Day 5 - Tupelo, MS to Dover, TN

We started out our day with a little bike trouble. Dad's bike wouldn't start and as he and Steve were working on it, there was also a fellow biker getting ready to take off too, and he stopped over to give Dad a jump. The boys all worked hard, but the jump didn't start the bike either. Thanks anyway, Leroy :) Eventually, it did start up (for no apparent reason) so we planned on stopping at the HD dealer later on in Nashville to get the part they thought might be the problem.

Once we were running, we hopped down the road to visit Elvis' birth place. We figured since we saw Graceland and this was only a few miles down from where we stayed, we should probably check it out. What a teeny, tiny house it is! We didn't take the tour, just stopped by for some photo ops.

Ahhh, out of the city and back on the Parkway. It's just so easy and mellow to drive this road that it's a sigh of relief when you're on it. Shortly after crossing in to Alabama, We stopped at the Colbert Ferry Site which is an old Ferry launch on the Tennessee River. It had a lovely view of both the river and the cool bridge we were going to cross. We had great weather for a good part of the day, but wedid begin to run in to some showers after crossing in to Tennessee. It appeared like we had actually caught up with the rain, so we thought we'd stop for some lunch to let it get ahead of us. We pulled off in the little town of Collinwood because Sally had said there was a diner called Melvins. Before we got to Melvins, though, We came upon a busy looking road side diner called Carol's Country Cooking. We were getting a little wet at this point so we pulled on in. They kindly let us park our bikes under their carport and we went in side and enjoyed some great sandwiches, fries, and home made onion rings. Once we were all dried off (I changed my jeans and socks) we suited up in our rain gear and headed back on to the Trace.

There is 2.5 mile road off the parkway that follows the original trace route. We took that litle loop and it was really neat to be riding back through the woods on the small, gravely road. There was fog hanging in the trees from the recent rain. I think you'll be able to see that in the picures/video.

We also made a stop later down the road at Jackson Falls. The picture on the map was amazing, but when we got there the falls were down to a trickle. I took a picture of the cows in the distant field instead.

At the end of the Trace, we crossed the famous Arches Bridge, but didn't stop to take a picture because there was no real view of the bridge from up at the top. We finished off the Parkway and headed in to the HD Dealer in Nashville. Got there 15 minutes before they closed so Dad was able to get his part.

We had about 85 more miles to Dover where we were staying. We hit rain around Clarksville and drove the remaining 30 miles in the dark and heavy rain to the hotel. Yuk! We made it safe and sound though, and the nice couple that runs the place gave us towels to wipe off our bikes. Now we're all warm and dry inside and done for the day.

Click here for the pictures.