Oct. 31 – Happy Halloween You Big Chicken

It was cold today, but no rain! By the afternoon the skies were blue again – a welcome sight. Today I would ride about 70 miles to Chattanooga. In a fortunate turn of events, I would meet up with an old college friend, Bruce Novkov, for dinner and a chance to catch up after many years. My riding continued to take me down beautiful wooded lanes and through picturesque farms. You know you are in Gods Country when people have signs like this in their yard:

If you don’t know who John Ward was – only the best radio football personality that ever sat in front of a microphone! Of course a couple of miles down the road from this sign was a home with a big confederate flag flying…..so it’s not all perfect in the hills of Tennessee! In Tracy, TN I stopped at a nice little bakery and picked up some freshly baked cookies – in fact I am eating one right now. Then I rode through Jasper and out along the Tennessee River to Raccoon Mountain, where I camped at a nice campground. I set up and took a quick shower before Bruce picked me up. He took me to a new downtown brewery, Oddstory Brewing Co., where we got a pint and caught up on each others lives. I was glad to hear that Bruce has had a very successful career as an entrepreneur – buying, starting and selling several businesses along the way and has a wonderful family with two grown daughters and three grandkids. He has always been a upbeat guy, but you could literally feel the energy as he described his business ventures and talked about his family. From the brewery we headed over to one of his favorite restaurants, Clydes. Since it was Halloween night things were pretty quiet, but there was this one big chicken wandering the streets!

At Clydes we enjoyed brisket nachos and jerk chicken along with a few more beers as our conversations continued.

Soon it was almost 10pm and past my bedtime, so we reluctantly wrapped it up and headed back to the campground. We said goodbye with the promise to stay in better touch.