Day 5: Sweetwater, TN to Tupelo, MS via Nashville 376 miles

I tried to get an early start this morning because it was already 78 degrees at 6 am and forecasted to be in the 90's with the heat index over 100. My main goal of the day was to get to Cheekwood Botanical Gardens in Nashville by the time they opened at 11am. I got going before 7, and gassed up right next to my hotel so I wouldn't have to stop until I was in Nashville. I continued west on US-68 that I had been on yesterday. This was an easy ride, with virtually no traffic on a Sunday morning. At one point I passed over the Watts Bar Dam, part of the TVA works. All on one site is the dam producing some hydroelectric, a nuclear powered plant, and a coal fired plant. It was interesting and eerie at the same time. I hopped on I-40 for the next 100 miles or so to Nashville. There wasn't much traffic until about 20 miles outside of the city. All of a sudden, everyone was slamming on their brakes. About 20 cars ahead of me there were 3 state cruisers straddling all 4 west bound lanes. They proceeded to parade us at 10 mph for over 10 miles, then pulled over and let traffic resume. I'm totally puzzled as to what the purpose of that was other than to give brakes a good workout.

I made it to Cheekwood around 10am. Prior to the trip I had been worried about how I would secure my stuff while I was away from the bike. I ended up deciding to use my disc brake lock and cable. I ran the cable through a jacket sleeve, through a leg of my pants and around the chin bar of my helmet and then locked the cable to my fork. I don't have any way of securing my boots, but I tucked them under my pant leg somewhat. Paul had gotten me a very lightweight bag with shoulder straps to stick my tank bag into so I could carry that around. This all worked great except there was no shade in the parking lot and it was now 95 degrees. I was going to have some very hot clothes to put back on. I wandered a bit and then went to wait for the visitors center to open up so I could pay my admission. I waited until a few minutes after 11, and the doors were still locked and I couldn't see any activity. It took me a moment to realize my strategic mistake. I had at some point in the morning crossed time zones, so I had another hour to wait until opening.

I've failed to mention that there is a special exhibit going on at Cheekwood, called "Chihuly at Cheekwood". I didn't know this when I first put Cheekwood on my list to visit, but learned it when checking out the website a few days ago. I was fortunate to stumble on Chihuly a little over a year ago when I visited the Phoenix Botanical Gardens when we were there for Paul to attend a conference. We had attended an Arizona Diamondbacks game the night before, and the people behind us kept saying something about "Chihuly" and were raving about something they had seen. It wasn't until I got to the gardens that I learned what all the fuss was about.

Dale Chihuly is a glass artist and creates the most fantastical creations. Much of his inspiration comes from nature and his most recent works have been installations at botanical gardens. The pieces are huge, but are incorporated into the existing gardens in a way that seems totally natural. I've only shown a couple of the sculptures because the pictures are taking forever to download. They don't even begin to capture the magic of seeing this in person. The glass has incredible iridescence and depth. I'm so glad I got to see this installation at Cheekwood. Cheekwood itself is a wonderful garden, a huge property very nicely laid out on what had at one time been a private estate.

So, I couldn't help but wander around before opening time. I felt very guilty, I'm not so good at breaking rules, but in this case it was worth it. I made sure I was first in line to pay my admission though.

After thoroughly enjoying my garden tour I headed south to the start of the Natchez Trace Parkway, just a few miles south of Nashville. The Natchez Trace is a 444 mile long road through 3 states, totally unimpeded by intersections or anything else. For most of the way, the speed limit is 50, but almost all of the little traffic I encountered was going 60. The Parkway passes through great scenery and historic areas. The original Trace was the footpath used by men who had taken cargo down the Mississippi River then needed to get back north. Boat traffic only went downstream, so the upstream trip was made by horse and foot.

I stopped at this Meriwether Lewis Memorial and at a site where you can see sections of the original Trace. I came a little less than halfway, stopping at Tupelo, birthplace of Elvis Presley. Paul and I stayed in Tupelo when we were moving back across the country in 2005. We had our bicycles with us and did a couple of rides on the Parkway. It's more fun on a motorcycle!