News Flash! It’s Hot and Humid in Atlanta and St. Louis

Looking at the weather over the entire Midwest, meteorologists warned of record highs over the next week as we departed Atlanta and headed towards St Louis. The hills and woods of Georgia continued to provide the relief from the shade and the beauty all around us as we sped on our way to Tennessee.

Thanks to the family connection in Atlanta (a la Rex) we were looking forward to another stay in a bed, having a cold shower and being treated to a home-cooked meal in Chattanooga, TN. This luxury right out of the hot-as-hell gates of Georgia and into Tennessee was blissful. Burgers, salads, fruit and cookies filled up our tummies. In addition, we were set up for an interview with Paul Sheehan in Chattanooga to follow dinner. We were so fresh and so clean clean for this interview, which is a major key for us.

Paul was great and came up with a new creative shot for the feature that we hadn’t done before. Antwan, the anchor for the affiliate, also came to meet and help with the camera and was a cyclist himself. He was a big fan of what Biking for Baseball was up to. Great to meet both of them!

Back to the heat the next day, we set our handlebars for another worthy destination, Manchester Tennessee. Anyone knows what Manchester, Tennessee is used for? But to get there we had crush through the mighty hills of Tennessee! We took a route that was on back roads. Riding through neighborhoods in Tennessee, we saw a LOT of shirtless men taking their ATV’s, dirt bikes and motorcycles out for a Sunday ride. 

As we rode into town, the Jack Daniels distillery wasn’t too far away and we had heard that it was a MUST-SEE! So, we listened and went to see it. It was… alright. Not our favorite tour. They didn’t actually explain how they make the whiskey and apparently Jack Daniels was 14 when he started the Jack Daniels business. Also, the town of Lynchburg is coincidentally a dry town but only the Jack Daniels distillery can sell whiskey in the area. 

Setting up camp in Old Stone Fort Park we learned that there had not been much rain recently in the area, which meant there were a lot of bees! The rains wipe away the nests of the bees. But without the rain, there was just… bees. We stayed away from the stings luckily but had to cut short our time outside of our tents. But not until we had some fun with night lights!

We were becoming spoiled. Our next day was going to lead us into Nashville where we were going to have another host put us up. Friends of Chase and Adam’s from High School, Jodee and Andrew are living in Nashville and offered to host us!

As we had learned of this several days prior, we started planning for our time in the Music City. We set up an interview with the Nashville’s own, The Tennessean, to meet with their writers on a story just as we rode into town.

The Nashville Sounds, Triple-A affiliate of the Milwaukee Brewers, were playing the Iowa Cubs on July 3rd. Fireworks celebrating the birth of our nation were to be launched after the game! Plans were being made.

We booked it into Nashville, after making a stop at the  and made it by early afternoon, riding straight to the Tennessean office for our interview. As each new interview is awarded to B4B, it helps us continue to spread our message that Every Kid Needs a Coach. But now that we’ve been doing them more frequently we continue to chug out very similar responses. However, EVERY interview, the interviewer asks one new question, and it’s fun to be able to think of the response on the fly. We feel that our response is really raw at that point and it probably provides the interview with some great footage.

After our interview we rode the remaining couple miles to Andrew and Jodee’s and got ready for our day of fun!

Andrew had a surprise for us as we showed up. We threw on our board shorts, if we weren’t already wearing them, and jumped in Andrew’s car to head to Percy Priest Reservoir. He knew of a sick location that took a secret route to get to. We parked in a neighborhood and hopped on a well-travelled trail, walking through the woods until eventually a giant lake came into view. As we neared the lake you could instantly see why this was such a great location. No one was around and rocks formed the lake boundary where we were. 

Andrew instantly showed us how the pros did it and jumped off the top of the 40-foot cliff that overlooked the lake.

Adam followed suit while Rex, Chase and Steve opted for the 30-foot cliff. All solid jumps that get your heart racing. Great relaxation time before we left the lake, grabbed some pizza at a favorite local joint and then headed to our first AAA game of the summer! The Nashville Sounds vs. Iowa Cubs!

It was what you could expect from a AAA game, low-scoring and below average players. But we saw Mike MacDougal there! Former Royal All-Star in 2003! We waved at him and pointed to our hats and said, “We’re KC fans!” He looked at us, gave us a thumbs up and returned to his seat in the bullpen. After the game we caught a pretty spectacular fireworks show that was put on for fans as a 4th of July show. This was our 4th of July celebration with friends cause the next day we were destined to be somewhere near the border of Kentucky. Happy 4th!

As we neared St. Louis, the weather continued to become more and more hot. We couldn’t tell if it was going to become better or worse in St. Louis. All we could do was start early, pedal fast and finish early. 

Riding into St. Louis was actually one of the prettiest rides into a city. Would never have imagined that a ride through east St. Louis would lead to such a lovely view of the city. But it did! 

We played in the fountains and rode around St. Louis and Busch Stadium as we waited for our hosts to get off of work. We were excited to get a shower, cool off and have a place to rest in St. Louis for a few days in the 105+ degree heat! Throwing out the first pitch Friday night!