Zip-Ties are the new duct tape

After 93 miles we ended up in a hotel in Covington, TN but we had an interesting time getting there. We were dry for about fifteen minutes before the first storm hit. We kept riding through rain all day with each new wave coming when we were almost dry from the last one. Somewhere along the way the bracket holding my carrier to my bike broke and my packs dropped to the ground. We were able to get them back in place with 2 zip-ties. Then Craig's back light shorted because it got wet inside. 2 more zip-ties and we got the spare in place. He picked up a pack of one hundred at a convienence/bait shop and used two more to really secure my carrier. Now we have enough to cover any emergency-I hope!

We are feeling like we are in the South now. All the breakfast sandwiches come on biscuits. Everyone calls us Maam and Sir. There are pop machines outside even when the building is boarded up. And they call it Coke, not pop. Sweet Tea is the drink of choice. It's good but someday  I'd like to find an iced latte again. And we started seeing cotton!!! We talked with a retired farmer and he said the KY line is about as far north as cotton goes. All the farms are a couple thousand acres now because they use automatic harvesters and nobody lives on the farms anymore. 

For a while we were riding through the hills. So much is covered with kudzu and it looks really eerie. The places looked a bit wild and uncared for and the dogs weren't tied up and enjoyed chasing us. We were glad to get back on the flats where there were more people and the dogs were lazier.