Then the three became five

As Tommy posted the trio is no more.  We are now not four but five.  It's awesome to see how adding Phil and Jeffrey has really changed the dynamic of our group.  When there were three we would get in spurts of conversations often talking about a verse that we read or playing some verbal game with each other.  And then we would often have times of silence each of us lost in our own world of thoughts and each focused on pounding the mileage.  With the addition of two more tourists we have a slower pace, but have been doing a whole lot more talking.  It's been really enjoyable!

So Sunday, after crashing in the furthest corner of a church, I woke up about 6 to a truck about 15 feet from my tent.  Assuming (correctly) that it was the pastor I knew that we had been found.  Thankfully though the pastor was awesome and assured us that we (David, Tom, Phil, and myself) could come back and camp at his church whenever we were in the area.  YES!  Needless to say we ended up going to their church service.  It kind of reminded me of New Spring in Greenville.  After the service Tom mentioned that he was still hungry from our breakfast.  Literally five seconds after he said that a gentleman, whose name I sadly cannot remember, came up to us and offered to take us out to Cracker Barrel.  Uh HECK YES!  It was glorious.
We ate food

After Cracker Barrel we biked about 8 miles and met up with Jeffrey.  From there we charged ahead and ate second lunch at our all time favorite restaurant.   Subway!  The subway lady was awesome.  She did not like my tuna "Stinky" foot long sub though.  Ha ha

After subway we biked towards a little town called Cookeville.  The bike ride itself was gorgeous.  We are definitely getting close to the Smokies/Appalachian. The hills are getting more hilly, and the views are getting more and more scenic.

Also that reminds me each state has had it's own unique features or things that have stood out to me.  Tennessee for whatever reason I've noticed the freshly cut grass.  I don't know why but I've noticed a pretty big increase in nicely cut lawns.
End tangent.

Anyways, we made it to Cookeville without any mishap.  We found a little park and pitched a tent near the baseball fields.  The next morning we woke up with our tents SOAKED in dew.  We got super dewed on by nature.  In spite of the dew though we got everything ready about ten minutes earlier than i thought we would 8:20.  And then headed on the road with a goal of 90 miles for the day.  The hills for the most part continued to roll and we continued to do the mileage.  It's crazy to think about it but if our map skills are up to par we have less than 500 miles to our final destination CHARLESTON,SC.  WOOHOOO!    We are so close to our final goal, and we all really appreciate your prayers and continual support.  There is so much more I have to say about today (especially about the fact that we are sleeping in a real house and ate a real dinner tonight but both a bowl of ice cream and a pillow are calling my name so for now I'm signing off.
Peace
~Paulie G

Victory pose