Jeremiah Watt

Good morning folks, I am in the town of Fairview, which is on Hwy 63 East up in northern Tennessee. Its a fair warm morning as I awake, it is 59 degrees but with a very heavy fog. Heavy enough that I walk my bike for the larger part from where I camped to where I had poor coffee and 2 eggs. MY tent is just soaked, and my bag of sleep.........well its moist shall we say with a rather pungent odor begining to develope. I noticed that it is taking on its own personality after all that we have been through together.............last night it rolled over on its own........and I was tangled for a good 5 minutes getting it all straitened out again.

I walked a couple miles in the fog, and decided that I would wait it out in a tiny Cafe. I took in my night case and had a shave etc, so I could feel just half house broke. I sat and ordered two eggs over easy and coffee. Well the eggs went down just fine, but Boy Howdy, these folks could sure use some help with there brands of Coffee that was being used. It was bitter, but not as if it had Chickory in it, just plain bitter and about 78 degrees in the pot

Anyways, things improved just a tad, as two Coon hunters took up a table next too me and the converssation was all dogs all the time.................well lets start over, it was all COON dogs all the TIME. SO, as I sat I had this running commentary on best breed, best water dog, best treers and of course best voiced dogs, then we get sizes of dogs and the ability to travel, and then we got into dispositions and color traits etc.

I of course asked a few questions, but in general, I just listened. It was intersting, and I was wishing I could have had an Apricot Poodle lying under my chair so that when I got up too leave these men may have at least one chance to see a real dog.

Its now about 8am, and the fog is lifting enough to allow me on the road it looks like, so off I go heading east to the junction of I-75. The road has some fair large hills, with long steady climbs. Had my firast real encounter with an idiot Cola hauler. Everyone has worned me to be very wary of these paid by the load Coal Haulers...........and this one guy fit the bill. I was actually fully stopped and parked on a wide shouldered section of highway. The bike and trailer are leaned against a guard rail, and I have stepped over the rail too take a picture of some hills off to the south. While I am standing there, I here the engine brakes of a tandem axle coming down the hill and I look up to see what we have coming.

The truck, rather in bad repair, moves over in a long steady line, off his lane and over onto the shoulder..............I am now thinking that he is making a bee-line for my bike and I reach to hang onto the bike frame as he goes by just inches from my means of transportation...............and then he moves back over onto his lane and carries on up the next hill. You go figure?

Plenty of hills more and I am at that junction of I-75, and now looking for Old Highway 63 to the south, which will allow me to skirt around riding on the Interstate. I am ontop of a large ridge and I try my trusting frind the Cell Phone..........whoa, Poochy Maggie, the ol'girl has decided to work. I get to taklk to my older brother Niel and fill him in on just whre we are and what has been going on. It is while I am talking to him, and I am standing over on one corner of the truckstop parking lot, that a near fight breaks out between a man and wife. It seems that she had made him spill his coffee as they were walking out of the shop.........anyways it sure seemed like he was about to beat the tar out of her. SO I took a change of direction to another area of the parking lot. I understand his anger though...............she did waste good coffee. Whoa now, take it easy I was just kidding.

AS it turns out, I have to back track about 4 miles back down a huge hill that I had just climbed in order to get onto the road that I need. Folks, the first 2 miles of this road are covered up with coal haulers who give you no room period.............and I darned near quit the road and turned back. But after that approx. 2 miles, the coal haulers turned onto a different road and I was alone on a aroad caught between two very deep ridges and following a creek as its compass course. What a great road, the sides of the road a deep with the fallen leaves of overhead branches, red, gold, brown and green line the road...............they swirll in the wind as I pass by. The road is entirely canopied with tree branches, and what sun does poke thropugh is mottled and fractured by the canopy. The shafting afternoon sun, brightly illuminates the leaves from behind crating a mosaic of color that gives the waters of the creek a stained glass effect in places. I was really hoping that the 15 miles would las a little longer.

