Tennessee to Kentucky to Missouri

On our ride yesterday we stopped at Alex Haley's (ROOTS) boyhood home in Henning, TN. He lived there as a boy listening to family stories told to him by his grandmother and aunt. After he became famous he bought the home back and today it is a museum. Like Elvis, he is buried in the front yard. We had to wait about 45 minutes until the museum could be opened. Henning is a very small town and when the local policeman went by and saw all the bicycles, he called the major to tell him we were waiting. The museum was worth the wait. It has artifacts given to the museum from the family. There were also pictures of Haley and his parents and also one of Chicken George who was Alex Haley's great grandfather. Because we were all scheduled to go to the Alex Haley museum we only had 44 miles to ride today.

There were no laundry facilities at our motel in Dryersville so we had to was our bike shorts and put them out to dry.

Today we had 78 miles to ride so Pat and I were ready to leave by 6:15. We had a scheduled stop at Reelfoot Lake, a State Resort Park and Hunting and Fishing Preserve. This lake was formed from the Mississippi River during a series of severe earthquakes in 1811-12. It is home to many, many birds including the American Bald Eagle. We spent about an hour at the lake.

Our ride was made great today with a tail wind most of the way. Our average speed was 14.1 It was great fun. Still by the end of 78 miles, we were very tired.

We also went through 2 new states. We rode from Tennessee into Kentucky and took a ferry across the river into Missouri. Tonight we are in Charleston, MO.