Leaving Waynesboro (not sure what Wayne had done to get a whole borough named after him) but we were soon heading back South to join the TAT. Our link road that we in on yesterday was another great winding road through forested areas. After around 20 miles we linked back up with the TAT.
Once again enjoyable winding gravel roads which generally afforded excellent grip. We encountered a few small streams to cross that were reasonably straightforward except for one that had a flat rock surface under the water which you could feel as you rode across was extremely slippery. We all crossed without incident.
Later we came to a much wider river crossing with loose pebbles/rocks, but nowhere near as slippery. Again all successfully negotiated. The route then turned onto another track that had a sign Road Closed except to locals so we went down it a few miles to see if was a way through to find a bridge that had been washed out & was under repair. We noticed to one side, some 4wd tracks down the bank and through the stream and up out the other side – we
By now it was approaching time for something to eat and a coffee so we deviated off the TAT to the main road where we had seen the name of a town on the GPS. Reaching there we found .well nothing really except a broken down mechanical workshop. Stopping on the side of the road we had some trail mix and water, bemoaned the lack of a diner and then plotted a route back to the TAT.
5 Minutes down this we came across a gas station with a supermarket and a caf/diner. Stopping here for coffee and a toasted sandwich lunch we gave the family owners some good marketing advice about placement of a sign on the TAT road to gain some passing business. They hadnt heard of the TAT so thought this was a good idea. Feeling we had put a bit back into the we were smugly on our way again.
Much more of the same for the rest of the day and we have decided that this route which gets better each day is basically
an Adventure Riders Heaven. Congratulations to Sam Correro who put this whole route together some years ago and apparently regularly updates it.
We had decided that we were going to divert into Nashville as being so close (80 miles) from this iconic music city it would be a shame to miss it. Bryan & Keith had been here before and rated it as worth a visit. We plotted a route and rode mainly on main roads and the 65 Expressway to our digs. The expressway was crazy busy being a labour day holiday but with only a couple of navigational hiccups we made it by Around 330kms today including 20 minutes of torrential rain on the way into Nashville.
We ubered to downtown Nashville late afternoon and the place was already hopping. For anyone who hasnt been here, the format is musicians play at nearly all the bars and restaurants if they are good enough and part or all of their payment is by way of donations/tips from the audiences.
Each bar has a slightly different style of mainly country music being played and we heard Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Johnny Cash, Shania Twain, style music from a variety of different bands. All were brilliant and the two outstanding bands (my opinion) was a Bluegrass/Country band with a female singer. This band had people up dancing including Keith and in another bar John England & his band who were playing in the same bar as they were, when Keith & Bryan visited 12 years ago.
Later we found an upmarket restaurant where we treated ourselves to an expensive dinner and wine in celebration of the fact we were having a great ride and also because by now we had a few beers (quite a few) and the prices were a bit meaningless. This state lead onto our next bit of confusion. I ordered an Uber and walked outside to see a car arriving at the curb. Opening the front door I said For Mike and the driver replied yes, jump in. Where to he asked ? This should have been a warning as when you book an Uber the first thing you tell them is your destination.
