8/19/22

I'm riding to Johnson City to see another friend, who's also teaching media in another southern university. My friend Shara teaches film and media studies at ETSU in Johnson City. I've visited a few times and rather like this small college town near the mountains of Tennessee.

https://goo.gl/maps/vTVr2V9M2XbgkSXw6

I met Shara way back in Boston just a few years out of college. She then went to UT Austin for grad school and then we connected again when I moved to Raleigh and by that time she's married, have a couple kids and have been teaching at ETSU for a while. Johnson City is a nice easy destination for a weekend getaway. There are some nice roads on the way there from Raleigh and there some riding around 421 The Snake, Shady Valley and the Roan Mountains.

I get into town just around 6pm and there's a festival going on in the local downtown park. We spend the evening down at the park before going back to the house for the kids to go to bed. Johnson City is one of those perfect small towns where there are activities going on because of the university but still very manageable. Though I hear that lots of people have been moving there from the bigger states in the past few years so property prices have been going up. Seems like the trend for the entire country.

I wake up the next day and get some fresh eggs for breakfast from their backyard, some fresh pastries from the local bakery and hang with the kids a bit before I load up the bike and head home. The last day of this trip. The last 250 miles. Hard to believe. Just need to make sure I get home safely on this final ride.