Tennessee and just trying to make it home!

Hi to everyone, and thank you for your comments and encouragement.

Tonight I am just outside of Nashville, TN in a small town called Hurricane Mills. Apparently, Loretta Lynn is a big deal around here. Her picture is everywhere.

I did about 500 miles today, most of it through Arkansas. In all fairness I must say that I found Arkansas beautiful. In my experience poor Arkansas has been the butt of jokes about hillbillys and Hill and Bill. (see? I can be clever ....)

The state was all green with many farms, and I was just impressed with the beauty of the place.

It was exciting to once again pass over the mighty Mississippi and see the "Welcome To Tennessee" sign. The ride today was again great, with wonderful weather and much sunshine. There was one brief afternoon shower, but nothing serious.

I did have one incident that was a little more exciting than I prefer. I was passing a cement truck on I-30 in Arkansas. He was doing about 75 and I was going just a bit faster. I passed on his left, and just about as I pulled up to his cab I heard this very loud bang - and I was wearing earplugs. The truck suddenly veered away from me. In my side mirror I could see a large part of his tire in the middle of the right lane, and there was a lot of smoke. He pulled off the road.

I said a quick thank you to God that I was not still behind him and setting up to pass, and that the tire failure happened on his right side and not his left. There was very heavy truck traffic all day, and I was careful to not get caught for any extended periods of time either behind or next to any of them.

I've been watching the ol' Weather Channel tonight (over the past few weeks that has become my favorite channel), and it looks like the honeymoon is over.

According to the weather folks, it looks like rain throughout most of Tennessee and all of Virginia tomorrow. Of course they are notorious liars, so maybe I'll luck out!

I am 726 miles from home. That may be a bit much to tackle in one day - and in the rain - but when I finally get back to Virginia I will not want to stop. Right now, I am a little over 4,300 miles.

For those of you folks in the Pentagon, thank you for doing what you do and permitting me this much time free. If I get back and my seat is gone, I'll get the message....

Happy Labor Day Weekend!

Mike