Flora's, Nashville, and The Commodore

---

---

July 10, Friday

Easy wake up and pack up from the worst tent site we've had so far. The "tenting area" which is the cheap seats, was sloped, rutted and full of sticks of all sizes. All it needed was a couple of 40 year old single wides and a school bus with no wheels. Recommendation: If you camp in Old Davidsonville State Park AR, pay the extra bucks for the high falutin' site. We rode into Jonesboro, grabbed a coffee, then (eventually) found John and Maria Flora's home. He had generously offered the use of his garage to change out the liquids in Bear. He also had the 19 mm socket I needed to pull the transmission drain plug. I keep finding out I need a fuller tool tube than what I started with on this trip. Now I'll have to add another socket. In any case, all the fluids were changed with minimal fuss, so I'm officially done with the 24k mile service requirements. Only 9000 miles left on the warranty. I'll have to find an extended warranty program soon. We treated John to lunch at his local favorite BBQ joint, then hit the road eastwardly again. I had lunch in Linden TN back in early June on the way from the Chicken Rally in Alabama to see my friend Joel in Iowa at a place called "The Commodore Hotel (and restaurant)" It was a great little find, great hosts and a real cutie for a waitress, so as we headed generally east I kinda wondered where Linden was in comparison to our route along US 412. Sheila found it, right on US 412 as it turns out, about 2 hours away, so we aimed for that and hit it on the nose. No thanks to Sheila, who thought it was a block and a half north northeast of it's actual location. The rooms are clean and pretty, with brick walls, a great bed and it almost seems like a New England bed and breakfast, probably because Mike and Kathy (the owners) are originally from there. Price ( with cool guy discount ) was $69. Sean, the cajun chef, makes soul satisfying food and the town, under what seems to be Mike's leadership, is becoming an Art Colony kind of place. I'll bet within a few years it will be a "destination" like Nashville Indiana.

July 11, Saturday

I snuck downstairs for breakfast while Deb slept in a bit, then we packed up Bear. Just before saying goodbye, while chatting with Mike on the front walk, four bikes rolled by. I waved at them, and indicated that they should stop and eat here at the Commodore. Sure enough, they pulled over in the next block and walked back to our corner. One guy walks up, says "Hi Rick, did you ever get over to Burkesville?" I was astonished. This guy remembered me and Bear from a chance meeting at a Starbucks somewhere in southern TN, on or about May the 10th ! He recognized me as he rode by ! We got chance to chat with all four, as they were very interested in our travels. Finally we were all on our respective ways, with Deb and I aiming for Nashville TN to see what the hype was all about. We found our way downtown, mostly via TN 100, to the corner of Broadway and Second Street, paid $12 to park, and strolled the avenues looking in the shops and wondering how all the bars stayed in business. There are LOTS of bars. Of course there are tons of musicians playing all over everywhere, all probably hoping to be "discovered", and the obligatory T-shirt shops selling everything imaginable to do with country music. I did buy a harmonica, so now we have a musical instrument with us. Halfway down Broadway, it started to sprinkle, so I ran back to Bear and covered him and all our gear up with the sil-nylon. Once we were done seeing the sights, we slipped into our rain-gear and headed out of town on I-40. About 5 miles east, the rain stopped, we stopped for an unclothing, and then continued on to Edgar Evans State Park, with campsites perched on a wicked slope overlooking a nice lake. When I say perched, I mean it. Each site is actually located on a wooden platform. It's the kind of angle where you could build a house with a walk-out basement, and the main entrance would be on the THIRD floor. I was able to stake Big Agnes down, but only because I located the stakes strategically in the cracks between the boards. So, tonight it's "down by the boardwalk" for sleeping. One family of four has four tent-hammocks slung from the railings of their platform. Odd, but must work for them.

---