Trans America Trail: A month's journey in a 96 Jeep XJ.

NHenson

Observer
I hope you enjoy reading about our adventures and I would love to see your comments and questions. As far as I know our journey of the Trans-America Trail (TAT) is the first of its kind in a 4x4 vehicle, but has only been published in lesser known formats up to this point (On our blog, Lake Native Travels and the Northwest Overland Society). The TAT runs from Jellico, TN to the coast of Oregon via mostly dirt roads, two-tracks, mountain passes, cow paths, goat trails, dried up creek beds, etc. with a few paved parts tossed in.

I will be posting each day of our journey at a rate of one or two weekly until I have finished.

My wife and I undertook this adventure because we wanted to see the U.S. in a way that few do anymore and we have long appreciated the back-country environment for camping and backpacking. We completed the trail, mostly solo, by doing one week of travel each summer. All of the original posts were written by my wife with a few comments tossed in by myself. I hope you enjoy reading. N.H.

TAT I Day 1 - Wednesday, July 2, 2008 (Starting point: Jellico, TN)

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Our 1st Creek Crossing​

We didn't get on the trail 'till probably 2:00 PM. "Getting up early" proved difficult what with the time difference and shopping for food 'till one in the am. And stopping to buy fireworks this afternoon. Still, we made it some 120 miles today.
We decided at the beginning that we would take pictures at points of interest. This is always a somewhat futile effort--during the points of interest, I'm too interested to think about taking pictures. However, we did stop and take a picture of an old oil drill. I figured it was a point of interest because I've never seen an oil drill in Tennessee. I also figured I could make it more interesting by climbing on top of it for the picture (it was a very small oil drill). Here is an approximate transcript of the ensuing conversation:

Erin: "Hey, hold this for a second, will you?" (Attempting to hand Nathan her camera)
Nathan: "Erin, we are not climbing on the oil drill."
Erin: (sigh)
Nathan: "It's someone else's property. We should respect that."
Erin: (sheepish grin)
Still, I got a picture, which I will attempt to post, along with some other points of interest.

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Oil Pump that Erin wanted to climb on​

Points of interest that we missed pictures of:
1. An old man, very old, missing his teeth, walking along the side of a dirt road. We asked if he needed a ride. No, he was just walking. Doctor says he has to if he wants to live. He admired the Jeep, however.
2. A tavern. This tavern is located on a dirt road in the woods which is accessed by a succession of several other dirt roads, mostly looking like peoples' driveways. Who on earth is their clientele?
3. Several turns which aren't that interesting to describe, but trust me, they were interesting to drive.

We decided that we would stop for the night at 8:00p. At about 7:45, we started looking for promising places on the side of the road (said road being Dogwood, a few miles outside of Ozone, TN). We saw a nice-looking house set in the woods with some pleasant-looking fields nearby. And plenty of cars and dogs in the driveway. Don't get the wrong picture, though: new cars and small, cute dogs. Not that we have anything against the old cars and hound dogs, just that I want to paint the appropriate scene for you.
We drove up, and the owners noticed us right away. They came out to meet us, and we (read, Nathan) politely asked if they had any place nearby where we could park our Jeep for the night. The man hesitated for a bit, and I thought he was trying to think of a polite way to tell us to get the heck out of here. After a couple of minutes he said, "I'm just trying to think of the best place to put you. I have 180 acres back there that I just mowed, but this road to access it is just a 4-wheeler road. I think your Jeep will be too wide to get there. Why don't we drive around the outside road, and you can just follow me." !!!

