Oak Ridge to Dayton and back

A beautiful day for a bike ride. This airplane and winged horse(!) sit beside the road between Rockwood and Spring City.

Today I rode my bike from Oak Ridge to Dayton, Tennessee.  Along the way, I passed the above winged horse and airplane on display in front of someone's estate. The pickup is them pulling out of their driveway. I waved at them after taking the picture.

Zoom-hance!

Airplane and winged horse on display beside US 27 between Rockwood and Spring City.

Oops. The zoomer lost some resolution but I tried to sharpen it up with the tools that Picassaweb provides. The plane is recognizable but the winged horse probably is not. In any case, it added some fun to the ride.

First, the long sad saga of the flat tires. When I came out of the house and looked at the bike this morning, the front tire was flat. This was a bit distressing since it was flat and I fixed it Sunday evening in preparation for this very ride and I hadn't ridden since fixing that previous flat. :( However, I pitched in and took the tube out of the tire and looked at it. The hole was immediately obvious. It was on the inner surface of the tube where the rubber gets pushed into divets in the wheel by the air pressure. That's a bit stressful to the rubber and apparently this particular "new" tube "out of the box" had deteriorated during storage because at least one hole was in the divet right beside the valve stem (there may have been others -- I didn't check beyond the first one). I threw that tube away.

The one I had taken out Sunday evening was still lying around and I hadn't checked to find the leak in it, I had just run my hand around inside the tire looking for the rock or glass shard or whatever foreign object had caused the flat. I didn't find anything. I took the tube into the house and checked it thoroughly in a water bath but was not able to find a leak. So I put it back in the tire and pumped it up. It seemed to hold the air fine. So I rode it all the way to Dayton with nary a peep. If it's flat tomorrow morning, I'm going to try just pumping it up again.

After getting the flat fixed, I rolled out of the driveway at 8:39 am. Just over seven hours and 67.61 miles later, I arrived at the hotel in Dayton at about 3:40 pm. Here are some of the highlights of what happened in between.

I rode out of Oak Ridge on the Turnpike, which is also called Route 95. A construction project was completed recently to widen it from two lanes to four between Oak Ridge and the spot where 95 turns off to go by ORNL and on to Lenoir City and the road straight ahead becomes highway 58. That widening included the addition of bike lanes and sidewalks on both sides. So now, it's a very nice, smooth, comfortable ride from the intersection of Turnpike and Illinois in Oak Ridge all the way out to the 95/58 intersection. Cars whizz by on your left, but they have their own place to be and as long as they stay there, it's even relatively safe.

By a little after 10:00, I was at a convenience store by I-40 at exit 356. I had gone about 19 miles, nearly a third of the distance I expected the whole ride to be, in a little less than an hour and a half. So I thought I was on track to get to Dayton in 4.5 or 5 hours. Ah, estimates! They mess with me every time.

I stopped in the shade of the canopy covering the gas pumps and went inside to refill my water bottles and buy a cup of coffee. When I came back out, a large Budweiser truck had pulled in behind my bicycle and was waiting for me to move. I got on and rode over to another part of the parking lot, trying to get out of his way. He followed. Finally, I got far enough outside his turning radius he could pull forward past me and arrange his truck the way he wanted to unload his beer. When the driver got out of the truck and walked past, I apologized for being in his way and he said something like, "Oh, you're fine, buddy. I hadn't seen one of those things in a long time. You have the way to ride." He was referring to my recumbent bicycle, the Vision (it was made by the Vision company back in the day. Sadly, they are no longer in business.)

I proceeded south on 58, which turned into 326 (I think) when it went under the interstate. Highway 58 joins the interstate at that point and runs over to Kingston. About a mile south of the interstate, 326 T-bones into highway US 70.

View Larger Map

(I'm sorry I can't seem to get the zoom level right in the map above. Please click the "-" control to see the whole route at a glance or "+" to zoom in for greater detail. Or you can click "View Larger Map" at the bottom.)

When it goes under the interstate, the nice wide shoulder I had been enjoying narrowed down to about six inches. Six inches is better than nothing, but not nearly as nice as the wide shoulder (or bike lane, even) available on other parts of the ride. The narrow shoulder continued when I turned right onto US 70 headed west. It lasted until I got through Kingston.

I reached the edge of Kingston at about 10:45, having ridden almost 24 miles. My bike computer said I had been pedaling for 1:49, but my elapsed time (including my stop at the Ken-Jo and other pauses for various adjustments along the side of the road (putting away my coffee cup once I finished my coffee, checking for a non-existent water fountain at an earlier point in the ride, etc.) was a little over 2 hours. Now you sight one of the rocks that sank the ship of my time estimate for the ride. I stopped at a Shell station and threw away the coffee cup.

The Shell station is at the top of a hill, so I had a fun, fast roll from there down into Kingston proper, passing the courthouse and passing through the downtown.

