Sweetwater,TN.

Monday, August 11, 2008

Hello Everyone:

Today was a fun day for us. We packed up our bike and left the Comfort Inn in Sweetwater, Tn ( a somewhat less than spectacular hotel) but adequate. We rode a short way down the road to Click..... The Lost Sea Cave. Chriss had a difficult time parking our bike as the parking lot had a very steep grade. It took all of his strength to keep from tipping over when we came to a stop. The main attraction was a cave with stalagmites and stalactites. They were little ones but interesting. The main interest here was the underground lake that was down deep in the cave. The lake is supposed to be the largest underground lake in North America. The lake is 40 feet deep and 500 feet long with live rainbow trout in it. The trout must be feed because there is no living food in the lake except the fish. We walked through the cave and saw formations of rock and stuff. We then took a boat ride on the lake. The boat ride was very interesting. We took pictures but in a dark cave they didn’t come out very well. The one interesting thing our guide did was to turn all the lights out and give us the opportunity to experience complete darkness. They told us that in two weeks we would be completely blind as our retinas would die of overwork trying to find light, just a bit of trivia. Obviously we were glad the lights were out only a few minutes. Chriss gave me a kiss in the darkness…. at least I hope it was him.




When we came up and got out of the cave we were hungry. They had a little restaurant across the parking lot so we had fresh homemade BBQ sandwiches. This was appropriate since it seems down south they have BBQ as often as we serve pizza up north. We then took off planning to do the bulk of today’s ride, or so we thought.

One of the Harley guys that we met yesterday told us about Fall Creek Falls then today at one of our stops a man mentioned it to us again. So we thought this must be something special and set about to find it. There is a town named Fall Creek Falls so there were road signs all over directing us to it. We found the town easy enough but we wanted the water falls itself. After a few false starts and turn a rounds we found the falls after a long ride in a state park. It was sure worth the trip, they were beautiful. Our pictures really don’t do them justice. After taking a lot of pictures it was getting late and we needed to put some miles under our belts before finding another motel. We decided to head for McMinnville, TN. We weren’t prepared for the roads as we went over 3 mountains each with tight twisty curvy roads that required Chriss’s best skill. Chriss told me he is so happy with me riding behind him on the bike. He said that he doesn’t even know I am back there as I am one with the bike. What does that mean??



What a trip. As navigator I selected the road from the map and Chriss really got a work out. It was one turn and switch back after another with very tight turns. Although I told him I was sorry he didn’t complain. I think he like the road as he kept the speed up. The turns seemed to go on and on forever. We finally arrive at a Best Western in McMinnville TN and are we glad to be here. We opted for the deluxe room. We have a Jacuzzi in our room and it sure felt good to relax in it. If you want to Google Earth the roads that we took it was Rte 30 from Athens, TN to Mc Manville, TN and it sure was curvy. We covered the bike tonight because it might rain. 80% chance so we will see Supposed to be just cloudy tomorrow but we could see a front coming in as the sun set.

Will continue the saga tomorrow. Boy are we having fun. Carol and Chriss