Introducing, Mr. Priest 4/13/18

Seven Points J. Percy Priest Dam Campground, Hermitage, Tennessee (Nashville)

It was time to get back to nature, as opposed to the city life. It’s a beautiful day!

Blaine found a bike trail that’s only about four miles from here. But that’s all we knew about it.

We also wanted to check out the dam our campground is named after, and they have a small Visitor Center across the street from the bike trail.

Choppy water today.
It’s warm, but windy.

It was here, at the Visitor Center, that we learned who J. Percy Priest was.

There were a few other interesting snippets of information and displays.

And they had a wonderful spot to eat lunch!

I volunteered to retrieve lunch from the Jeep.

Remember those trees with the little pink flowers?
We never noticed before, but they’re actually growing on the bark of the trees – not the tip of the branches like most trees!

If you look, you’ll see Blaine sitting by the water waiting for lunch.
Not me. Lunch. : )

Everything was practically perfect!

And then we went biking, where I discovered that I’m weak. And old (at least older than I want to be). It’s days like this that point this out to me. And to Blaine.

He says things like, “You need to start exercising with me.” Because he thinks that my problem is weak legs., but most of the time it’s not my legs that are the problem. Most of the time, it’s lung capacity. And when I become overwhelmingly hot from a combination of heat and hot flashes, it becomes much more difficult for me to function.

When it’s 80 degrees outside, it feels more like 95 to me. Throw in exertion and you can tack on another 10-20 degrees. Add a hot flash and bright sunshine and I think I could possibly spontaneously combust! I’m thankful for God’s merciful winds today!

It was a terrific 10-mile bike/hike asphalted trail called the Stone’s River Greenway, that runs alongside the, you guessed it, Stone River. They have several of these Greenways in Tennessee. We were expecting a nice ride along the river.

Our trail goes across the bridge.

But we forgot we were in Tennessee now. There are hills here. That makes it harder, but not impossible. My problem (besides the aforementioned) was that it’s also very curvy with lots of blind turns, and lots of people – both bikers and hikers – use the trail. You have to slow for curves because you can’t see around them. That means I can’t build up speed for those hills.

But I’m pleased to say that I only walked my bike once. And it wasn’t here. I made it up this hill, although I had serious doubts. 😊

However, due to my engine overheating, we had to stop after five miles and return to the Jeep for a total of 10 biking miles. And it was about that time (the turnaround) that Blaine informed me I’d been barking at him. I wasn’t aware. Sorry, dear.

I was sopping wet and gross. Guess I’ll have to take a shower now.

I did learn something though. I learned why people retire to the state of Florida. It’s not because of the weather, it’s the flat land!

We took a walk around the campground after dinner. The other side, by the lake was very windy and the water choppy.