I had a great time and meet many new friends and interesting people. I want to thank my wife Danamarie and the kids for allowing me to do this bicycle tour. I want to thank Sametta and Bill for being such great hosts when I arrived into Nashville where they picked me up from the bus station, feed me dinner and breakfast. My only issues I had were broken spokes and a leaky tent. I need seal one of the seams on the tent and it looks like I need to rebuild my wheels with new rims and spokes. After some research I would like to purchase Mavic A719 rims and some double butted spokes.
As far as transportation using Greyhound, I feel I got a great deal from Atlanta to Nashville and the ride was fine getting to Nashville. The ride back to Atlanta was not enjoyable, if I kept to my original plans and made it to New Orleans, and take the train it would have been an enjoyable trip back home. I don't think I would take a Greyhound again if the trip is more than 5 hours.
George had an issue while heading back up the Natchez Trace Parkway and had lots of rain with some snow. His iPod Touch received some water damage and was not able to retrieve any of his photos from the device. He ended up taking most of the pictures of the trip, and I decided not to use my phone to take the same pictures he was taking. So always try to keep your electronics as dry as possible, I use those Silica pouches you get in new electronics and put the electronics in zip lock bags.
I learned many more things about touring while on this tour, what I can say every tour is different and every tour I always learn something new in becoming more efficient cyclist. Here is what I picked up on this trip:
1. No more cotton products(takes long to dry out), user tech material that wicks moisture and can dry fast, also wool works great, but my skin is sensitive to wool.
2. Need to purchase bike sandals(when it gets cold you can wear heavy duty wool socks)
3. When using electronics keep your USB connectors as clean as possible(I had dirt in my phone connector and it stopped changing).
4. Take pictures with your device even if someone else is using another device taking the same picture of the same group or individual, sure it may take extra time but at least you know you will have a backup.
5. Make sure your bike can handle the stress loads of touring, although I have a touring bike, the wheels were not built for touring, I have read other people's touring blogs who have the same touring bike as I have and they all had the same issues with breaking spokes. Even though I had issues on my last tour breaking spokes thinking it was due too rough roads in Michigan. Before the tour I researched the NTP and bike tourist mentioned that it was smooth road in which it was, so I thought I should not have any spoke issues, in which it was not the case. Yes, it would be nice to have a Surly LHT or some other high end touring bike, but that will have to wait.
6. Here is a great guide on attempting to meet all of your expectations and guidelines while on tour.
This is a daily blog of my Natchez Trace Parkway cycle adventure 2013. I cover my daily activities and anomalies through out 10 days of 500+ miles of riding on the Natchez Trace Parkway. Some days were average days of riding and then they were the days that made it all worth while of a true adventure in Humanity and defying Mother Nature's wrath. I hope you enjoy the read and please leave comments. Blog entries are not in order, start out with "T - Minus 1 Day" and then Day 1, Day 2 and so on.
Day 9 - 17 miles Natchez State Park to Natchez Bus Station
March 24, 2013:
I awoke around 9:00 am, tent was wet inside and attempted to dry out everything for about an hour or so. My departure time from the campground is around 11:00 am. I packed up, loaded the bike and rolled out of the campground around 11:20 am. Headed back into Natchez via Natchez Trace Parkway, I see Eric riding with a few other cyclist and ask him if the box made it to the Bus station and he confirms with a "Yes" and I yell "Thanks again for all you help" all without stopping. I ride into Natchez and try to remember where the Bus station was from memory, I started out on the correct road, then I forgot to make a right turn and kept riding for another two miles, then I realize nothing looked familiar. Time to turn on my smartphone and create a route to the bus station. I ended up taking a 4 mile detour, I arrived at the bus station, rode to the back of the building and alas the box is sitting upright and dry. I see a Subway next to the Bus station and order a foot long Italian sub, I eat half of it and save the other half for later.
I ride to the back of the building and start dissembling my bike, then realizing that my tour has officially ended right here and right now. The adventure still continues, this time its not on a bike, it will be on a bus. The bike box was big enough to easily fit my bike, handle bar bag, tent and sleeping pad. The only issue I have is that I could not remove one of my pedals, I broke the Hex key when removing the first pedal. The bike still was able to fit into the box with one pedal on, it was a little tight. I waited for about 30 minutes and a Delta Bus Lines bus pulls up and I was able to load my bike and bags under the bus. The Delta Bus is a regional bus that connects to Greyhound buses. My connecting bus is at Vicksburg, MS and we arrive on time, now I need to take my bike off the Delta bus and get it weighed, it is over the limit and they charge $15.00. The person behind the ticket counter announces that the Greyhound bus will be is 2.5 to 3 hours late. So I hang outside of the building and wait with all my bags and bike. The bus pulls up 3 hours late, it looks like a full bus, and of course I'm the last one on the bus. As I'm walking down the isle I have very few options to sit down, I see Big Mamma with a empty seat (well with a half empty seat) these seats are tighter that airline seats, the only plus is that you get much more leg room than airline seats. Next I see Gangsta Rapa and pass that opportunity, now I'm getting to the back to the bus and running out of options, so there is a skeevy white dude who looks like he has not changed his clothes and taken a bath in week also taking up half of the other empty part of the seat and another Gangsta Rappa with a 1/2 seat available. Of course I have not washed my cargo pants and shirts in a week, so I should fit right in, so I opt to sit next to skeevy white dude in which he makes no effort to move over, so I squeeze in. So the trip back home is really starting to suck, late bus and skeevy people equals no fun. So the next stop is Jackson, MS, I sure hope the bus empties a little at this stop over. I get off the bus, get a snack and go to the bathroom and sure enough there are seats available, I get two seats, no one sitting next to me and settle in. As the bus is about 30 miles outside of Atlanta it's 5:00am and I see my phone will not charge or turn on and all my spare ones are also dead. So I wait for the two people in front of me to wake up and then I ask them if I can borrow their phone so I call Danamarie about 5 minutes from the terminal. I get everything off the bus and drag it to the front of the terminal and wait 25 minutes, the car arrives, load my stuff in the back of the Expedition and now my trip is officially over.
I awoke around 9:00 am, tent was wet inside and attempted to dry out everything for about an hour or so. My departure time from the campground is around 11:00 am. I packed up, loaded the bike and rolled out of the campground around 11:20 am. Headed back into Natchez via Natchez Trace Parkway, I see Eric riding with a few other cyclist and ask him if the box made it to the Bus station and he confirms with a "Yes" and I yell "Thanks again for all you help" all without stopping. I ride into Natchez and try to remember where the Bus station was from memory, I started out on the correct road, then I forgot to make a right turn and kept riding for another two miles, then I realize nothing looked familiar. Time to turn on my smartphone and create a route to the bus station. I ended up taking a 4 mile detour, I arrived at the bus station, rode to the back of the building and alas the box is sitting upright and dry. I see a Subway next to the Bus station and order a foot long Italian sub, I eat half of it and save the other half for later.
