Spent the weekend in Smithville celebrating Duke's birthday.  As many times as I've been to Smithville, I've always wanted to ride from town out to Silver Point and back via SR56.  So, I did it this weekend and I don't know why I haven't ridden it yet!
TN SR56 zig zags north-south through Tennessee.  The section I rode is from Smithville to Silver Point, which is a exit on I40, BLOS is probably a C, wide shoulders, very curvy, 55mph speed limit, moderate traffic.  The road is pretty much flat from Smithville to the descent to Hurricane Bridge  then a long ascent to small up-and-down.  About 16 miles one way to Silver Point, there's a picnic table by the Rose Garden Meat-n-three for a rest stop.  Only complaint is the driveways crossing the shoulder on 56 are humped, so each driveway has a bump to cross.  No rumble strips yet.
What a great ride, almost!  As the sun was setting, I turned around, completed the very fast descent back towards Hurricane Bridge.  My bike computer was removed, but I looked over and a passenger in a car waved at me, not passing me!  When I reached the bottom of the descent, I stopped on the bridge and enjoyed the view.  You really can't do this in a car.  It might even be illegal.  I realized again that being out on my bike and experiencing something like this is really what makes me happy.  But the ride wasn't perfect...
After ascending teh 2.5 mile gradual climb from Hurricane Bridge, I continued on with little incident.  I was cruising along, about to reach Smithville, taking the middle of a very wide shoulder, a SUV swerved, crossing over the white line into the shoulder and blew its horn, barely missing me.  Of course the driver was harrassing me, but he didn't realize that he had put me in serious danger.  I thought I saw where he had turned off.  I made a few passes up and down some roads but luckily I never found him.  With this kind of behavior, we have some advocacy work to do around Smithville.
Anyhow, it was a great ride regardless of the a$$hole, and I hope more folks will give it a shot as a simple but challenging ride while visiting the area.  Donna and I left Smithville by car this morning and scouted some backroads southwest of Smithville, which should make for a beautiful loop with Snows Hill mixed in.  I'll give it a shot and post a report next time I'm over there.

Steve A. and I are bicycle touring, self supported from Rock Island State Park on Saturday to Cedars of Lebanon State Park.  The idea is to shake out our gear/system before we ride the Natchez Trace.  One-way drop-off's are a pretty good way to tour.  

For the second cycling season, I've been the Ride Coordinator for the Harpeth Bike Club. While managing lots of personal email addresses, I'm amazed at the people that are locked into their Internet Service provider by using the ISP-provided address.
What does this mean?  Many use @comcast.net as their email address.  They sign up at their bank with it.  They sign up to ebay with it.  They subscribe to mailing lists.  Their whole life is connected to that email address.
Problem is there are choices (or should be choices) as to who provides you Internet service.  You want to switch to ABI or AT&T because Comcast provides shi.tty service?  Well, that means you're in for a ton of work to get rid of that comcast.net email address.  That's a major problem, and will make you tolerant of problems with your current ISP just so you don't have to go through that.
So what do you do?  The easiest thing is to get a Yahoo, Google Gmail or an AOL email account.  They're free and they can actually retrieve your email from Comcast or any other POP/SMTP mail server (using the same email settings your Outlook uses.)  Those services have antivirus and spam filters that work great.  They have webmail interfaces that work very smoothly, though they may take getting used to.  I don't want to get into a review of webmail interfaces here...
The most difficult thing is to go to Godaddy or some other DNS registrar and buy a permanent name, like patclements.com!   You're stuck with that email domain, but you're not stuck with Godaddy or any other hosting service.  You're not requried to set up a website either, though it's kinda fun.  However, a DNS name costs about $10 a year to keep it.
Go start weening yourself from your ISP email address.  Do it over time.  When you suddenly get a good choice and want to change ISP's, you're positioned perfectly for it. 

Ah, my first overnight self-supported bicycle tour. I had been on many week-long and overnight supported rides, including the BRAT twice, RAGBRAI once, Tour de Cure and Jack and Back numerous times. Since I'm going to ride the Natchez Trace in September, I figured I'd better test the system.

For my first self-supported ride, I needed a moderate distance, and I wanted to ride from my doorstep somewhat close to downtown Nashville. In 2007, BRAT rode without me, starting in downtown Nashville, first night at Henry Horton. I'd use their cue sheet as a base.

This was also my first trip with my Amod GPS data logger.  Here's the track from day 1, and the better pictures from both days.

Did we make it? DID WE MAKE IT? Yes, we rolled in about 5 or 5:30 to the welcoming party in the square. They had a marching band, cheerleaders and a karaoke machine. Someone must have known we were coming. Just kidding.  Keep reading and you'll find out why the square was deserted!  Regardless, it was a great weekend for the American Diabetes Association.

Day 1 was pretty routine with some headwind, and naturally the finish with the ride up the mountain. Donna did a great job volunteering and Mark Cooper came out and helped! His mother had diabetes pretty bad, and it was a great way to honor her without having to ride 150 miles with a mountain in the middle. I wish I had not forgotten my real camera. Keith and Dan may have a different recollection of the return ride on Sunday, but here is mine!

Sunday morning, up on the mountain, the rain continued to pour. The ride officials canceled day two - the return trip from Monteagle to Murfreesboro. Keith Walker and Dan Belser were constantly checking their handheld Internet weather and their weather reports were making me feel quite disappointed. We were the last hold-outs, the last three intending to ride without support - no rest stops, no support vehicles, no one checking the route.

About 10:30, the Internet was showing rain all the way to Tullahoma, with thunderstorms developing.   We were the only participants left on the mountain.  We decided to pack it up and take the last SAG back to Murfreesboro. The volunteers waded through ankle deep water to stack our bikes in the truck. The whole time, I thought how my bike was going to get torn up banging around in that truck. As Keith's bike was going on the truck, the rain suddenly stopped and to the west side of the mountain we couldn't see any more storms coming! Give us our bikes back! We jumped aboard our bikes and rolled out of there. It was cold and the roads were wet, but it felt good to be out pedaling. We were the great fearless adventurers! I had that funny feeling - the one that makes you wonder if your cell phone works, if a tornado will come along, or could we find food and water? That's why I look for opportunities like this - to overcome that feeling, to find where my limits are.

The mountain descent was wet and had been scraped for repaving - about as dangerous as it gets. That wasn't the worse of it. A gigantic torrent of chocolate milk rainwater was gushing out the side of the mountain. It turned down the side of the road, hitting large rocks and made some large rapids, then turned and crossed the road like a river! Small rocks were rolling along with the water, and a sheriff's car was there running his lights warning vehicles of the danger. I briefly wondered if it was safe, then found it was deep enough to soak both of my feet as I pedaled across.

Safely off the mountain, the weather warmed up.  We found the TdC had help with their route painting before we got to Decherd (the first 'rest stop'.) The clowns must have thought it was hilarious when they were properly painting that left turn where you weren't supposed to turn left!  Ha ha ha... very funny..... We figured it out after a mile or so. While we were figuring it out, a huge thunderstorm drove us to find some shelter. Dan knocked on the door of a house and they let us wait in their garage. They were so nice. It was a great opportunity to meet some of the people we go flying by on our rides through the country! To meet those people was worth the 2-3 mile 'excursion' we made.

It kinda felt funny rolling by places that are supposed to have food, water and welcoming volunteers. But, we still found several convenience stores. The rain fell, stinging our faces as we descended into a deserted Dickel. After repairing a flat tire, we stopped in Bell Buckle for Blue Bell ice cream (I sure missed Phil. For four years straight, he's stopped with me for ice cream, so I sent him a camera phone picture of us!) It was fun to tell people along the way "the three of us are the Tour de Cure."

We finally did roll into downtown about 5 or 5:30, but no one was there.  I know how Spongebob Squarepants' feet feel - my feed were squishy wet.  Some a-hole redneck was sitting there doing nothing and wouldn't take our picture. I think he was homophobic about three soaking wet grown men in lycra shorts. So, we took pictures of ourselves with our camera phones. When I got home, Donna gave me shit about being so stubborn and we were so dumb for doing that! After ten years of being married to me, I would think she would be tired of giving me that lecture over and over again!

If you haven't donated yet, here are the links for you to do so if you're interested.  It's easier to write a check or donate online with your credit card.  It's harder to get out there and do something, but you can leave that part up to me and our team.  Thanks everyone for your support.

I plagiarized this from ibike.org. It's just too good not to reproduce.

