passed him and then he would speed past and repeat the cycle. The final time he sped ahead and I didn’t see him for awhile. Then a few miles down the road – there he was. He pulled over into an abandoned gas station. The look on his face made it obvious he had missed a turn or couldn’t find where he was supposed make his delivery. He was clueless. I snickered.

We had one issue arise just 35 miles from our destination. Beth said her bike was making a tapping sound. We stopped and assessed the situation. I tightened the bolt on the shifter lever about 1/8 of a turn, but the noise did not go away. We’ll keep an ear on it tomorrow to determine if it is an engine tap or something inside the fairing that might be loose.

Tomorrow we head to Missouri and if the weather is good, we’ll camp.