I ride to the back of the building and start dissembling my bike, then realizing that my tour has officially ended right here and right now. The adventure still continues, this time its not on a bike, it will be on a bus. The bike box was big enough to easily fit my bike, handle bar bag, tent and sleeping pad. The only issue I have is that I could not remove one of my pedals, I broke the Hex key when removing the first pedal. The bike still was able to fit into the box with one pedal on, it was a little tight. I waited for about 30 minutes and a Delta Bus Lines bus pulls up and I was able to load my bike and bags under the bus. The Delta Bus is a regional bus that connects to Greyhound buses. My connecting bus is at Vicksburg, MS and we arrive on time, now I need to take my bike off the Delta bus and get it weighed, it is over the limit and they charge $15.00. The person behind the ticket counter announces that the Greyhound bus will be is 2.5 to 3 hours late. So I hang outside of the building and wait with all my bags and bike. The bus pulls up 3 hours late, it looks like a full bus, and of course I'm the last one on the bus. As I'm walking down the isle I have very few options to sit down, I see Big Mamma with a empty seat (well with a half empty seat) these seats are tighter that airline seats, the only plus is that you get much more leg room than airline seats. Next I see Gangsta Rapa and pass that opportunity, now I'm getting to the back to the bus and running out of options, so there is a skeevy white dude who looks like he has not changed his clothes and taken a bath in week also taking up half of the other empty part of the seat and another Gangsta Rappa with a 1/2 seat available. Of course I have not washed my cargo pants and shirts in a week, so I should fit right in, so I opt to sit next to skeevy white dude in which he makes no effort to move over, so I squeeze in. So the trip back home is really starting to suck, late bus and skeevy people equals no fun. So the next stop is Jackson, MS, I sure hope the bus empties a little at this stop over. I get off the bus, get a snack and go to the bathroom and sure enough there are seats available, I get two seats, no one sitting next to me and settle in. As the bus is about 30 miles outside of Atlanta it's 5:00am and I see my phone will not charge or turn on and all my spare ones are also dead. So I wait for the two people in front of me to wake up and then I ask them if I can borrow their phone so I call Danamarie about 5 minutes from the terminal. I get everything off the bus and drag it to the front of the terminal and wait 25 minutes, the car arrives, load my stuff in the back of the Expedition and now my trip is officially over.
Day 8 - 39 Miles Natchez SP to Natchez, MS and back to Natchez SP
March 23, 2013:
George wakes up early, packs up and is ready to get going, he will be heading back up the Natchez Trace Parkway and spend another week going north to finish where we all started out a week ago, at Bill's house. So I wake up, we say our goodbyes, good lucks and he takes off around 8:00 am. My only order of business today is find a bike box in the city of Natchez, purchase a bus ticket and get the bike box to the bus station, so it will be ready for me the next day. I call Delta Bus and confirm they are open, so I can buy my ticket, they are open between 8 -12 pm and 1 to 4 pm. So its already 9:30 am and it will take 1.5 hours to bike into Natchez, so I take my time getting ready for the bike ride into town, then I will find a place to eat, and I call the bike shop they usually open around 10 am.
I take off around 11:15 am and visit Emerald Mound, take pictures and head down the Parkway. I have ridden only a few miles and I see a young couple with a complete touring setup on their bikes(Front and Rear panniers), I only have one pannier, so it looks like I'm out for a joy ride, which I really am doing just that, but I stop them anyway. They started out in New Orleans and are following the "Mississippi River Trail" and then a light turned on in my head and I said that's what the "MRT" signs that I have been seeing in the past 80 miles represent? It is a bicycle route that starts out near New Orleans and goes all the way to Minneapolis. They are doing only a portion of it for 2 or 3 weeks. So we chatted for a few minutes and went on our way.
I reach the end of the Trace at mile marker 0 and take the exit ramp off the Trace, now I'm in the the city of Natchez. I hear someone behind me and its a someone riding road bike who was behind me, we exchange greetings and his name is Eric, I tell him I just finished to entire route from the Northern Terminus to the South Terminus.. So he asks me what I'm going to do today, I tell him I'm going to tour the city, purchase a bus ticket and a find a bike box. He then asks, how am I going to get the bike box from the Bike store to the Bus Station? I said "That is a good question", I probably will take a cab and drop it of at the bus station later on today. He then tells me he has few errands to run this afternoon and that he can pick it up from the bike store then drop it off at the bus station. He gives me his cell number, I enter it in my phone and re-confirm it's correct. I ask for a recommendation for a place for lunch and he says "Biscuits and Blues" is a good local place to eat. So I put that in my GPS and follow the map for lunch. I get to "Biscuits and Blues " order a Oyster Po-boy and have a few beers.
I then call the bike shop, which is an auto parts/appliance store with a bike shop in back of the store. I ask them for a large bike box that would fit a touring bike, they say yes we have a box for you and it will be $10. Hmmm this does not make sense, a box that they would normally throw out, they charge $10. This is the only Local Bike Shop in Natchez and they have cornered the LBS market here, so they can charge whatever they please. Once again everyone complains when I support the big box stores such as Performance Bicycles which is like the Walmart for bicycles, that I should be supporting the LBS. So I think it's all about who has better customer service along with fair prices and Performance has both. I guess I could have called Target or Walmart to see if they had any bicycle boxes, because they have someone assembling bikes at their stores. So I say OK, I will be stop by in about 45 minutes to pay for it. So I finish my lunch and head over to the bus station, takes me about 20 minutes to get there. I pay for the ticket and ask where can I store a bike box overnight. Eric will need to pick it up from the bike store and drop it off today because the bus station and bike shop are not open on Sundays. He tells me that I can put it out back behind the building. I go to the back of the building and make sure no one is homeless or vagrants hanging around, I see there is a overhang to keep it dry. The last thing I need to happen is a homeless person making a house out of it, then I would need to repossess the house from him/her then convert it back into a bike box so I can get my bike back to Atlanta. Next and last order of business is to bike to the Local Bike Shop and pay for the box. Its 2.3 miles and takes me 10 minutes, I purchase the box and packing tape all for $13.66 and tell them that Eric will be picking up the box before the store closes. So I call Eric and confirm the Bike store times and tell him where he can leave it at the bus station and I thank him very much for doing this for me.
Now I'm ready to tour the city I mapped out all the Antebellum homes on my smart phone and I follow the route. I noticed when I started the route that I already have been down some of these roads when I was running around doing my errands. I stopped at each home and took pictures of about a dozen or so homes. Once I completed my seven mile tour of homes, I ride around a little more to find a place on the Mississippi River for beers. There is a casino on the river and its about a 300 foot drop in about 200 yards, its like a 18% grade. It sure was easy going down and I ride around, but not sure If I really want to hang out in a smokey lounge and not sure it has a view of the river, so I walk back up to the top of the bluff. I look for and find pub/bar near the river, but does not over look it. I have two more beers and Nachos the bill comes to $20, wow the Nachos were $9.50 and $5.00 beers and were awful tasting nachos, you know the kind you get at the movie theater. I should have known not to eat here, because no one else was eating and only drinking was happening at this establishment. So here is a rule of thumb, don't eat nachos at Natchez and if no one else is eating don't eat, generally I know this rule, I was not paying attention and also did not view the Menu, I just ask what the appetizers were and ordered them with seeing the menu.
After paying the bill it was 5:30 and and needed to get back to Natchez State Park before dark, because I forgot to attach my headlight to the bike and it is a 17 mile ride. But before I get back onto the Parkway, I stop to pick up a six pack of beer. I get back to the campground before dark and as soon as I pulled into my campsite started sprinkling, also I noticed "Snake" left the campground. Hoping that it will be light rain,I built a nice fire and determined to have my last cigars on my tour. I light up and start drinking my first beer, then the rain gets heavy, but I'm keeping warm next to the fire. Now my cigar is getting soggy and it goes out, I re-light but lasts for a minute. Now its really coming down and I finally give up and I'm soaked from head to toe, I take a few beers and head for the tent. I wait until the rain lets up and in a half hour it almost stopped. I jump out of my tent, recover my fire, light up a new cigar and enjoy another beer. Then 20 minutes later another big rain comes along with thunder and lightning I run for cover, this time a grab the rest of the beers and lost the rest of my last cigar due to heavy rain. I organize my tent for the night and I feel water on the floor of my tent, it looks like I missed a few spots when sealing my seams. So I mop up the water and go to sleep.
George wakes up early, packs up and is ready to get going, he will be heading back up the Natchez Trace Parkway and spend another week going north to finish where we all started out a week ago, at Bill's house. So I wake up, we say our goodbyes, good lucks and he takes off around 8:00 am. My only order of business today is find a bike box in the city of Natchez, purchase a bus ticket and get the bike box to the bus station, so it will be ready for me the next day. I call Delta Bus and confirm they are open, so I can buy my ticket, they are open between 8 -12 pm and 1 to 4 pm. So its already 9:30 am and it will take 1.5 hours to bike into Natchez, so I take my time getting ready for the bike ride into town, then I will find a place to eat, and I call the bike shop they usually open around 10 am.
I take off around 11:15 am and visit Emerald Mound, take pictures and head down the Parkway. I have ridden only a few miles and I see a young couple with a complete touring setup on their bikes(Front and Rear panniers), I only have one pannier, so it looks like I'm out for a joy ride, which I really am doing just that, but I stop them anyway. They started out in New Orleans and are following the "Mississippi River Trail" and then a light turned on in my head and I said that's what the "MRT" signs that I have been seeing in the past 80 miles represent? It is a bicycle route that starts out near New Orleans and goes all the way to Minneapolis. They are doing only a portion of it for 2 or 3 weeks. So we chatted for a few minutes and went on our way.
I reach the end of the Trace at mile marker 0 and take the exit ramp off the Trace, now I'm in the the city of Natchez. I hear someone behind me and its a someone riding road bike who was behind me, we exchange greetings and his name is Eric, I tell him I just finished to entire route from the Northern Terminus to the South Terminus.. So he asks me what I'm going to do today, I tell him I'm going to tour the city, purchase a bus ticket and a find a bike box. He then asks, how am I going to get the bike box from the Bike store to the Bus Station? I said "That is a good question", I probably will take a cab and drop it of at the bus station later on today. He then tells me he has few errands to run this afternoon and that he can pick it up from the bike store then drop it off at the bus station. He gives me his cell number, I enter it in my phone and re-confirm it's correct. I ask for a recommendation for a place for lunch and he says "Biscuits and Blues" is a good local place to eat. So I put that in my GPS and follow the map for lunch. I get to "Biscuits and Blues " order a Oyster Po-boy and have a few beers.
I then call the bike shop, which is an auto parts/appliance store with a bike shop in back of the store. I ask them for a large bike box that would fit a touring bike, they say yes we have a box for you and it will be $10. Hmmm this does not make sense, a box that they would normally throw out, they charge $10. This is the only Local Bike Shop in Natchez and they have cornered the LBS market here, so they can charge whatever they please. Once again everyone complains when I support the big box stores such as Performance Bicycles which is like the Walmart for bicycles, that I should be supporting the LBS. So I think it's all about who has better customer service along with fair prices and Performance has both. I guess I could have called Target or Walmart to see if they had any bicycle boxes, because they have someone assembling bikes at their stores. So I say OK, I will be stop by in about 45 minutes to pay for it. So I finish my lunch and head over to the bus station, takes me about 20 minutes to get there. I pay for the ticket and ask where can I store a bike box overnight. Eric will need to pick it up from the bike store and drop it off today because the bus station and bike shop are not open on Sundays. He tells me that I can put it out back behind the building. I go to the back of the building and make sure no one is homeless or vagrants hanging around, I see there is a overhang to keep it dry. The last thing I need to happen is a homeless person making a house out of it, then I would need to repossess the house from him/her then convert it back into a bike box so I can get my bike back to Atlanta. Next and last order of business is to bike to the Local Bike Shop and pay for the box. Its 2.3 miles and takes me 10 minutes, I purchase the box and packing tape all for $13.66 and tell them that Eric will be picking up the box before the store closes. So I call Eric and confirm the Bike store times and tell him where he can leave it at the bus station and I thank him very much for doing this for me.
