Day 2 Friday 7th Aug

 

Well it was ‘Trans-America Backroads’ today, but despite the lack of dirt and gravel roads Ed still managed to crash. It was rather spectacular and left him and his bike in a hole and me killing myself laughing.

 

 

 

Something had fallen out of his basket, and as he looked back to see what it was he veered off on to the grass verge. He looked forward and realised he was headed straight for a drainage hole, but as he tried to steer away from it the camber claimed his back wheel and he went straight in! It was very funny, for me at least, and luckily Ed and little Ninety were unhurt. That’s the beauty of a C90, it’s very hard to hurt yourself, usually because you’re laughing so much.

 

 

 

As we continued on the backroads and country lanes we bumped in to another couple of TAT riders all the way from Australia. It was great to have a chat with them, and although we’re much slower than them, they said that because they’ll have more hangovers than us there’s a chance we’ll catch up with them. I hope so, I’ve really missed meeting other travellers from other countries.

 

 

There was a fair bit of hill climbing to do and our bikes aren’t exactly the fastest up hill, but it gives you time to admire the scenery. There’s really beautiful countryside in this part of Tennessee, and it’s much greener than I imagined it to be.

 

 

For those of you who don’t know, Ed has been having trouble with his engine for months, and after extensive investigations it’s come to the point where he needs to get a new one. My engine has been great so far and runs at around 100-110C, whereas Ed’s runs around 150-175C!! As I’m sure many of you are aware, engines really aren’t supposed to run that hot. Luckily Ed’s rigged up a cooling system for his bike called the Squirtatron 3000, which consists of a water bottle, tube and spray cap. It seems to be doing the job, and helps keep us cool too. It’s so ruddy hot here that you soon find yourself overheating, but with a quick squirt from the Squirtatron 3000 you get a new lease of life!

 

 

We decided to take a detour to Kentucky, and as it was only backroads and no off-road we ended up leaving the trail early and headed north. The reason for the detour was so Ed could have Kentucky fried chicken in Kentucky. This will probably sound odd but there’s been a bit of a theme over the years. He’s had KFC in every country he’s ridden through, much to my disgust, and felt it was his calling to have KFC in Kentucky. He’s also had a chicken kiev in Kiev, a Moscow mule in Moscow, a Long Island iced tea in Long Island, New York style cheesecake in New York, Philadelphia cheese and a Philly cheesesteak in Philadelphia… you get the idea. So I decided to humour him; who am I to deny him these odd and simple pleasures?! We decided to tie it in with a little visit to Tennessee’s capital Nashville, and took the quickest route north avoiding the interstate.

 

 

 

We rode until sunset, but when it came to finding a place to camp we couldn’t find a campground. Ed spotted a ‘Look twice for motorcycles’ sign in someone’s front yard, and decided to knock on the door to see if they knew anywhere we could camp. The house was owned by a biking couple called Paul and Vicki, and not only did they offer us the use of their yard to camp in, and later a room, but invited us in for a beer and a chat and said to come in in the morning and they’d cook us up a good breakfast! What absolute stars, we couldn’t thank them enough.