We rode in the first Tennessee Tandem Rally, hosted by Tim and Sharon Patterson, in Alcoha, TN ( greater Maryville). We had a great time, due to the hard work of the hosts. Everything was well organized, with lots of special steps that left me thinking – “Why didn’t I think of that”. They worked hard for the benefit of 100 folks that attended – some from as far away as California.

On Friday, we did the 1PM ride, that started east of town. We rode along the Little River, on the other side of the river from the main highway, to Walland, which is on the west end of Townsend. At this point, we could have turned around, for a total of 18 miles, but since the forecast for Saturday was poor, we pressed on with the 36 mile option. It is hard to judge what folks mean about “hilly”, and this option was to take us over a gap, into a valley just on the other side of Cades Cove. We were towing Brian – our 65 lb payload. Well, the climb was not bad, and the scenery was great. We stopped at the river, just inside the Great Smokes National Park, for a rest and to let Brian stretch his legs. We found that we were some of the last ones in – we could slowly pass some of the flatland folks who don’t get to train in the hills, but our play stops moved us to last. We repeated our tail-end-charlie status every day after that.

During the ride briefing, before the Friday ride, Brian was rearranging the rocks in the hotel landscaping, and he was soon joined by another boy Ryan. They hit it off quickly. Ryan(4) and his older brother Austin(6) ride with their parents Tom and Donna on a quad Co-Motion with 2 child conversion kits. Thereafter, Brian was always looking for and asking “Where is Ryan?” We played with them a lot but we just could not keep up on the road. The one time they passed us, Brian started yelling ” pedal harder, pedal harder.”

Saturday’s forecast was poor – rain and 20-35 mph winds. It turned out not as bad, just 25-35 mph winds. Looking at the numerous route options, we decided to do the remote start, that would cut 4.5 miles each way, and allow us to stretch out further to a neat destination – the Chilhowee dam. I almost had second thoughts when the crowd gathered for the mass start from the hotel, but we would have been dropped pretty quickly, on some fairly busy roads. At the remote start ( the park which was the lunch stop later) ,the road out of the park seemed straight up, and it seemed like I got loaded up on lactic acid right from the start. Then we turned into the wind. That was tough until we got further out of town, into the rolling hills. After a while, we started descending to the Chilhowee river , and that was a little easier. When we rounded the curve, at river level, we were pushed by a tailwind. We were supposed to follow the river for some miles, but I thought we don’t need to be proceeding so far downwind ( a lesson from my sailing days), and we turned around at the boat dock. The quad with the kids went roaring by on their return leg. We headed back, and after fighting the headwind, got into the climbs. Later our direction shifted and we had a good tailwind returning to the park. We made it back 1/2 hr before lunch was over, and ate a great lunch, provided by our hosts. We rode a massive 39 miles – others did 110 and went into NC !

Sunday was our last day. The ride options were 25 miles, with a remote start, or 39 if one started from the hotel. Again, we would have liked to be part of the mass start, but the hotel checkout time and our pace dictated the remote start. The remote start was from a park on the lake. I tried to outsmart the system, and drove to the remote start early, with the hopes that the group would come by and we would get to chat with everyone, but alas, as it turns out, the routes were slightly different, and we saw few of the faster people. We did cruise in a group of 4 bikes for quite a while. Although we did not have the big climbs, we had more short steep pitches. At mile 18, we supposedly were close to a ranch with camels, lamas, etc, but we missed them. This was a pretty route, again with many homes out in the country. I suspect that much of this area is occupied by folks who work in Knoxville. Near the end of the route, we frequently rode alongside the lake, dipping up and down on the rolling terrain. – Stuart Coulter reporting