Now I'm ready to tour the city I mapped out all the Antebellum homes on my smart phone and I follow the route. I noticed when I started the route that I already have been down some of these roads when I was running around doing my errands. I stopped at each home and took pictures of about a dozen or so homes. Once I completed my seven mile tour of homes, I ride around a little more to find a place on the Mississippi River for beers. There is a casino on the river and its about a 300 foot drop in about 200 yards, its like a 18% grade. It sure was easy going down and I ride around, but not sure If I really want to hang out in a smokey lounge and not sure it has a view of the river, so I walk back up to the top of the bluff. I look for and find pub/bar near the river, but does not over look it. I have two more beers and Nachos the bill comes to $20, wow the Nachos were $9.50 and $5.00 beers and were awful tasting nachos, you know the kind you get at the movie theater. I should have known not to eat here, because no one else was eating and only drinking was happening at this establishment. So here is a rule of thumb, don't eat nachos at Natchez and if no one else is eating don't eat, generally I know this rule, I was not paying attention and also did not view the Menu, I just ask what the appetizers were and ordered them with seeing the menu.
After paying the bill it was 5:30 and and needed to get back to Natchez State Park before dark, because I forgot to attach my headlight to the bike and it is a 17 mile ride. But before I get back onto the Parkway, I stop to pick up a six pack of beer. I get back to the campground before dark and as soon as I pulled into my campsite started sprinkling, also I noticed "Snake" left the campground. Hoping that it will be light rain,I built a nice fire and determined to have my last cigars on my tour. I light up and start drinking my first beer, then the rain gets heavy, but I'm keeping warm next to the fire. Now my cigar is getting soggy and it goes out, I re-light but lasts for a minute. Now its really coming down and I finally give up and I'm soaked from head to toe, I take a few beers and head for the tent. I wait until the rain lets up and in a half hour it almost stopped. I jump out of my tent, recover my fire, light up a new cigar and enjoy another beer. Then 20 minutes later another big rain comes along with thunder and lightning I run for cover, this time a grab the rest of the beers and lost the rest of my last cigar due to heavy rain. I organize my tent for the night and I feel water on the floor of my tent, it looks like I missed a few spots when sealing my seams. So I mop up the water and go to sleep.
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| Inn |
Day 7 - 50 Miles Rocky Springs to Natchez State park
March 22, 2013:
It started raining around 6:00 am, woke up around 7:45am and it was still raining. George had packed up in the rain and wanted to leave early, he wanted to go to the end of the parkway and come back to Natchez State Park which is 4 miles off the Trace at mile marker 10.5, so George will be biking an extra 21 miles today. I looked at the radar, I see more rain coming and decide to sleep in for another hour. I got up around 9:30 with light rain, had breakfast, took down the tent, and packed everything away and loaded up the bike. I looked at the radar one more time and looked like light rain for another hour or so. So I finally got on the road around 10:30 I was in no hurry, today's ride was 49 miles and I wanted to see some sites along the way.
My first stop was in was in 12 miles at Mile 42 the Sunken Trace. This is where the original Trace had very soft ground and but since it was heavily traveled it actually wore down into a trench. When I arrived the rain had just stopped, walked down a path to the Sunken Trace and took some pictures. When I came back up to my bike about 2-3 cars pull in and then start asking me the standard questions and some extra about my equipment. Then another car pulls-in and I end up talking to people for about a half-hour about my tour, but I was able to get someone to snap some pictures of me. I enjoy talking to people while I'm riding, especially the locals, but in this case everyone is a tourist on this route.
I ride on for another 5 miles and a bicycle tourist couple approach me heading north, they were a retired couple, we stopped and I said are you Diane and she said Bob. I already know this couple from many email exchanges we had about their touring plans on taking the Natchez Trace from South to North a week later. So they started in Natchez and are going to take a few side trips off the Trace to Vicksburg and other towns, but mainly kept on the Trace. So we talked for about 10-15 minutes in the rain and they seem to really enjoy bike touring even when it was raining, they were so optimistic and energetic, I hope will have their attitude and optimism when I retire. So we went our ways and I continued on for another 15 miles, pulled over for lunch at a rest stop and had a peanut butter tortilla roll up. As I was packing up from my lunch getting ready to leave, I see 3 bike tourist heading in the opposite direction(North) they waved and I waved back.and that was that. They looked like they were struggling against some fierce headwinds, while I was enjoying nice tailwinds.
I ride on to Mount Locust at mile 15, which is a 1800's Inn I take pictures read the history boards and spend about 20 minutes looking around. I get back on the Trace and ride about a mile or two, someone is waving at me at a rest area to stop, he is next to a white Ford pickup truck with a trailer attached and I have seen this pickup truck before and the person from two nights ago and it's "Snake". So should I act like I don't know who he is and keep going, or should I stop? This time he is with his wife and has a 2 month old with him. So I end up stopping and "Snake" shows me his tire again where it has issues, gives me the story about he needs $50 to repair it. I told him I'm almost out of money because I'm at the end of my trip and I have just enough money to take a bus back to Atlanta. So I take off, ride a 1/2 mile down the road I get a flat in the rear tire, this is the first flat I have ever had while on tour. I pull over to check out what is going on and sure enough it's a slow to moderate leak. Then I hear a truck approaching, it's "Snake" again and he offers me a ride, but I kindly refuse and again he points to the pick up's rear tire and keeps telling me to look at it, like what am I going to do, it's kind of pointless. So now I'm convinced that bad karma rolled in and by me refusing to give him attention to his bad rear tire, it came back and struck me by having flat rear tire. So now things are starting to weird me out while I site along the road and talk to "Snake". So 'Snake" finally takes off and hope that I won't cross paths with "Snake" again. I change out the tube while "Deliverance" music is playing though my head, pump it up with my hand pump and get on my way.
Next stop is Natchez State Park only a few miles down the road, I exit the parkway and ride for another 4 miles a fork in the road with a sign "Natchez State Park Campground A and B" to the right and "Campground A" to the left. I figured I will call George to find out what campground he is in. I called and its a wrong number, I must have fat fingered it when entering it my phone. I hang up and hear this familiar truck sound approaching from the campground B and low and behold it's "Snake" again. He said he drove around Campground B and he did not see George anywhere. He pulls off toward Campground A and I do the same thing assuming George had arrived, I see George and then I see "Snake" pulled into the site next to us.
I talked to George to see how his ride was and he said it rained the entire way until the end of the Trace, it finally stopped raining when he headed back up the Trace to the Campground. So he had a rain cloud over his head the entire way and I had a bad karma cloud on my ride for the day. I unpack, while setting up camp "Snake" comes over says he is headed into town and if we need anything, George gives him $20 to buy a 12 pack of beer.
We make dinner and while we were eating "Snake" arrives with a 12 pack of beer, George gives him a few beers and he sits down with us. He now tells us what he does for a living, a "Professional Snake Handler". He travels coast to coast to educate people about snakes and has a mission to abolish "Rattle Snake Round-ups" he is an activist toward the humane treatment of Rattle Snakes or other poisonous snakes, where they kill thousands of snakes at these round-ups. Then I mention I enjoy Rattlesnake when ever I see it on a Menu at a restaurant I'll order it, I don't think he was happy with that comment.
