Coming out of the mountains! (Maryville, TN)

After the last three days crossing the Appalachians, today's ride (49 miles) into Maryville was blissfully short and downhill! Well, it was short for all of us except Mike and Tony, who made a wrong turn and somehow ended up in Knoxville, where they were rescued by Lindsay in the van after 70-odd miles. Knowing we had time to spare, Ryan and I stopped by a visitors' center in the Great Smoky Mountains Park and watched a cool video. Did you know that all the salamanders in the Smoky Mountains together outweigh the black bears? I didn't think so.

Our host site for the week is a Baptist summer camp about 15 miles outside of Maryville called Camp Tipton. The camp is letting us use a few of their cabins and camp showers, which is very nice, although it's tough being so far from the city. The countryside all around us is beautiful, though...very pastoral and a lot like the foothills on the NC side of the mountains. We're all pretty excited to be off our bikes for a whole week (minus some short rides to keep our legs conditioned) during our blitz build. We had a celebratory dinner at Friday's, where we collectively ate more food than I ever dreamt possible.










Melanie, outside of Maryville










Our cabin at Camp Tipton...flash back to summer camp growing up (Ivey, Melanie, Risa)










View from the front lawn of the camp










Cool bracelet (the metal one) made out of a bike wheel spoke by a friend of Amanda's...he made one for all of us and mailed them to Gatlinburg! Along with the bracelets Dan brought from Mexico :)

Bike odometer: 732 miles