More Than Forty Good Reasons For Bicycling

1. Bicycles Increase Mobility For Those Who Don't Have Access To Motor Transport.
2. Bikes Increase Mobility For Those Who Don't Qualify To Drive A Car.
3. Bicycles Increase Mobility For Those Who Can't Afford Motor Transport.
4. Bikes Increase Mobility For Those Who Don't Want To Drive Motor Vehicles.
5. There Are 28 Miles Of Bike Trails In The City of Seattle.  (Nashville has 80 miles of bike lanes)
   
6. Bicycling Is The Most Efficient Form Of Transportation Ever Invented.
7. You Get Exercise From Bicycling
8. Save Travel Money By Biking
9. Reduce Stress
10. Biking Is Therapeutic For The Mind & Spirit
11. Cycling Is Therapeutic For The Body
12. Your Commute Will Be The Best Part Of Your Day Instead Of The Worst Part Of Your Day.
13. Cycling Improves Self-Esteem
14. Save On The Membership To A Health Club, Get Your Exercise Bicycling To Work
15. Cycling Is Low Impact On The Body
16. Cycling Is Low Impact On The Environment
17. Bicycling In Your Neighborhood Is A Great Way To Meet Your Neighbors
18. Camaraderie of Cyclists Makes It A Great Way To Meet A Nice Stranger With A Similar Interest
19. Bicyclist Can Ignore the Traffic Reports
20. Feel the Self-satisfaction Of Biking Past A Traffic Jam In The Bike Lane.
21. Predictable Commute Time
22. Easier Parking
23. Cheaper Parking
24. Leaving Your Car At Home Provide A Parking Space For Someone Less Fortunate
25. If You Are Lazy, Your Bicycle Provides Door-To-Door Transport (You Don't Have To Walk Across A Vast Parking Lot)
26. Reduce Demand For Parking Lots
27. Reduce Energy Consumption (see below)
28. Reduce Air Pollution -- Bicyclist Emit Few Gases
29. Reduce Water Pollution -- Bikes Don't Drip Brake Fluid, Anti-Freeze, Transmission Fluid, Etc.
30. Reduce Noise Pollution -- Even Without A Muffler Bikes Are Quiet
31. Reduces Road Wear -- Even If Cyclist Feel Like They Have The Weight Of The World On Their Shoulders.
32. A four mile bicycle trip keeps about 15 pounds of pollutants out of the air we breathe.
33. 40% Of All Trips In The U.S. Are Within Two Miles Of Home.
34. Prevent and protest the sanctioned murder (homicide by motor-vehicle) of responsible citizens.
35. Bikes Small Profile Reduce Congestion
36. Motor Vehicle Emissions Cause More Than Half Of The Northwest's Air Pollution.
37. Reduce Need To Lay Additional Asphalt And Concrete
38. Easier to Vary Your Route By Bicycle
39. Bicycling Improves Cardio-Vascular Health
40. Better muscle tone, bone mass improvement, clearer skin
41. Healthier People Have Lower Health Care Expenses
42. New bicycle commuters can expect to lose 13 pounds their first year of bicycle commuting.
43. The Exercise Increase Your Productivity At Work
44. Increased Bike Uses Generates Bike Facilities Which Increase Property Values
45. Bicycling Gives You More Fresh Air Than A Sauna And You Can Still Sweat And Clean Your Pores
46. Bike Commuting Is A License To Dress Weird And Still Feel Smug
47. Urban Cycling Keeps You Humble
48. Biking Is Virtually Life Long Activity
49. Bicycling Can Be Enjoyed In A Wide Variety Of Topography
50. Cycling Can Be Enjoyed In A Wide Variety Of Climates
51. Bicycles Are A Great Means To See The World
52. Bicycling is cool.
53. Biking Is Fun.

A bicyclist burns about 25 Calories per mile.  One large egg supplies 80 Calories.   A cyclist can travel about three miles on the energy of one egg.
0 (symbol for one egg)

A person walking would require three eggs to go the same distance.
000

A loaded bus requires the equivalent of two dozen eggs for each person it carries three miles.
000000000000000000000000

A train requires the equivalent of three dozen eggs for each person it carries three miles.
000000000000000000000000000000000000

A car that gets 12.5 miles per gallon requires the equivalent of seven dozen eggs to carry one person three miles.
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

Even if you double the miles per gallon and double the occupancy a car will still use the equivalent of twenty-one eggs to make the trip -- more than twenty times a bicycle.
000000000000000000000

Well, I finally did it. Walk Bike Nashville's annual meeting was tonight, and I was invited.  Contemplating on how to get to a meeting downtown about cycling and pedestrian advocacy in the rain, I chose to walk a block down the road and catch the bus!   How dare those that DROVE to a Walk Bike meeting!