Wow, I was expecting him to sit down and we had to painfully listen to "I'm a Born Again Christian and have you found Jesus yet?" for a whole hour and of course my usual response to that question is "I did not know he was lost" or "Nope, but I will check the lost and found if you would like" or the Forest Gump classic response is "I did not know I was supposed to be looking for him".
Then he shows us his battle wounds, where he has been bitten 5 times from poisonous snakes, in the arms, hands and fingers. One of his bits he proudly displays to us, where he lost a finger tip, nail and all. He said that "Snake handling" must be his calling, cause he has not died from any of the poison yet. Also he mentions that he was on one of those "Reality TV" shows "World's Dumbest Drivers" where he had a Cotton Mouth snake in the trunk of his car while he was pulled over by cops and they wanted to search the trunk of his car. "Snake", his wife and 2 month old are currently on their way to Texas because his wife's brother is getting released from prison. We do not ask the why, when and where questions about his Brother-in-law, but we let him ramble on to other subjects. He has been in contact with a production reality show outfit, to see if he can work his snake handling talent into a new show. I wanted to say "You should have no problem getting a show, I understand "Redneck Reality" shows on cable have increases by 500% in that past 4 years". But I keep this too myself, I'm good at keeping my mouth shut and laugh at my own jokes that my brain generates. "Snake" heads back to his trailer, I take a shower, get back to the campsite, finish off one last beer and smoke a cigar then go to bed.
It started raining around 6:00 am, woke up around 7:45am and it was still raining. George had packed up in the rain and wanted to leave early, he wanted to go to the end of the parkway and come back to Natchez State Park which is 4 miles off the Trace at mile marker 10.5, so George will be biking an extra 21 miles today. I looked at the radar, I see more rain coming and decide to sleep in for another hour. I got up around 9:30 with light rain, had breakfast, took down the tent, and packed everything away and loaded up the bike. I looked at the radar one more time and looked like light rain for another hour or so. So I finally got on the road around 10:30 I was in no hurry, today's ride was 49 miles and I wanted to see some sites along the way.
My first stop was in was in 12 miles at Mile 42 the Sunken Trace. This is where the original Trace had very soft ground and but since it was heavily traveled it actually wore down into a trench. When I arrived the rain had just stopped, walked down a path to the Sunken Trace and took some pictures. When I came back up to my bike about 2-3 cars pull in and then start asking me the standard questions and some extra about my equipment. Then another car pulls-in and I end up talking to people for about a half-hour about my tour, but I was able to get someone to snap some pictures of me. I enjoy talking to people while I'm riding, especially the locals, but in this case everyone is a tourist on this route.
I ride on for another 5 miles and a bicycle tourist couple approach me heading north, they were a retired couple, we stopped and I said are you Diane and she said Bob. I already know this couple from many email exchanges we had about their touring plans on taking the Natchez Trace from South to North a week later. So they started in Natchez and are going to take a few side trips off the Trace to Vicksburg and other towns, but mainly kept on the Trace. So we talked for about 10-15 minutes in the rain and they seem to really enjoy bike touring even when it was raining, they were so optimistic and energetic, I hope will have their attitude and optimism when I retire. So we went our ways and I continued on for another 15 miles, pulled over for lunch at a rest stop and had a peanut butter tortilla roll up. As I was packing up from my lunch getting ready to leave, I see 3 bike tourist heading in the opposite direction(North) they waved and I waved back.and that was that. They looked like they were struggling against some fierce headwinds, while I was enjoying nice tailwinds.
I ride on to Mount Locust at mile 15, which is a 1800's Inn I take pictures read the history boards and spend about 20 minutes looking around. I get back on the Trace and ride about a mile or two, someone is waving at me at a rest area to stop, he is next to a white Ford pickup truck with a trailer attached and I have seen this pickup truck before and the person from two nights ago and it's "Snake". So should I act like I don't know who he is and keep going, or should I stop? This time he is with his wife and has a 2 month old with him. So I end up stopping and "Snake" shows me his tire again where it has issues, gives me the story about he needs $50 to repair it. I told him I'm almost out of money because I'm at the end of my trip and I have just enough money to take a bus back to Atlanta. So I take off, ride a 1/2 mile down the road I get a flat in the rear tire, this is the first flat I have ever had while on tour. I pull over to check out what is going on and sure enough it's a slow to moderate leak. Then I hear a truck approaching, it's "Snake" again and he offers me a ride, but I kindly refuse and again he points to the pick up's rear tire and keeps telling me to look at it, like what am I going to do, it's kind of pointless. So now I'm convinced that bad karma rolled in and by me refusing to give him attention to his bad rear tire, it came back and struck me by having flat rear tire. So now things are starting to weird me out while I site along the road and talk to "Snake". So 'Snake" finally takes off and hope that I won't cross paths with "Snake" again. I change out the tube while "Deliverance" music is playing though my head, pump it up with my hand pump and get on my way.
Next stop is Natchez State Park only a few miles down the road, I exit the parkway and ride for another 4 miles a fork in the road with a sign "Natchez State Park Campground A and B" to the right and "Campground A" to the left. I figured I will call George to find out what campground he is in. I called and its a wrong number, I must have fat fingered it when entering it my phone. I hang up and hear this familiar truck sound approaching from the campground B and low and behold it's "Snake" again. He said he drove around Campground B and he did not see George anywhere. He pulls off toward Campground A and I do the same thing assuming George had arrived, I see George and then I see "Snake" pulled into the site next to us.
I talked to George to see how his ride was and he said it rained the entire way until the end of the Trace, it finally stopped raining when he headed back up the Trace to the Campground. So he had a rain cloud over his head the entire way and I had a bad karma cloud on my ride for the day. I unpack, while setting up camp "Snake" comes over says he is headed into town and if we need anything, George gives him $20 to buy a 12 pack of beer.
We make dinner and while we were eating "Snake" arrives with a 12 pack of beer, George gives him a few beers and he sits down with us. He now tells us what he does for a living, a "Professional Snake Handler". He travels coast to coast to educate people about snakes and has a mission to abolish "Rattle Snake Round-ups" he is an activist toward the humane treatment of Rattle Snakes or other poisonous snakes, where they kill thousands of snakes at these round-ups. Then I mention I enjoy Rattlesnake when ever I see it on a Menu at a restaurant I'll order it, I don't think he was happy with that comment.
