day 10: memphis to ripley, tennessee 79 miles

today was a tale of two halves.  the morning, a cool and beautiful ride through neighborhoods, woodlands and farmlands;  the afternoon, a nightmare of a ride with 25-30 mile an hour headwinds and sidewinds.

morning in memphis along the river bike trail

riding along the river bike trail out of memphis, we had wonderful views of the mississippi.  the sun wasn't above the tree line, so the air was cool and dry with temperatures only in the upper 60's.

we've been lucky with curious horses and cattle wanting a closer look at us rather than the other way 'round

as we left the memphis metro area, we re-entered the farmlands of western tennessee. the morning ride took us through a number of horse and cattle farms.  we had a great visit at the shelby forest general store.  this place was the archetypical country store, complete with both live and stuffed animals and a group of good 'ole boys hanging on the front porch, offering observations on life and politics as well as stunning country philosophies.  as you can imagine, they had some very pointed commentaries about both our ride and our spandex.

the archetypical country general store

the "town council"  you can just make out the live rooster behind the garbage can on the left

after our second pit stop, at a convenience store newly reopened by a lovely korean family, we got caught by the high winds that were forecast earlier in the morning.  funny how when you hear a forecast for afternoon high winds at six in the morning, it doesn't quite sink in.  oh lord, how it sunk in later in the day.

the winds were so strong at times that we felt like we were hardly moving.  peddling as hard as well could with nearly 30 mph headwinds took every ounce of strength and stamina.  and when our course changed and the winds came at us sideways, it was all we could do to keep our bikes moving forward as we were buffeted continuously while riding through open fields.  it was even more dangerous when we came out of a long, fast descent through woodlands only to get hit by fierce crosswinds as the came into open space.

by the end of the day, fighting those winds made most of us more exhausted than if we had ridden 100 miles.  oh yeah, and by late afternoon, the road temperatures hit 100 degrees again.

it's going to be an early night for all of us.  we're wiped.  tomorrow promises more winds and high temperatures.