When I broke out of the little section of nirvana, I was surroumnded with the noise that comes with a busy road such as I-75, the trees are farther away from the road now, and businesses line the roadside and crowd trees out to make room. We are now in Caryville (Karah-veil, as it is pronounced down here), and there is a Library rat there, as they say, and I dropped in to work on the blog. I spread my tent in the bright sun to allow the sun and wind to work there magic on it. I noticed while I was getting my tent off the trailer, there was a strain and struggle going on inside the bag itself................no doubt its my bag of sleep exercising its adolescent behaviour.................Ther is nothing like a sleeping bag to contend with when it's hormones kick in.

Okay Okay, I will be nice, my brother warned me I was starting to sound real harsh on the Librarians, okay I get it. I done my best to try to work with this gal , but to no avail. The whole of Tennessee has shut me down when it comes to photos and up loading. SO I typed in some 4 days worth and headed out. My mileage has been rather dismal as of late, with all the stops and photos and hills in a day slowing me down. So I had the determination that I would get to a certain place on this day no matter what. But I had spent over 2 hours on the blog, and it was now 3:45 and I had almost 18 miles to cover.

Folks, now I do have to warn you that even the description of this ride are racy and way too volatile for small children to listen too let alone see in person. Please realize, that since the very beggining I have had one motto to my blogging........tell'em all and tell'em everything. So, if you have small children in the room , mabe make'em leave, be sure thye do not read this section...................it could be way to frightening for thier little "sikeee's"

Folks its true, darned sure is. The folks of Caryville and also of Lake City are even today picking up the pieces that are left of there towns after I stormed them. I rode like a man freshly Demon Dis-possesed.............I sped on over that road in the full drops of my handle bars and my huge thighs powering away like the piston's on a steam-engine. It was amazing, sections of loose black top would explode out of the road as I passed at such speed.........town folks without teeth, just stopped, stood and "staired" in disbelief. They stood in silent amazement, as they watched leaves in thier yards being sucked out onto the road as I passed. There were several small train tresseles over the roadway as I rode, and at each one they are shrouded in tree branches...........I rode past with such force and velocity that the hanging branches were sucked inside the tressles as I passed by the whirling vortex of wind that I had created. Dogs would bark and chase thier own tails as I passed, becasue they just knew there area was being disturbed..........but they did not know by what and out of pure canine frustration they resorted to the onlyy thing that they knew ..........chase thier own tail and see if that was the culprit. Folks, I topped 39.7 mile per hour dragging that thar trailer back yonder, and that was while on the flats not coiming out of a downhill run...............hey listen now, I am not given over to being a braggerd................but I rode for 18.7 miles like a tour champ. I rode like a man with a testosterone patch on each tire>>>>>>>>>

One very earie place that I rode past, and partly I rode last becasue I had a huge hill to climb and the campground was still a ways off and it was very near dark. But I rode past the Memorial Marker for Coal Creek Mine Explosion of 1934 if I remember the year correctly. What is most remarkable about this event, is that the town gathered for a hugeBurial Ceremony, for apprx 134 miners that were still down in the shafts of Coal Creek Mine. Ther was no way that any one could move enough rubble and debris to get too and save the trapped men.......so after 14 days of fruitless digging and 24 hour working to frre the men............a Funeral Service was held for all the trapped men and the church Bells peeled in Unison to mark this solem occassion. It was over a month later, when the men trapped in Coal Creek were reached.............yes of course all were now dead. But what was found makes a huge emotional impact on oll whom read it............that many of the men were still alive and had written there families notes.and thiose notes show that many men lived on for up to 4 or 5 days after theier own Funerals were held above ground.

I rode on, up that hil.................shoot i DIDN'T RIDE IT, i ATTACKED IT. The hill runs about 4 miles and is a fair pull up to the top of Norris Dam. Very pretty, and a nice ride indeed. I finally made it to the Norris Dam, my destination for the days trip. Now to find a camping place. As I ride I spot the East Camp ground, which works out well for me, since that is the direction I needed for the next day. I camp at the east Camp, and as I ride in I can here a mountain melody being carried by fiddle and banjo................just right. The camp ground is stuffed full of trailers, and it seems to me as I pass thru, that each person carries a musical instrument with them. I sit and listen for about 20 nimutes, its all good and just an impromptu jam session.
Camp was simple this night, and the sky almost dark as I find a flat spot.
Good Night and God Bless