Well, of course he brought out the family to meet us. We got our water refilled, an invitation to go inside and eat chocolate cake (which we somehow didn't manage to accept), and the offer of his firewood. We in turn showed off the rig, followed Mr. Benson out to the back 40 (where he has converted an old porta-john into a hunting blind by painting it camo and mounting it up on a tower), and set up the tent to show them. "Them" being Mr. Benson, his 12-yr-old daughter, who drove the Geo Tracker out here for us, two other daughters, and the oldest daughter's boyfriend (at least, that was my best estimation of the relationships...).
Mr. Benson is pretty cool. He used to work at Oakridge (those of you from TN know what that entails) where he would convert radioactive waste from a semi-truck load to the size of a shoebox. He got tired of that after a while and bought a couple of convenience stores out here. He's also buying up property in the area, lucky for us.

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Camping at the Benson's​

First day has been better than we could imagine so far. We have cooked a delicious supper out of the back of the Jeep to the call of a whippoorwill and the twinkle of fireflies in the deepening dusk. Nathan hung a lantern from the hatch and reminded me not to walk into it. I should fill you in on that reference some time, but this blog is plenty long, so you'll just have to wait.
Catch you later! - EH

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Our kitchen

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Erin blogged each evening after supper​

Be sure to subscribe to this thread in the top bar, as I will be adding many more posts. One for each day of the trip. :)
 
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NHenson

Observer
TAT I Day 2: Thursday, July 3, 2008 (Posted near a gas stop where we borrowed some free wireless :peepwall: )

Peacocks and Reindeer and Yaks. Oh my!

Sorry about the cheesy subject line. I couldn't resist.

Woke up a bit late this morning, but we made good time anyway--TN is a lot of paved roads besides some dirt and gravel. Last night our awesome hosts directed us to a swimming hole just off the road we were traveling, so this morning we donned bathing suits. The trail included a bridge that went over a relatively small creek, but a lovely clear pool developed just by the road. We pulled off, grabbed the Camp Suds and a towel, and I got to jump in first. It was cold. I did not jump in. I edged. Nathan manned up and got right in the water, and we both washed off a bit. You will see a pretty picture of us in the water, if I can post pictures. Right now, posting consists of stealing a bit of wireless from a hotel or something, so it will probably be a while.

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First swummin hole​

Nathan made it up to the Jeep from the creek before I did, and when I came back, it became clear from the various clothing strewn about that Nathan had changed clothes. All of his clothes. By the side of the road. And I had the towel. I'll just leave that lovely picture to all of your imaginations. ;)

I think my favorite part of today's drive was when there was a bridge out. Nathan thought we should hook up the crane that was on the other side of the creek and lift the Jeep across. I talked him out of it. Finally, we found our way around on some tracks that were even more off-roadish than the TAT has been putting our way so far. The two-track we found met up with our proper route in the woods, but there was a gate. We considered driving around it, but couldn't. I took a picture in the sort of hopeless "so close, yet so far" mood. Then Nathan tried the lock on the gate and found it to be dummy-locked, so victory after all. We drove through feeling like highway bandits, and then I returned to re-dummy the lock. Except I couldn't get it to hold. It kept looking just plain open. Nathan came to fix it for me. Except he accidentally closed it all the way. So, to whomever had his gate dummy-locked, we are sincerely sorry. Especially if we ruined your day.

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Mis-locked gate​

We also passed a farm with llamas, donkeys, peacocks, and reindeer. !!! Oh, and another farm with yaks. I swear they were yaks--long horns like a steer, but with long, matted hair in dreds. Interesting stuff.

We are camping tonight in a real, if mildly seedy, campground. It was there, just off our trail, so we decided to go with it. We have met some very nice neighbors already, however. The roof-top tent draws quite a bit of attention. If only we were staying through tomorrow, we could be eating baby-back ribs with a really nice guy from Florida. Or partying in a much rowdier style with the people who camp permanently "up on the hill" (we've already been warned against them twice).

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Nathan cooking deep fried biscuit dough and making chili​

The trail is treating us well, with good windy roads and interesting sights. Tomorrow is Independence Day, hope you have a wonderful one. Later! - EH
 
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NHenson

Observer
TAT I Day 3: Friday, July 4, 2008

Hot, Tired, and Sticky

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We decided that we had earned the TAT (Trans-America Trail) sticker by the second day or so.

