On to Tennessee!

Today I cycled 68 miles (with around 3,000 feet of climbing), but it should have been 55-59. Two of us took a wrong turn at the end of the day, ended up cycling part of tomorrow's route, and had to backtrack. Not fun, but it makes a good story, and us two bozos get to rib each other mercilessly. 6.5 hours on the road. 

Photos from along the way:

When I see cute, tiny abandoned places like this, I wonder who once lived there, and I fantasize about fixing the place up. 

No photo of crossing into Tennessee; there was no sign, just a change in the road surface. 

Steeper hills today; check it out:

And tons of dogs! I had to get off my bike twice to walk by nasty dogs. Also, a number of the dogs today were stealthy attackers. They would silently race toward me through soft grass just out of my peripheral vision and be upon my heels before I caught on. 

At the end of our ride today, I rode through Shiloh National Military Park. This is such an impressive and extensive memorial park! It encompasses many acres, and there are dozens (hundreds?) of plaques and memorials--many of them in the precise locations where different brigades were stationed or fought. It was here that the Confederates launched a preemptive strike against Union forces that were amassing for their strike on Corinth. Although there was a bloodbath here (23,746 killed, wounded, or missing), there was no decisive outcome. The place leaves a sobering impression of the scale of the battle and the numbers of soldiers involved. 

Instead of cooking tonight, we ate out at a locally famous place called Hagy's Catfish Hotel. I ate catfish for the first time; yummy!

Tonight we're camping in Shiloh Battlefield Campground with about 100 very LOUD Cub Scouts. It's definitely an earplug night!