Day 2 Recap

Today started real early as we pulled out around 0530 and it was cold! It was still dark with temperatures in the mid 40s. We crossed into Tennessee at 0548. We were supposed to be at the local CBS studio in Johnson City at 0600, but the ride time estimate we got wasn't exactly accurate. When we pulled in at 0617, the cameras and anchorman (Josh Smith) of the morning news show were waiting for us. They quickly let us know we had 2 minutes to get off our bikes and get ready for the live outdoor interview. That went well....with one exception. Tom decided to follow his GPS instead of the directions, so he pulled in about 5 minutes after us. He got there as we were wrapping up. As we were hanging outside deciding where to go next, the camera guys asked if we could wait around so they could do the weather report outside with us. Rob Williams, the weather guy, did the weather report while sitting on my bike! We had some fun with that. Then they invited us inside for some photos on the set. Josh, Rob and all the tech guys were awesome. We even met the morning "chef" that does a food segment. Tom will have to tell that story - who better to tell a food story :) Anyway it was a lot of fun and we got the word out to the Tricities area. Here's a link to the big story in the Bristol Newspaper: http://www.tricities.com/tristate/tri/news.apx.-content-articles-TRI-2006-05-16-0004.html

















After breakfast, we were off to Nashville. At our first pit stop, we tried fixing RIDECAM again. We were successful in getting the over exposed picture problem solved. The fix? We bought a $9 pair of sunglasses, removed the lens and duct taped it over RIDECAM. How's that for high tech? But the picture now looks great! Only problem is that we are still having issues with our picture uploading with Sprint. We are not sure that we'll get that resolved, but we are trying.

We picked up an hour as we crossed into Central Time and got to our hotel at 1430. We made it with no rain. One reporter from the local ABC affilliate greeted us as we continued to spread the word.

Unfortunately, I had some issues with my "non" Harley 3/4 helmet that I've been using because it is so darn cold. I won't bore you with the details but something got screwed up with the visor. Anyway, we went to the local Honda dealer that sells the Arai helmet and unfortunately their Arai "expert" wasn't in and they didn't want to make it worse. Anyway, I can live with it. But then, the highlight of our visit to Nashville (really only for Tom and I) was what was directly across the street. Anybody that knows me well, will know I was in burger heaven!! I don't need to write anymore, the photos say it all!
















Bob just couldn't understand.


Riding back to the hotel we dodged some MAJOR storms. The sky was black behind us and the roads were soaked where we traveled, but once again, we didn't get rained on (although we did get a lot of road spray).

That's about it for today. We are looking forward to meeting and riding with Sgt Josh Forbess from Ft Campbell in the morning. We have a radio interview with a Little Rock station at 0715 and the big news is that Tom will be on G. Gordon Liddy's national syndicated radio show at 1140 (1240 EDT). The weather still has a chance of rain but temperatures are getting better. Temps for this weekend will be in the mid 90s.

Thanks to everyone back home that has been helping out while I'm gone. I couldn't do this without you!!