The first intersection you come to in downtown Kingston has two lanes. The right lane is required to turn right while the left lane goes straight. I messed that up, keeping to the right edge of the road but going straight through the intersection. Assuming the second intersection would be the same and not wanting to turn right, I positioned myself at the division between the lanes, to the left of a line of trucks stopped waiting for the red light to change. As soon as I got past the tail of the last truck in line, I saw that the left lane is required to turn left and the right lane goes straight.

The last two trucks in line very kindly made space for me to squeeze between them back to the right edge of the road where I'd be out of the way.

In Kingston, US 70 runs alongside a lake so I had some nice views of the water.

Leaving Kingston, having ridden about 26 miles, on the bridge across the Clinch River, the wide shoulder reappeared. Yay!

A little after 11:00, I arrived at the Harriman Kroger, beside a Lowe's, near exit 350 (I think) on I-40. Cars on the interstate travel between exit 350 and 356 in about six minutes. It took me about an hour. I had done almost 28 miles at this point and was so proud of myself I had to go in the Kroger (where I happen to know there's a Starbuck's) and get my favorite iced beverage -- an iced grande decaf Americano with mocha pumps and soy milk. Mmmm...

Riding on from the Kroger, I followed US 70 toward Rockwood. There, I turned left, joining US highway 27 headed south. Between the Kroger and Rockwood, there are pretty good shoulders, even bike lanes in places, so that part of the ride was very pleasant. Approaching 27 on 70, there is construction aimed at widening that part of 70 from two lanes to four. I think that will make the ride even nicer. For today, I was able to ride a mile or so on the new asphalt that has been laid for the west bound lanes since traffic in both directions is running on what will become the east bound lanes.

After turning left on US 27, I rode through Rockwood. Through Rockwood, 27 has bike lanes, so once I got past the construction at the intersection, I had a place to be. I had told my wife I would call her around 12:30 (she was going to drive the van to Dayton and meet me there at the hotel to provide sag support and possibly give me a ride home tomorrow if I don't feel up to riding back. She's wonderful. :)

However, I found a covered picnic table on my side of the road as I was approaching the southern boundary of Rockwood at just a few minutes after 12:00. I decided to stop there and eat my lunch and made the call at that point. I wound up being in Rockwood for a while because after eating lunch, I crossed the road to a convenience store for a restroom and another cold drink. As I was leaving the convenience store, a fellow who had just gassed up his truck, laughing, said, "That's quite a unique contraption you have there, mister." I smiled and allowed as how it's a lot of fun to ride. He said, "I guess it beats those skinny little seats on most bikes, huh?" I said that was why I had got it, waved at him, and proceeded with my ride.

I noticed that going south on US 27, all the convenience stores/gas stations are on the left (the east side of the road). I wondered why that was. After a couple of trains passed me on the right, I decided it might be because the railroad is on the west side. Perhaps the presence of the railroad interferes with commercial establishments being on that side. It wasn't a big deal but did make getting to "convenience" stores a little less than convenient.

Between Rockwood and Spring City, I snapped the picture at the top of this entry.

Also between Rockwood and Spring City, a few miles further along, my wife caught up with me and pulled over ahead of me onto the nice, wide shoulder where I was riding. I stopped and went and sat with her for a few minutes in the cool car. (It's a Nissan Quest. We call it the VisionQuest since we use it to transport the Vision when that's necessary.) That was a nice break. She also let me leave the plastic bottle from the drink I bought in Rockwood in the car so I didn't have to find a place to throw it away. After a short visit, she drove on and I got back on the bike. 

I reached Spring City at about 2:20, having ridden 53 miles. My elapsed time was 5:40. According to my estimate, I should've been there by now. I thought I still had about 12 miles to go (about another hour's worth of riding at the speed I was going). However, the correct distance turned out to be 14 more miles and by this point, the heat was building, I was getting tired, and consequently I was slowing down. So the rest of the ride actually took about an hour and twenty minutes. I stopped in Spring City to refill water bottles again and bought another cold drink.

Passing through Spring City, the nice wide shoulder along most of US 27 goes away for about 3.5 miles. :(

Approaching Dayton, I found myself playing leapfrog with a state trooper who kept stopping people in the shoulder so I had to pull out into the right car lane to go around them. Two miles later, there he'd be again with someone else pulled over. That happened about three times. The drivers were very nice and all crowded over into the left lane as they went by to give me room.

I arrived at the Best Western Dayton at about 3:40, almost exactly 7 hours after I started. According to my bike computer, I had been actually pedaling for about 5.5 hours and therefore was stopped for a total of 1.5 hours.

My legs got a nice sunburn and I got really, really tired. My better half was already checked into the hotel with a cool room and a soft bed where I could lay down and rest for a while (did I mention how wonderful she is?). After I had a little rest and got a shower (oh! so refreshing!), we walked two blocks further south to a Subway restaurant for supper.

Usually I don't sleep well in hotels, but I have a feeling I won't have any trouble sleeping tonight. And we'll see tomorrow whether I feel rejuvenated enough to reverse the ride and do it again, this time back to home in Oak Ridge. Stay tuned...