Day 43 - Goodlettsville (Nashville) TN to Manchester TN, 84.4 miles, 5:40

Takes one to know one, I guess.

So, I'm riding through central Tennessee southeast of Nashville, and listening to John Eldredge's Wild at Heart. Inside the heart of every man is the need for adventure, he says. I wonder if he considered my fuzzy, stray friend (above)?

Eldredge did use a lion in one of his illustrations, not a little, Poodle-looking guy. But, the point is the same. He was relating the heart of the male spirit, and especially the heart of a man, which longs to be free, to explore and to conquer.

From Eldredge's Web Site:

Wild at Heart had been stirring in John for many, many years before it was written.  There is something fierce, passionate, and wild in the heart of every man. That is how he bears the image of God.  And the reason most men "live lives of quiet desperation" (Thoreau) is because men have been told that the reason God put them on earth is to be a good boy. To be nice. But every man longs for a battle to fight, an adventure to live, and a beauty to rescue.

The book has and is widely used in men's groups and other studies for men, and for good reason. Far too many men in our present day America have been conditioned to abandon, and worse yet, to ignore the man God wired him to be.

The message is also extremely relevant to any of you raising boys right now. I recommend it highly. So, if any of you plan to be riding a bicycle across Tennessee, be sure to get your subscription to Audible.com and load up your Ipod.

As for Tennessee, our escape from Nashville was a bit hairy. It's obviously a huge town and the first 20 miles of today's 84 was spent avoiding gutters and semi trailers.

Once we hit Hwy 41 on the southeast side of town, the ride started to look more familiar. From Nashville all the way to Murfreesboro / Smyrna was built up and very commercial, while the route from Smyrna to Manchester, where we are tonight, was very rural. It made for two entirely different rides.

We even saw some little hills / mountains, and did some mini-climbs, a pre-cursor to what we'll see tomorrow as we approach Chattanooga.

Whatever we do, it's sure to be an adventure.

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