Nathan calls this the hottest day yet--I was maybe hotter yesterday, but it's been pretty warm and sticky here. We left this morning and hit some of the best trail so far. We had more dirt roads today, and lots of creek crossings.

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We crossed plenty of little bridges like this one.​

The thing that makes the TAT so great is not just the off-road part (although I can't think of much more fun than sliding around on dirt roads in Nathan's Jeep) :smiley_drive: . It's the opportunity to see the best part of the country. Typical American travel anymore means endless, soul-sucking miles of interstate with the same truck stops and fast-food chains to continue the monotony. The TAT goes by farms and state parks and wildlife areas, and when it goes through towns, they are the tiny back-woods kind with gas pumps that don't take credit cards and stores that are run by toothless people with heavy southern accents. Dogs here have the good life, with room to roam and hunt, wooden porches to sleep under, and the occasional cow to harass.

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Our favorite house in Tennessee. So many things to note--check out how the siding is a work in progress. My favorite is the single length of gutter above the door. Priceless!​

We passed through an Amish or Mennonite (or something) community. On one of the farms, one boy was driving a team to mow the hay while another boy, his father, and another young boy were driving the huge hay wagon, piled high overhead with fresh-cut hay. They looked like a picture, so quaint, but I wouldn't want to be out haying in such hot weather.

We crossed the line into Mississippi this evening, and we liked it so much up in these hills that we decided to stop and ask for a place to camp. We figured we might be pushing our luck after such a wonderful experience the other night, but we tried anyway. We stopped at the home of Molly, who drove us just down the road to some logging/slashing/burning land where we not only have a great view of the surrounding hills, but where we were able to set off our fireworks, too. I lit one of the big ones, and I burnt my right thumb and forefinger.

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New friends in Mississippi directed us to camp on this land, where we set off fireworks (For U.S. Independence Day).​

I'm about ready for bed. It's late, after having set off a double-load of fireworks (they were buy-one-get-one-free). Here's hoping for cooler weather tomorrow.

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July 4th supper.​
 
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1leglance

2007 Expedition Trophy Champion, Overland Certifie
This beats the Land Rover story to death....
Hard to believe you have survived so far after the way they over-hyped the "extreme" nature of the journey...rotating drivers, sat phones, farmed bison...life on the edge :)

Thanks for taking the time to update this and letting us travel with you , great to see it happening for real down to earth people.
 

Presto88

Adventurer
I couldn't agree more, leglance!

Looking forward to the rest of your posts, NHenson. Sounds like the beginnings of a great trip!
 

NHenson

Observer
WU7X, bjm206, 1leglance, and Presto88, thanks for your comments. I have been enjoying re-posting this trip here on ExPo as it has allowed me time to remember the trip as you read it for the first time.

1leglance: The Land Rover story prompted me to re-post our story on a more public forum, because I think it is important for like-minded adventurers to know that they don't have to have a whole team of specialists and equipment to enjoy a trip of this scale. With that said, I'm a bit envious of the team and equipment & I'm glad that Land Rover decided to highlight this route. I also need to give credit to my wife Erin (EH) as she wrote all of the original posts. You may see a comment or two from me, denoted by (NH).
 
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NHenson

Observer
TAT I Day 4: Saturday, July 5, 2008

The Real Off-Roading Begins

We drove Mississippi today. It kind of felt like we came in through the back door. We drove through hills and woods, on tiny dirt roads which, if they have not already served as the setting for a Pulitzer-prize winning novel about darkly hidden family secrets, stubborn caste prejudices, and the strange friendships that transcend them, well, I'm sure they soon will. After a few miles of peering into the small but enormous lives of back-woods Mississippians, we passed into flat farm-lands. After that, the rest of Mississippi was more of the same, between tiny woods communities and the considerably nicer farmlands in between.

Today has afforded the most off-road-ish driving so far. We had a higher dirt-to-pavement ratio, and we got to drive on a couple of mud-splashing roads, a two-track, and a couple of levees. At one point we missed a turn, and Nathan turned the Jeep around in more of a slide than a turn. Awesome!

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That section of road is even rougher than it looks!​

We met with two couples who were traveling the TAT in Russian military motorcycles (make: Ural) with sidecars. Those things are pretty sweet: they look like they were made in the 1950's, but they are 2006 models. I guess the Russians just found a design that works and stuck with it.

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Fellow TAT travelers and their cool Urals from Wisconsin


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There were also a good variety of sketchy looking bridges. We crossed anyways.


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This stream/trickle was clear and had a sandy bottom. It was very hot that day and this was a good bathing spot. Bathing spot = no cows upstream and clear water.

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Had to stop for pigs. I got pictures of that. Nathan was non-plussed by my compulsion to make friends with the lovely pig who was blocking our way. I'm not sure why... (Mostly because this pig was tall enough to look in the window of the Jeep - NH)​

We passed into Arkansas this evening, where most of the crops are rice in--well, you don't call them paddies in the U.S., do you? Whatever; they are still growing in water. There are lots of rivers and swamps, too, to the point that we were concerned about finding a dry place park the Jeep for the night. We started looking for campgrounds in the nearby towns, but the nearby towns had populations around 700. No camping.

One town (Hazen) has a couple of motels, and all of a sudden a hot shower and AC sounded so tempting (last night was extremely damp and sticky, even though it wasn't too hot). The GPS showed a tiny road running parallel to the interstate that ended up right by the motels. We thought that would be more fun, and it was certainly the most direct route from where we were, so we took off down a tiny dirt road through the woods. It involved driving around a gate, but we were soon traversing more of a leaf-covered path-ish thing through even thicker woods. The brush soon became high enough that we couldn't quite see the road, but we could see a set of tracks where someone else had recently driven, so despite an increasingly softer and wetter ground, we pushed on. Until we came to a river with no bridge and a steep bank. We got stuck on a bank of earth that required a bit of winching, but no harm done.

Except for one thing: there was an uncommon number of mosquitoes in the woods there, and during the winching, they moved into the Jeep and set up shop. I took a picture of mosquitoes on the Jeep's roof. They hung like bats from the roof, dropping down for tasty little snacks.

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We got stuck near the river, had to get out and winch off a tree, and the mosquitoes moved in. The entire ceiling of the Jeep was just as well-populated.​

Good supper, shower, and AC tonight. :cool: - EH
 
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NHenson

Observer
TAT I Day 5: Sunday, July 6, 2008

Blue Laws and More Heat

Today has been the hottest day--and the most scenic. We left the flood plains of the Mississippi River this morning, killing the last few mosquitoes that still haunted the Jeep, and drove on dirt and gravel roads almost exclusively, through farm and ranch lands to progressively hillier country, until we entered Ozark National Forest. I have been known in the past to speak disparagingly of the Ozark Mountains. And I still maintain that they aren't really mountains (too small). They are, however, beautiful.

Today is Sunday, and every small town through which we drove was almost completely shut down. I was able to surreptitiously gain access to the men's room in a closed gas station in one town, the owner of which gas station I thank heartily for forgetting to lock the door. In another town there was one gas station open, and I think that was the only place of business open in town--it was hopping. The local police force (a very pretty lady) was out eating country-fried steak, and people crowded the aisles. A couple of hours later, we were passing an awesome-looking general store and cafe in another of these typical small towns when a short downpour began. We would have loved to wait out the rain in the general store, but what were we thinking?!? It was closed. Sunday.

Here's how hot it was: we ate lunch standing knee-deep in the cold, if somewhat murky, water of Dare Creek where it flows under the overpass. There wasn't any place to sit on the banks that wasn't lush with poison ivy. But it felt so good that we stood the entire meal. Then back to the Jeep where we drove with the AC off and the windows open--it saves gas, and it's more of "the experience," as we like to term it.

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GMC truck that had slid off the road.​

Passed a GMC truck that had slid off the road. The driver had been pulling over for a passing vehicle in the narrow way when his truck lost traction and fell into a tree. When we drove up, two tow-trucks had winches hooked to the front of the GMC, ready to finish off the entire passenger side by pulling it past said tree and up onto the road. Fortunately, before they could entirely screw the owner of the truck, the boss showed up and reminded his young-looking driver that their truck had a boom and it was perfectly possible between the two tow-trucks to pull the pick-up out from the side. We left the situation in good hands. :)

We're camping in another real camp-ground, located at the top of such a rough road that we are the only guests in the entire campground. It's like a state park-type campground, built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 30's. The managers live nearby, and as we were making supper (pizzas in a frying pan), their two dogs came by to visit. They were the sweetest, most laid-back dogs I've ever met. They laid right down and chilled. The big one would hardly even move when we tossed him a scrap of pizza crust. I named them: the big one is Bernie, and the little one is Fleabus (he seemed to be scratching fleas). We assumed that they are boys. We didn't check.

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We stayed at this campground that showed up on the GPS (White Rock Mountain). It was very quiet this time of year. It also helps to stay there on a week-night. The roads had been a little wet this day, as the mud on the doors indicates.​

We did not cover so much distance today as we have been, but for great reasons. We had great roads, some pretty rough, but all beautiful scenery. At one point the road followed a ridge that dropped so quickly on both sides that we could see green ridges wrinkling out past the valleys on either side. Also crossed several lovely rivers. The heat made it difficult to enjoy it all properly--we were sticky and miserable and cross. We're camped up on another ridge, though, with a breeze blowing across through our tent, so my temper has smoothed out considerably, and all is well. - EH
 
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NHenson

Observer
TAT I Day 6: Monday, July 7, 2008

Test Day

We rolled out of our campsite at a good hour this morning, and back onto more of the rough road. The northwestern part of AR is quite rocky, and all of the dirt roads were striated with red rocks that bumped up and jolted the tires like some strange sewerless version of Super Mario Bros. I would even lead you all in a hum-along of some Mario Bros. theme music, except the only part I can remember right now is the music that played when Mario went down in a sewer.

Off-and-on roads of that nature kept us pretty slow most of the day. By far the most challenging section of the trail so far came early on, probably around 10:00 this morning. For anyone who has been around the Chattanooga area, the best comparison I can give you is the hike up Star Mountain: not so steep, but very similar as far as rocks. We dusted off the 4-wheel-drive, kicked it in 1st gear, and spent probably 20-30 minutes on the next mile. The Jeep did admirably well. Just how admirably well, we were about to find out.

Around 11:30a we stopped in Mountainburg, AR, to get gas. Nathan checked the pressure in his air-lift bags and found one explanation for some of the rough ride: the hose to the right airbag had set against the tire, probably several days ago, and worn through. There was also a hole in the airbag itself. So no right airbag. :eek: We spent the next couple of hours in a gas station (the only real place of business in town besides the Dairy Dream across the road) with free wi-fi while Nathan tried to see if we could get replacement parts same-day in Fort Smith. We could not. :(

We set off, air pressure adjusted, approaching the Oklahoma line. At about this point, I got low blood sugar. I don't really remember that part of the day, so skip ahead until we got into Oklahoma. Slightly smoother dirt roads, but still a lot of rocks. Nathan and I agreed that we prefer either the extremely rocky road, where it's an adventure just getting through, or a smoother gravel road where you can slide around a bit. Otherwise it's just a straight but slow, rough ride.

I guess the part that came next was the REAL most challenging section of the trail, except it wasn't exactly on the trail. We came to a river in Oklahoma, just before Salina, where the bridge had washed out. There were several people down in the river, hiking and swimming. It's a wide, shallow river, with lots of flat rock on either side of the water. We even saw a Jeep on the other side of the river where someone had driven down a gravel approach beside the erstwhile bridge. From there, the gravel curved around a bit, but our side of the river was much less inviting. We decided to investigate further.

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The river crossing in Oklahoma. "Bridge Out" doesn't even begin to describe it.​

After hiking around a bit, we found a place where we could potentially zig-zag down to the water, then drive up-stream several dozen feet on flat rock, cross at the shallowest part, and come up on the gravel "road." It was pretty exciting--particularly the part where the water started to wash up the tires and the Jeep began to get stuck in the gravel riverbed.

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This river was a challenge for crossing. It had a very beautiful slate bottom that was scrubbed clean in spots from recent flooding. In other spots, the bottom was covered with super-slick algae. Then came the railroad-bed size rock that wanted to swallow the Jeep upon acceleration.​

We decided it looked like a great place to camp, so here we are, still on the far side of the river. We're on a spit of gravel, stars overhead (first clear night in a while) and praying that it won't rain, because if it does, we need to jet out of the river to avoid being washed downstream into the lake.

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We had to navigate this river since the bridge was out. The other option was 12-14 miles of rough dirt road and we were tired of traveling for the day and up for some adventure. The railroad bed size gravel that was deposited in the river bed made for some interesting driving. The more I accelerated, the more I would sink. I think Erin is making rice & beans. - NH​

Some local kids brought their 4-wheelers up to the opposite bank (where we started earlier today) and were beginning their way down the tricky path where we just barely fit the Jeep. One of them got stuck. Nathan went over to investigate and slipped on one of the many algae-covered rocks, splitting a considerable chunk open on his knee. It could use a few stitches, but he's got it bandaged and taped.

Star-lit swim tonight, which felt great; it's still pretty hot for 11:30 PM. The Jeep, Nathan's driving skills, and maybe just a little bit of our resolve were tested today, and I'd say all have come through pretty well. - EH
 
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NHenson

Observer
TAT I Day 7: Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Last Day of this Leg

We woke up at camp in the riverbed to the sound of light rain Tuesday morning, and considering a couple of warnings about possible floods the night before (after all, the reason we were camped there was because of a flood), we thought it might be best to jet out of there. We had a quick breakfast and powered up the steep gravel hill on the west bank of the river.

Oklahoma roads were much smoother for us. Actually, I enjoyed Oklahoma a lot. Part of this may have been because of the rain off and on--temperatures were very pleasant. We hit a few hills here and there, but mostly flat farm land. I think it was probably the best time of year to be in that particular part of the country, because the fields were covered in deep, brilliant green grass, or sometimes tall golden grasses. The sky was sort of roiling with varied greys in the clouds, so it made for a fascinating backdrop, and after a couple of slow, jolting days, it was nice to fly over smooth gravel roads.

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Oklahoma road

We passed a camel. Actually, a couple of camels. They were fenced in, right by the road to the right of the Jeep. My window was already rolled down ("the experience," remember?) so we just pulled up and I took a couple of pictures. One of the camels came over to look, and then he lifted up his head and made this gargling sound deep in his throat--his gut, almost--like something deep in the drain of a very old sink. I remembered that camels can spit. Another short transcript of our conversation:

Erin: "I think he's going to spit at us. Let's get out of here."

Nathan: "Do you think he could hit us?"

Erin: (Picturing the ride for the next 15 hours, covered in camel spit) "Really, let's just go."

Nathan: "But how far do you think they can spit?"

Erin: "Come on! We're leaving!!!!"

We left, and thankfully no spit.