Wow, I was expecting him to sit down and we had to painfully listen to "I'm a Born Again Christian and have you found Jesus yet?" for a whole hour and of course my usual response to that question is "I did not know he was lost" or "Nope, but I will check the lost and found if you would like" or the Forest Gump classic response is "I did not know I was supposed to be looking for him".
Then he shows us his battle wounds, where he has been bitten 5 times from poisonous snakes, in the arms, hands and fingers. One of his bits he proudly displays to us, where he lost a finger tip, nail and all. He said that "Snake handling" must be his calling, cause he has not died from any of the poison yet. Also he mentions that he was on one of those "Reality TV" shows "World's Dumbest Drivers" where he had a Cotton Mouth snake in the trunk of his car while he was pulled over by cops and they wanted to search the trunk of his car. "Snake", his wife and 2 month old are currently on their way to Texas because his wife's brother is getting released from prison. We do not ask the why, when and where questions about his Brother-in-law, but we let him ramble on to other subjects. He has been in contact with a production reality show outfit, to see if he can work his snake handling talent into a new show. I wanted to say "You should have no problem getting a show, I understand "Redneck Reality" shows on cable have increases by 500% in that past 4 years". But I keep this too myself, I'm good at keeping my mouth shut and laugh at my own jokes that my brain generates. "Snake" heads back to his trailer, I take a shower, get back to the campsite, finish off one last beer and smoke a cigar then go to bed.
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| I had many people talk to me at this site. One person commented on my front pannier rain covers, yep they are Hefty specials. My next tour I will upgrade to Ortlieb Front Rollers. |
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| Sunken Trace |
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| Sunken Trace |
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| Mount Locust home |
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| Inside Mount Locust |
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| Mount Locust |
Day 6 - 53 Miles Ratliff Ferry to Rocky Springs
March 21, 2013:
We wake up around 7:30 am and get going around 9:00 am. We head out back on the parkway and the headwinds start to pick. We ride long the shore of the "Ross R Barnett Reservoir" for about 10 miles and is a real nice view, then we enter Jackson, MS in which is too early for lunch, it seems whenever we pass through large cities we are always in between meal times. The traffic is stating to get real heavy along the trace and we noticed that they put a bike path along the parkway. So we jump on the bike path to avoid the traffic which then takes us into the city of Clinton and then the path ends without getting us back on to the Parkway. It was about 50 yards where we had to walk our bikes to get back on the Parkway.
The next order of business is for me to get gas for my stove, so I look up on my phone for a sporting store, but none to be found. Only place I know who will have fuel is Walmart, I find a Walmart in Google Maps on my phone and I get bicycle directions from where our current location is. It is about 2 miles off the parkway and 7 miles south of us, the directions show that we get off the Parkway immediately go east and then south and ride parallel to the Parkway. We go east about a 1/4 mile then south we ride another 1/2 mile and we see a sign "Bridge Closed" but we keep on going, then we came upon detour route sign. We now see the bridge about 1/2 mile down the road, it looks like its in-tacked with no construction equipment, so we go around the barricade signs and decide to go over the bridge. As we are approaching the bridge I see smoke coming out from under the bridge.... hmm I thought to myself probably homeless person cooking lunch under the bridge. As we were crossing over bridge the smell from the smoke did not smell like wood burning or food cooking, it had a very heavy chemical smell to it. Then I thought about it for a second and I think we just biked over a Meth lab that was under a closed bridge. So we continued on through neighborhoods that looked a little rough around the edges, but the nice thing about using Google is that you can select the mode of transportation "bicycle" and it will route you through low volume roads such as neighborhood streets. The next thing Google needs to add to their mapping application is crime stats, where you choose the level of crime you want to bike through or bike around to avoid such areas. It really did not bother me, when I lived in New York, I biked through some real bad areas in New York City in the late 80's, but not sure if George was very comfortable biking around here. So we were riding through one neighborhood after another standing out like two turds in a punch bowl, then we came up to a light and Walmart was on the other side of the street. George was very impressed with the Google Navigator tool on my Google phone.
We park our bikes inside the store entrance where the friendly Walmart greeter could see our bikes. The greeter was around 80 years old, had coke bottle glasses and then I forgot to give him a vision test, you know the ""How many fingers are we holding up" test before we entered the store. I went in for fuel, also picked up a banana and some heavy duty socks that were on sale. I beat George back to our bikes, then I was contemplating on getting beer here or wait, we had another 30 miles to go. My rule of thumb for a beer run is 10 miles or less from our stopping point for the night. Generally I do not like to carry the extra weight and also beer will get shaken up especially on rough roads, in which I know we would be going over some rough sections getting back on the Parkway. The Parkway has been very smooth with a few sections where it was little rough, at least smooth enough to keep your beer in-tacked for a few miles. So we decide to take a short cut to the Parkway and avoid getting on an actual Parkway entrance, we biked to a bridge crossing and walked our bikes up a hill onto the Parkway.
The Natchez Trace Parkway is 444 mile long road which has no stop or yield signs, no traffic lights and very few on-off ramps or intersections, but it sure has a lot of bridge crossings. So if you have a car that can achieve 450 miles on a full tank of gas, you can start from one end to another without ever stopping. The problem is the speed limit is 40 to 50 Mph, so it would take over 9 hours to complete.
So we get back on the Parkway, bike another 30 miles, we pull into Rocky Springs, setup camp, eat dinner and crash out for the night. No pictures today
We wake up around 7:30 am and get going around 9:00 am. We head out back on the parkway and the headwinds start to pick. We ride long the shore of the "Ross R Barnett Reservoir" for about 10 miles and is a real nice view, then we enter Jackson, MS in which is too early for lunch, it seems whenever we pass through large cities we are always in between meal times. The traffic is stating to get real heavy along the trace and we noticed that they put a bike path along the parkway. So we jump on the bike path to avoid the traffic which then takes us into the city of Clinton and then the path ends without getting us back on to the Parkway. It was about 50 yards where we had to walk our bikes to get back on the Parkway.
