The trail where they cried

Grandfather cried. The sky rained with the tears of my ancestors. The Trail of Tears was exactly that. We left home at 5am headed to Bridgeport at the AL/TN state line. It was barely sprinkling. 5 minutes later it got a little heavier. By the time we got to Gurley 20 later it was pouring down and the rain gear was pretty much useless. TJ never heard me say he could turn around and go home if he wanted to. We got to Bridgeport and the gas station and it had quit raining.....for a minute. The sun shown through the dark clouds for a few minutes and then the tears came again. There were more bikes than I expected at the staging area.....several hundred of us braved the heavy rains to ride for the ancestors who endured much worse. We were also surprised to see how many people came out in the rain to sand along the road as we passed. Unfortunately I couldn't get any photos between Bridgeport and Madison due to the heavy rain. At one point I had to take my goggle glasses off because I couldn't see. It was easier to see in the rain without them. We stopped in Madison for an hour break before adding more riders and continuing on to Waterloo....we had heard that we would be ending in Florence because of the road being flooded from this week's heavy rains. The road was open and the ride continued. Law enforcement split us into smaller groups along the ride and escorted us all the way to the parking areas. The crowds were smaller this year due to the heavy rain and flooding we've had this month but there were 1000s there and they continued to roll in. We walked around a short time, bought our ride pins and since I couldn't take vacation for both Sat & Sun we headed home so I could rest before going back to work. It started raining again on us on the way home but never heavy. We got home a little after 5pm, went and got Chinese and I was asleep around 7. I am SO proud of TJ...his handling of the bike in the heavy rains was OUTSTANDING. Go over to his page and let him know!!

Here's 195 of the 310 photos from yesterday: