I slept decent despite the dogs barking randomly in the middle of the night from down the road. I had a bit of a scare just before nightfall. As I stepped outside the tent to brush my teeth, a dog came around the side of the little building I was camped behind. He started barking like crazy, and I thought that perhaps he would lead his people to me and I'd have to explain myself, which I didn't have the energy for. I waited for a bit in the tent but he went away and I didn't hear any human activity. I decided he was just a curious loose dog. He left soon after and didn't come back. The terrain today mostly was rolling hills, with more pavement. Kinda like riding in the Piedmont of North GA. Punctuated with the occasional really steep and somewhat long climb. Ridge and valley as it's called geologically. Pavement ranged from sorta smooth to really broken and covered with holes, all of it really curvy and narrow with basically no traffic. I went through the town of Calhoun, TN first, and I am so glad I didn't push on and try to stealth camp somewhere around there last night. Absolutely the worst smelling town I have ever had the misfortune of sniffing. And I have been in some seriously smelly towns. Oh Calhoun, what are they feeding you? Wood pulp as it turns out, as its central industry is a collosal paper mill. Just across the river was Charleston, with my first store stop of the trip and the smell was fading but still terrible by any standard. As it happens the first Dollar General of my trip this far came early in the day. I tend to err on the side of carrying more than I think I'll need, just in case. Despite two full days in the mountains without a store, I still had a couple meals and a few instant potato packages. But what did I go and do? Buy enough stuff to last another two days, and a bit more besides. But that's silly considering I was going to pass at least one sometimes many more than one store in a day for a long while. But I still did it. Don't shop hungry. In 1838, the federal government forcibly removed the Cherokee and Muskogee Creek from their lands and gathered them in three places to start their long journey west to "indian territory", one of which was Charleston, TN. The county had erected signs indicating the actual route they took, the Trail of Tears. By accident or design, the route I followed also went this way, the old roads having been bypassed and now ideal for mostly car free travel. I took Blythe Ferry road to a lovely museum, which unfortunately was closed(it's normally closed Mon and Tues). There was lots of outdoor exhibits though. Huge granite blocks that recorded every every single removed person by name, alphabetical, and by state. Also a huge granite Map of the various routes they took, which was humbling to me since I am following a very similar route to Oklahoma as well. It was a very powerful experience. I had to get going and so it was just as well the museum wasn't officially open as I'd have wanted to see everything in there too. After I got back on route I crossed over the Tennessee river, another milestone. The highway was lovely to ride as it had a full lane shoulder the entire length I was on it which was nice. I had repeatedly tried to purchase another fuel canister before my trip but my home Walmart was always out. I have one but it is running low. There are restrictions and so you can't just order it on the internet. In Dunlap I knew I would get close to a Walmart for the only time in a long while and I also needed electrical tape for my bar tape(I did a poor job of taping this time), and DG was out. As I peered down the street that supposedly led down to the Walmart, I couldn't believe it. It looked like a dark hollow and it seemed impossible that it could be so close. But I flew down the hill and sure enough there it was, out of nowhere arising out of the sea of mobile homes like some noxious weed from a different continent. Inside was shiny and so new in fact that my shoes squeaked when I walked. They actually had a fuel canister and even though the other one is still good I went ahead and got it. Not knowing what to do with the old one I just decided to use it till it empties out. Of course it will probably last several states now. They also had electrical tape. Another reason I wanted to hit up Walmart is their Wifi. The second morning of this trip, I turned my phone on after having turned it off at night to save battery. Lo and behold my phone told me my SD card was corrupted! I took it out and rebooted several times but nothing. I brought a spare but never made a recent backup. So no podcasts, and old music. Boo. At least my offline routes were still on there, on the internal storage. So I frantically downloaded several hours worth of listening material in a surprisingly short amount of time. It even worked great through the wall. While I was sitting there beside some plants fiddling with my phone, two employees walked up and one was trying to water them while also bitching to the other about his job. He kept sort of spraying me but I ignored it. Soon though two other employees show up and so there was only one guy working and they were all bitching about various retail job concerns. This hit entirely too close to home as this was one of the things that drove me batty. So I went to the other side of the building and finished my Dr Pepper and downloading. Upon leaving the parking lot I was spit out straight into a gravel street that connected the small town's grid. I thought it odd. A front came through and brought lovely dry air and a northerly wind that was at my back as I headed down the lovely Sequatchie valley to the biggest climb of the day up Daus Mountain road. I climbed all the way up and found a stealth spot off in the woods a good ways off the road.