First third of the Memphis vacation
Last Saturday we took off for a week of fun which was unlike any other vacation to my folks' house. For one, no one was home when we arrived. We expected this as Mom and Pete were down at their under construction lake house in NW Alabama and baby brother John was still in Knoxville to finish up summer school exams. With that knowledge, we took our time getting to the house and enjoyed a quiet evening and morning.
On Sunday morning we pulled out our bikes and explored the Wolf River Greenway which winds its way along Wolf River/Humphreys Boulevard only a few streets away from Mom's neighborhood. It was lovely under the cooling trees and we enjoyed ourselves immensely despite the 90F temps at 9:30am.
On Monday morning I got brave and rode further afield: all the way from Germantown to mid-town Memphis, as a matter of fact, via the Greater Memphis Greenline which encompasses the Wolf River Greenway and the Shelby Farms Greenline as well. The eastern end is absolutely gorgeous with scenic overlooks of the Wolf River and little "learning areas" about the aquifers, local flora and fauna, and history of the Wolf River. The section through Shelby Farms was also picturesque but that trail is in the open unlike the Wolf River's tunnel of trees. The Memphis Greenline proper picks up next to the prison (whee) and continues a straight, tree-lined path next to the north loop of I-240 for about six miles.
I set off at 9am when the temperature was a mere 80F. I took several breaks for shade/water/sunscreen break and made it to the end of the Greenline in mid-town at 11:30am. I'd ridden 17 miles at that point and there was no way I could make the round trip back to Mom's in the heat of the day. zipmeister and John lived only a couple of miles away from the trail's end and John said I could crash at their place until Hubbyfink picked me up. After checking Googlemaps, I set off for their house and got to ride on some of the more frightening (because of high speed traffic) streets in mid-town.
The temperature had risen to near 100 degrees and I was in full sun at this point. I hadn't quite run out of water, but by the time I got to their neighborhood heat exhaustion was setting in. I got lost several times because I could no longer read the map correctly. Finally I realized that I should use the turn-by-turn directions and I made it to Scott & John's house, a mere two miles away from the trail's end, at noon. (They, of course, were starting to panic that something had happened to me since it shouldn't have taken 30 minutes to ride two miles.)
They plied me with water and I collapsed on their cool concrete floor. Hubbyfink brought me a change of clothes and I took a cool shower before we headed out for lunch and a bit of shopping with the guys. I made a full recovery and enjoyed my bragging rights to friends and family.
There are a few things I noticed during the two rides. Everybody was ~so~ friendly. Of the hundred or so bikers, joggers, and walkers I passed or overtook, all but a handful smiled, waved, or gave a verbal greeting. Welcome to the south. Also? It's ~so~ flat. That's great because there are few hills to climb and that sucks because there are few hills to coast down. I giggled when I saw warning signs for slippery switchbacks -- these signs are plentiful on the Mount Vernon Trail the farther south you go -- but the switchbacks on the Wolf River Greenway were gentle and mostly flat curves. Bless.
One of the more fun things to happen was meeting Cort of FIX MEMPHIS while shopping for a new saddle and lube for Scott's mountain bike at the Highland branch of Peddler Bike Shop. The clerk and I geeked about Memphis' burgeoning bicycle infrastructure and I mentioned I'd been keeping up with the growth via several blogs. He asked which ones I read and I rattled off several of the blogs in the "Memphis Area Blogs" sidebar. He put his hand out and introduced himself as one of the authors of the above blog. That was pretty damn cool.
More later...
On Sunday morning we pulled out our bikes and explored the Wolf River Greenway which winds its way along Wolf River/Humphreys Boulevard only a few streets away from Mom's neighborhood. It was lovely under the cooling trees and we enjoyed ourselves immensely despite the 90F temps at 9:30am.
On Monday morning I got brave and rode further afield: all the way from Germantown to mid-town Memphis, as a matter of fact, via the Greater Memphis Greenline which encompasses the Wolf River Greenway and the Shelby Farms Greenline as well. The eastern end is absolutely gorgeous with scenic overlooks of the Wolf River and little "learning areas" about the aquifers, local flora and fauna, and history of the Wolf River. The section through Shelby Farms was also picturesque but that trail is in the open unlike the Wolf River's tunnel of trees. The Memphis Greenline proper picks up next to the prison (whee) and continues a straight, tree-lined path next to the north loop of I-240 for about six miles.
I set off at 9am when the temperature was a mere 80F. I took several breaks for shade/water/sunscreen break and made it to the end of the Greenline in mid-town at 11:30am. I'd ridden 17 miles at that point and there was no way I could make the round trip back to Mom's in the heat of the day. zipmeister and John lived only a couple of miles away from the trail's end and John said I could crash at their place until Hubbyfink picked me up. After checking Googlemaps, I set off for their house and got to ride on some of the more frightening (because of high speed traffic) streets in mid-town.
The temperature had risen to near 100 degrees and I was in full sun at this point. I hadn't quite run out of water, but by the time I got to their neighborhood heat exhaustion was setting in. I got lost several times because I could no longer read the map correctly. Finally I realized that I should use the turn-by-turn directions and I made it to Scott & John's house, a mere two miles away from the trail's end, at noon. (They, of course, were starting to panic that something had happened to me since it shouldn't have taken 30 minutes to ride two miles.)
They plied me with water and I collapsed on their cool concrete floor. Hubbyfink brought me a change of clothes and I took a cool shower before we headed out for lunch and a bit of shopping with the guys. I made a full recovery and enjoyed my bragging rights to friends and family.
There are a few things I noticed during the two rides. Everybody was ~so~ friendly. Of the hundred or so bikers, joggers, and walkers I passed or overtook, all but a handful smiled, waved, or gave a verbal greeting. Welcome to the south. Also? It's ~so~ flat. That's great because there are few hills to climb and that sucks because there are few hills to coast down. I giggled when I saw warning signs for slippery switchbacks -- these signs are plentiful on the Mount Vernon Trail the farther south you go -- but the switchbacks on the Wolf River Greenway were gentle and mostly flat curves. Bless.
One of the more fun things to happen was meeting Cort of FIX MEMPHIS while shopping for a new saddle and lube for Scott's mountain bike at the Highland branch of Peddler Bike Shop. The clerk and I geeked about Memphis' burgeoning bicycle infrastructure and I mentioned I'd been keeping up with the growth via several blogs. He asked which ones I read and I rattled off several of the blogs in the "Memphis Area Blogs" sidebar. He put his hand out and introduced himself as one of the authors of the above blog. That was pretty damn cool.
More later...