Happy July 4th!!

We are getting up this morning to a 77-degree morning today. It is sort of overcast, but not like yesterday, and that still did not keep us off the bikes. Yesterday we did route 23, also known as Pig Trail. A beautiful scenic route running north-south through the mountains. Of course, we have yet to encounter any roads that aren't georgeous here, which, of course, is what brought us back here. Our neighbors in one of the cabins are also on bikes, BMWs, and yesterday afternoon the little town of Jasper was over run with motorcycles.

The day before yesterday a huge lumber truck over turned on the road coming into Jasper from the south, I believe route 7. As you come in, there are numerous signs warning of sharp bends and steep corners, and there is even a place for the trucks to pull over and check their brakes as well as a run away truck ramp, which he apparently by passed before over turning on the last tight bend into town and sliding into the mountainside.

The one thing that's a little nerve wracking are how slippery the "tar snakes", those patches of black tar you see painted on the asphalt to patch the cracks, get in the ninety plus degree temperatures here. Sorta' makes your butt pucker up.

Yesterday in the middle of our ride, Buffalo thought his back wheel was feeling a little funny, and wanting to be cautious from the "accident" (or the sh..it happens) we ran into the city of Clarksville and found a local bike shop. There we checked the tire pressure, picked up a couple of quarts of Syn3 (that's a synthetic Harley oil for my non-biker followers) for the bikes and visited with the friendly folks at the shop. And once again our faith in the American goodness was reinforced. You see, after checking his oil, Buffalo loosely reinserted his oil dipstick, as he wanted to check it once more before taking off. Well, we were BSing with the shop folks, he forgot about it. They told us out a Mexican restaurant down the road where we stopped for lunch, only to be followed up there by one of the guys from the bike shop with Buffalo's dipstick in hand! Once again, the kindness of Americana shows through.

And on that note, I would like to wish everybody a very happy Fourth of July. Appreciate where you live, where you are from and this beautiful and great country we have to enjoy. It rarely ceases to amaze me.