The next order of business is for me to get gas for my stove, so I look up on my phone for a sporting store, but none to be found. Only place I know who will have fuel is Walmart, I find a Walmart in Google Maps on my phone and I get bicycle directions from where our current location is. It is about 2 miles off the parkway and 7 miles south of us, the directions show that we get off the Parkway immediately go east and then south and ride parallel to the Parkway. We go east about a 1/4 mile then south we ride another 1/2 mile and we see a sign "Bridge Closed" but we keep on going, then we came upon detour route sign. We now see the bridge about 1/2 mile down the road, it looks like its in-tacked with no construction equipment, so we go around the barricade signs and decide to go over the bridge. As we are approaching the bridge I see smoke coming out from under the bridge.... hmm I thought to myself probably homeless person cooking lunch under the bridge. As we were crossing over bridge the smell from the smoke did not smell like wood burning or food cooking, it had a very heavy chemical smell to it. Then I thought about it for a second and I think we just biked over a Meth lab that was under a closed bridge. So we continued on through neighborhoods that looked a little rough around the edges, but the nice thing about using Google is that you can select the mode of transportation "bicycle" and it will route you through low volume roads such as neighborhood streets. The next thing Google needs to add to their mapping application is crime stats, where you choose the level of crime you want to bike through or bike around to avoid such areas. It really did not bother me, when I lived in New York, I biked through some real bad areas in New York City in the late 80's, but not sure if George was very comfortable biking around here. So we were riding through one neighborhood after another standing out like two turds in a punch bowl, then we came up to a light and Walmart was on the other side of the street. George was very impressed with the Google Navigator tool on my Google phone.
We park our bikes inside the store entrance where the friendly Walmart greeter could see our bikes. The greeter was around 80 years old, had coke bottle glasses and then I forgot to give him a vision test, you know the ""How many fingers are we holding up" test before we entered the store. I went in for fuel, also picked up a banana and some heavy duty socks that were on sale. I beat George back to our bikes, then I was contemplating on getting beer here or wait, we had another 30 miles to go. My rule of thumb for a beer run is 10 miles or less from our stopping point for the night. Generally I do not like to carry the extra weight and also beer will get shaken up especially on rough roads, in which I know we would be going over some rough sections getting back on the Parkway. The Parkway has been very smooth with a few sections where it was little rough, at least smooth enough to keep your beer in-tacked for a few miles. So we decide to take a short cut to the Parkway and avoid getting on an actual Parkway entrance, we biked to a bridge crossing and walked our bikes up a hill onto the Parkway.
The Natchez Trace Parkway is 444 mile long road which has no stop or yield signs, no traffic lights and very few on-off ramps or intersections, but it sure has a lot of bridge crossings. So if you have a car that can achieve 450 miles on a full tank of gas, you can start from one end to another without ever stopping. The problem is the speed limit is 40 to 50 Mph, so it would take over 9 hours to complete.
So we get back on the Parkway, bike another 30 miles, we pull into Rocky Springs, setup camp, eat dinner and crash out for the night. No pictures today
Day 5 - 74 Miles Jeff Busby to Ratliff Ferry
March 20, 2013:
Woke up at a reasonable time 7:30am and did not get going until 9:20am, temperature was in the low 40's we are now getting tailwinds and make good timing to our next destination. Around 13 miles from the days stopping point, I hear and feel another ping from the rear wheel and it's another broken spoke. George suggests to see if I can continue on to the campground, I take a look to see if the wheel is rubbing against the brakes, which is sightly rubbing, so I released the brake cable to my rear wheel. I ride on hoping that the rear wheel will hang on until we get to the campground.
Our destination for the day is Ratliff Ferry to a private campground. We arrive in decent time 4:30 and pay $5 each for a primitive site and the store sells beer. They have hot showers which is all I care about, and is at a fair price. We exit the store and ready our bikes so we can ride with our beer over to the campsite, someone in a pickup truck starts asking the regular questions "Where did you come from, how many miles, ETC". Then he asks if we are staying here and starts telling his story of where he came from and he has rear tire issues on his pickup truck, I think he introduced himself, but his name did not stick, so I will call him "Snake"(as you read on you will understand why I call him "Snake"). We are really not paying too much attention to "Snake"while we ready our bikes so we can get our beers and bike to the camp site. Then "Snake" invites us over to his campsite for beers and campfire. We then ride off to our primitive campsite, which is in a separate area than the rest of the campground, we setup camp, cook dinner, drink beer and talk about the day's highlights while I replace my broken spoke. Installed a new spoke and then check over the wheel for any other loose spokes, I found a loose one, wiggled it then it broke, so I replace that one as well. So now that dinner, bike maintenance are done I take a hot shower and now I'm ready to relax. Setup my hammock have a cigar, drink more beer and chill out for a hour or so. George hits the ground early and we never make it over to "Snake's" campsite.
Woke up at a reasonable time 7:30am and did not get going until 9:20am, temperature was in the low 40's we are now getting tailwinds and make good timing to our next destination. Around 13 miles from the days stopping point, I hear and feel another ping from the rear wheel and it's another broken spoke. George suggests to see if I can continue on to the campground, I take a look to see if the wheel is rubbing against the brakes, which is sightly rubbing, so I released the brake cable to my rear wheel. I ride on hoping that the rear wheel will hang on until we get to the campground.
Our destination for the day is Ratliff Ferry to a private campground. We arrive in decent time 4:30 and pay $5 each for a primitive site and the store sells beer. They have hot showers which is all I care about, and is at a fair price. We exit the store and ready our bikes so we can ride with our beer over to the campsite, someone in a pickup truck starts asking the regular questions "Where did you come from, how many miles, ETC". Then he asks if we are staying here and starts telling his story of where he came from and he has rear tire issues on his pickup truck, I think he introduced himself, but his name did not stick, so I will call him "Snake"(as you read on you will understand why I call him "Snake"). We are really not paying too much attention to "Snake"while we ready our bikes so we can get our beers and bike to the camp site. Then "Snake" invites us over to his campsite for beers and campfire. We then ride off to our primitive campsite, which is in a separate area than the rest of the campground, we setup camp, cook dinner, drink beer and talk about the day's highlights while I replace my broken spoke. Installed a new spoke and then check over the wheel for any other loose spokes, I found a loose one, wiggled it then it broke, so I replace that one as well. So now that dinner, bike maintenance are done I take a hot shower and now I'm ready to relax. Setup my hammock have a cigar, drink more beer and chill out for a hour or so. George hits the ground early and we never make it over to "Snake's" campsite.
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| George in front of French Camp B & B |
Day 4 - 79 Miles Topelo to Jeff Busby
March 19, 2013:
We get up around 7:30 and pack up from the hotel room, do a final look over and George finds the extra beer in the fridge, he finds a place for it in his panniers. This is Bill's last day of riding and he decided to Tour around Topelo while he waits for Sametta to pick him up. We go to the hotel lobby for breakfast and toast up some cardboard Waffles and Bagels and eat a few doughnuts. We say our goodbyes to Bill and start out around 9:15, temp is 40 degrees, which is the coldest day so far, I have three layers and a jacket on along with a fleece hat and compression leggings. We are getting good tail winds and making great progress toward to the day's end goal which is Jeff Busby campground.
