Jeremiah Watt

I have been trying to keep you posted on the travails of the bike as well as for myself. I have told you each time that we need things like tires and tubes etc. And itwas on this morning when I awoke to a NO-DEW greeting, somewhat like Gideon and the Fleece............that as I was packing I noticed 2 very large slices in my rear tire.

Now remeber the rear is the newest of teh tires and has only maybe 600 or so miles on it My front tire is original, and runnng very thin and was my inital concern. The chain, a Wipperman, is running about 400 mile spast its expected life.

So, to my way of thinking, considering jsut where I am headed in the very near future.............maybe a little bike work would be in order I ride the 15 mile ride into Ashland City, and get to the Library to try and do some work on the Blog. The same routine, the same concerns about placing pics on the web site.....blah.......blah......blah Okay, been there done that, I am outt'a here.

But back in I go with my hat in may hand, I need on the interenet to hunt for some bike shops. I make a few calls and find the Cycle Center up in Clarksville..............and Chuck on the otehr end assures me that he has the goods and skills to take care of me.

I go back in and get on the computer to find some back roads to get me the 30 or so miles to Clarksville. The roads are jsut great, very narrow and the country side is changing again, these are hollers around here............which are very deep and steep trough's thru the country side. And there are plenty of exposed Limestone Rock walls that actas fences to the many steep hill sides along the swift clear running streams that fill every valley floor. The colored fall foliage and terrain make it like riding thru a movie set or a psot card. I stop at the Excell BBQ joint to get a little something cold to drink..............and have a flat front tire to top it off. I get that fixed and head on into Clarksville and the fellows at the Cycle Shop.

As luck would have it, the fellow on the other end knows all about a long journey on a bike. Chuck, a retired Army Officer, has crossed America twice and wants to go again for a third. He has also done several cross Europe and cross Germany trips that he has organized with friends. SO, I get two brand new tires put on, also two new tubes and re wrap the bars since I had cut the bar tape failry badly in some of my falls etc. Then there is the issue of the badly worn brake pads, which I have replaced while I am at it. Then we move onto the chain and how much it has stretched and go ahead and repalce it while we have it in the shop................becasue they asure me that the really big hills are yet ahead of me in my travels.

All this time, Chuck is quizzing me on my trip, my bikes peformance and what i have seen,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,and are you enjoying it seems to be an underlying theme. It si yes to all, and the performance has been good to better for everything I have taken so far.Where are you staying tonight he asks me.? To which I told the truth, I am not really sure, I guess just get out of town far enough to throw down safely is all. Well says Chuck, why don't you come home with me and stay with my wife Beth and I, you can wash some clothes, take a a shower and eat a home cooked meal with us...........now how does that sound? Well I says, consider me there and with that he gives me a map to find his house and sends me on the way even before he gets there.

Beth, is Chucks wonderful wife, and she greets me like I am family ( bad smelling) but family. She shows me to a room in the basement where I can have privacy and a shower to myself. And that is when I realize I am the lair of a serious biker.............there are without doubt 10-12 bikes doen in the room, they take up the fllor, they hang on the walls and they fill all the corners...............folks, there are bikes. And says Beth, its really only Chuck that rides, i juast ride occassionaly for fun.....................HE RIDES.

Chuck is in love with the recumbents, and they make up the bulk of his velo-arsenal. He has evey style and type that has been made.

I shower up which by the way feels great after almost 8 days of no proper bathing, it was getting so bad even the flies where going avoiding me. I took liberty with the hot water offered, and the soap which actually removed dirt and I could wash it out of my hair for a change. Then I loaded a load of sweatty and grimy road clothes into the MAytag for a litle Tide MAgic.

Chuck arrived at home after shutting down the cycle shop at 6pm.We talked, and that is whe n it all becaem very clear just how much time Chuck had spent on the road ona a bike and in the ditch just as I am making his way in the usual biker fashion. It was intersting, and informative, to learn somethings from someone whom had made the same trip an many others in the same sort of circumstances.

Beth had fixed a grea tsupper of rice and chicken ina vegitable casserole type recipe, along with some buns of a german type and a salad. It all went down easy with plenty of time for visitng, and finding out what every one was made of. We had a great desert of Ice Cream and Strawberries and al turned in. LAst thig Chuck brought down his Wireless lap-top and told me help myself and I won't have to work froma Library.

I worked till 2:30am and finally had to tun in and get some sleep. But I have got to tell you about thesmoking barns as I have tried to phoyograph for you. The barns are full of the dark leaf type chewing tobacco, and the tabaccoe is hun on racks in the barn and then left to dry. But while it is curing, the growers also light smudge type fires on the floor of the barn and that emits a dense smoke up thru the hanging leaves of the tobaccoe above it. The growers do this smoking process for some 4 solid weeks during the early fall. I will take a big chaw just for my web followers and let ya all now how good raw plug tastes.........................well maybe not. I chewed heavy 2 cans a day for some 6-8 years so I don't really want to get started all over again. But I do admit, it all smells really great when you are standing in the door of the barn as I was.

Good NIght and God bless