    If you look at the route maps for Nashville MTA, you immediately notice that the major arteries extend from downtown in a star pattern.   A few of the routes make loops, such as #7 (my route to downtown) that goes inbound on Hillsboro/21st and outbound 21st/Belmont, then turns back around onto Hillsboro Road. 

    My route was a simple pattern.  During busy bus hours, my #7 rolls every 30 minutes.  You can get out to the bus stop, read a magazine, book or newspaper while you wait a few minutes for the bus.  Bring your iPod.  It's a great way to give yourself some down time.

     When I first caught the bus heading inbound, it looked like a cross between working folks riding home, school kids, and a small number of tree hugger types (like me) riding inbound.  The bus moved along fast, while people caught up on reading, talked on the cell phone, or caught a nap.  It was quite a nice way to spend time in traffic.  I can't believe those bus drivers can get that boat past the narrow areas on 21st.  It scares the hell out of me when I'm driving my pickup through there!  My ride inbound took about 25 minutes, and I walked about 4 blocks to my destination.  Not bad... 

  After 7:15pm, buses begin running every hour.  I arrived at about 7:30, so my wait was quite long.  I had an interesting conversation about riding the bus with a guy that was waiting.  He was just going across downtown.  (he obviously had been enjoying a few beers or something.)  Though it's different than jumping in your car and taking off any time you like, it's pretty easy to get down to Deaderick St. right at :15 after.  By the way, all the buses come in at the same time, so you can make connections to other lines.  I assume that people that regularly connect have bus passes, because I don't think you can connect for free on one fare.

    Sitting at the Deaderick Street location is quite strange when you first experience it.  Likely, one is to become more comfortable with it with more experience.  No one wants to mess with you - they're there to catch the bus.  Plenty of cops hang around down there though!  Most waiting are working people.  Yuppie white collar folks are few and far between down there, and even the tree huggers (like me) weren't to be found.  That's too bad more people don't use the system.  I did have an interesting conversation with a guy about bus riding.

    The buses all arrive at Deaderick at the same time.  Imagine Dallas or Atlanta, where all the planes land at the same time, so passengers can transfer.  Same concept.  Otherwise, Deaderick would be so crowded with people waiting that it would be impractical. 

    The ride back outbound was interesting.  One gentleman lectured the driver on Murfreesboro, how it was run by good old boys, the 5th largest city in Tennessee, and "don't mess up or you might as well give it up."  The bus driver must have been running ahead of schedule.  She pulled over at a convenience store and bought a bar of chocolate while we all waited.  I don't blame her.  The bus turned off 21st onto Wedgewood, then zig zag'ed over to Belmont.  I finally got off at Blair to go meet Donna at her sister's house.  A 2 block walk got me to their house.  I rode with Donna the rest of the way home.

LESSONS LEARNED:

• Don't get in a hurry.  Catch up on reading.  Sitting on the bus reading is far better than sitting and watching TV, or screwing with the Internet!  (-:
  
• Learn the times for your bus line, for different times of day.  You have to plan a little so you don't sit on Deaderick too long.
• Take a day off and test your route, especially if you're connecting.  That way, you don't get stressed out while learning the basic operation of the system.
• Plan to walk a short distance.  It feels good to walk.  You ought to try it.
• Don't be scared of people on the bus or at the stops.  OK, lots of African American and Latino people ride.  They're just riding.  Maybe they've had a long day working and they aren't in good moods.  Maybe they never have people strike conversations.  People are people.
• All Nashville MTA buses are equipped with bike racks.  If your destination is too far from the bus stop to walk, take your bike and catch the bus.  I assure you it's a short ride.

OK, I'm finally getting around to writing a story. But, I'm gonna plagiarize Jay Spiegel's updates as a starting point. I also plan to write a story on items to bring for RAGBRAI that are a MUST! Click Read More for Jay's daily stories!