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Here is the camel that wanted to spit on me. - EH​

We looked at the amount of roll chart left until our next hotel--have I explained about the roll charts? Well, it's a little late, but let me do that. Some guy named Sam (Correro) developed the Trans-America Trail, and he created roll charts with mileages and intersections or turns. Nathan bought a set of roll charts from him, and we got sheets and sheets of these maneuvers and mileages, which we spent some good time cutting out and attaching into long strips. These strips of paper were then rolled and put into a little box with two spindles (probably has a name, but I'm going to assume that since I don't know the name, not everyone else does), and you can roll your way along the chart. Sam had developed the trail keeping in mind how far a person might make it in a day, and planning stops at motels each night. Since the trail was developed for duel-sport bikes, and we did it in a Jeep, we went considerably faster on a lot of the roads (on some we went considerably slower), so we didn't pay much heed to the motel stops, except that we rolled the chart by days that way. It just seemed easier.

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Roll chart pictures that I borrowed​

So, as I was saying, we looked at the amount of roll chart left until the next hotel, and we realized that we would probably be there before noon, what with the smooth road and all. However, we had a lot to do in Chattanooga before we drive up to Michigan, so we decided to call it a day at that point.

Drove back to Chattanooga, arrived at 4:00 am to David and Montie's, where we crashed in their living room.

One more roll-chart-related anecdote: Nathan's knee spent most of yesterday looking hideous. I made a couple of attempts to persuade him to get stitches, but he held out. Last night, though, (I should say this morning: it was well into the AM) his knee was hurting him pretty badly. So every few minutes he would try to move and end up moaning in pain. I kept waking up every time he made his various hurting/moving noises, but was sort of (almost) falling asleep in between, just enough to have the sort of half-dreams where you mix dreaming with reality.

Most of our time on the TAT was spent with me reading out the miles until the next turn, and what kind of turn it would be. "2.3, left at the T." Nathan would repeat it back, just to be clear, sneak a peak at the little drawing that Sam had included on the roll charts, and we would try to pay attention well enough to catch the next turn without having to go back for it. So this morning, while Nathan was not-sleeping with his aching knee, I was dreaming that I had a roll-chart for my sleep, and that Nathan's noise waking me up was like the maneuvers on the chart. Except I couldn't figure out the mileage in between. But my mind made a strange analogy between intersections and Nathan trying to move. At 6:30 I woke up enough to suggest pain-killers, and he took some ibuprofen. After that he was dead to the world. - EH

This is the end of our first week on the TAT. We would pick it up again in 2009 where we left off, in Bartlesville, OK. - NH


View on Google Maps
 
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magoh76

Adventurer
It seems the TAT runs within a couple miles of my house. Did those camels happen to be somewhere around Adair, Oklahoma? Also, can you tell me where the broken bridge is that you camped at? I imagine it's fixed by now but I'd still like to go check it out, and Salina is not that far away (other side of the county from me).
 

mkitchen

Explorer
Great trip report

Makes a fellow feel like he/she is riding in the back seat with you. Nice pics and writing style.
Mikey
 

NHenson

Observer
It seems the TAT runs within a couple miles of my house. Did those camels happen to be somewhere around Adair, Oklahoma? Also, can you tell me where the broken bridge is that you camped at? I imagine it's fixed by now but I'd still like to go check it out, and Salina is not that far away (other side of the county from me).

David: I wish I had geotags available for those pictures, but logic would easily place the camel near Adair, OK.

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TAT Route near Adair, OK​

After a bit of research, I found the bridge that was washed out in 2008 near Salina, OK. It crosses Saline Creek. From the google map picture it looks like the road department only had to replace the one section of the bridge.


View on Google Maps
Place where we camped by the washed out bridge.

Video of the same bridge shortly after being washed out

Makes a fellow feel like he/she is riding in the back seat with you. Nice pics and writing style.
Mikey

Mikey: Thanks for the comment. My wife (EH) wrote all of the blogs originally. I will have more pictures to choose from for the next posts. Our computer hard drive crashed shortly after this part of the trip and we lost a lot of pictures and gps tracks.
 
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