We stop for lunch at one of the rest stop along the way and I have a Tuna Salad Tortilla roll up and George is talking to someone in a Winnebago at the rest stop for about 10 minutes. So George walks over to the picnic table that I'm sitting at with a bag a hot fresh popped popcorn, The man in the Winnebago had a microwave so George jumped on that while he was chatting with him. Then George remembered his beer he packed away, along with popcorn that's what you call a power lunch. He shared his popcorn with me, but not his beer.
We started riding and we see a lone bicycle tourist in the distance, we slow down and he pulls over as well. His name is Tom from Australia he started out in Miami five weeks ago and his final destination will be Vancouver BC, he is hoping to finish by June. George took some pictures with is iPod of me and Tom but unfortunately the iPod received some water damage and he has not been able to recover any data from the device. It's a real pleasure to meet other tourists while riding, where we can exchange information about each others adventures as well as what is ahead for them as well as what is down the road for us.
We wish Tom well and safe trip, then bike a few more miles and come upon mile marker 212, this where on April 27, 2011 a Tornado took a ride down the Natchez Trace Parkway for about 8 miles. Some of the sections where the tornado laid out a path of destruction over 300 yards wide. It really looked like the Tornado picked the path of least resistance and stayed directly on top of the parkway, because both sides of the road had equal damage.
http://www.nps.gov/natr/naturescience/tornado-impacts-2011.htm
Also, after doing some research a camper was killed at the Jeff Busby Campground in the same storm.
http://www.nationalparkstraveler.com/2011/04/camper-killed-severe-storm-system-thrashes-natchez-trace-parkway8025
Once we rode past the Tornado damage area our next order of business of to find beer. Next town closest to the Trace is Mathiston, only 1/2 mile off the parkway. So we exit the parkway and ride to a gas station, we pull in and ask someone who is pumping gas if we are in a dry county, and sure enough with our luck we are in a dry county. So we ask where the closest establishment that is wet, he said about 3 miles away, so as long as its less than 5 miles it's worth the effort for a couple of beers. He gives us directions to a Package Store, we find the store, walk in and see no beer, just wine and liquor with someone at the counter smoking a cigarette. We ask where can we get beer, he said 9 miles away, I said "No F@cking Way". George purchases a bottle of sweet white wine "Yellow Tail" brand, I'm still deciding, I ask the clerk see if they have any small bottles Single Malt Scotch. He points to the shelf to one large dusty bottle of Chivas Regal blended scotch, he said people from around here don't drink scotch. So I guess I'll have to go for the recommended local flavor, so I asked the pruned face gentleman, "What's your recommendation" and I see his buying 5 bottles of R & R Whiskey, so that answered my question, so I ask for a small bottle probably a 10 ounce bottle. He then tells me 'That's not enough to even wet my tongue", well that makes sense coming from him, because his tongue is probably so shriveled up nothing can get it wet. So all in all, Mississippi seems to have 3 types of County's for Liquor establishments to exist: Dry, Damp(with restrictions) and Wet.
We head back to the parkway, which was 3.5 miles away, so it was a 7 mile detour for liquor and ride onto Jeff Busby campground. We made pretty good time even with the liquor detour, we setup camp, cook dinner and I finally I'm able to setup the hammock. George builds a camp fire, I open my R & R whiskey and light up a cigar, then relax on my hammock for about 45 minutes. This is the first night where I'm able to relax, usually I'm running around setting up camp and cooking dinner before it gets dark.
We get up around 7:30 and pack up from the hotel room, do a final look over and George finds the extra beer in the fridge, he finds a place for it in his panniers. This is Bill's last day of riding and he decided to Tour around Topelo while he waits for Sametta to pick him up. We go to the hotel lobby for breakfast and toast up some cardboard Waffles and Bagels and eat a few doughnuts. We say our goodbyes to Bill and start out around 9:15, temp is 40 degrees, which is the coldest day so far, I have three layers and a jacket on along with a fleece hat and compression leggings. We are getting good tail winds and making great progress toward to the day's end goal which is Jeff Busby campground.
We stop for lunch at one of the rest stop along the way and I have a Tuna Salad Tortilla roll up and George is talking to someone in a Winnebago at the rest stop for about 10 minutes. So George walks over to the picnic table that I'm sitting at with a bag a hot fresh popped popcorn, The man in the Winnebago had a microwave so George jumped on that while he was chatting with him. Then George remembered his beer he packed away, along with popcorn that's what you call a power lunch. He shared his popcorn with me, but not his beer.
We started riding and we see a lone bicycle tourist in the distance, we slow down and he pulls over as well. His name is Tom from Australia he started out in Miami five weeks ago and his final destination will be Vancouver BC, he is hoping to finish by June. George took some pictures with is iPod of me and Tom but unfortunately the iPod received some water damage and he has not been able to recover any data from the device. It's a real pleasure to meet other tourists while riding, where we can exchange information about each others adventures as well as what is ahead for them as well as what is down the road for us.
We wish Tom well and safe trip, then bike a few more miles and come upon mile marker 212, this where on April 27, 2011 a Tornado took a ride down the Natchez Trace Parkway for about 8 miles. Some of the sections where the tornado laid out a path of destruction over 300 yards wide. It really looked like the Tornado picked the path of least resistance and stayed directly on top of the parkway, because both sides of the road had equal damage.
http://www.nps.gov/natr/naturescience/tornado-impacts-2011.htm
Also, after doing some research a camper was killed at the Jeff Busby Campground in the same storm.
http://www.nationalparkstraveler.com/2011/04/camper-killed-severe-storm-system-thrashes-natchez-trace-parkway8025
Once we rode past the Tornado damage area our next order of business of to find beer. Next town closest to the Trace is Mathiston, only 1/2 mile off the parkway. So we exit the parkway and ride to a gas station, we pull in and ask someone who is pumping gas if we are in a dry county, and sure enough with our luck we are in a dry county. So we ask where the closest establishment that is wet, he said about 3 miles away, so as long as its less than 5 miles it's worth the effort for a couple of beers. He gives us directions to a Package Store, we find the store, walk in and see no beer, just wine and liquor with someone at the counter smoking a cigarette. We ask where can we get beer, he said 9 miles away, I said "No F@cking Way". George purchases a bottle of sweet white wine "Yellow Tail" brand, I'm still deciding, I ask the clerk see if they have any small bottles Single Malt Scotch. He points to the shelf to one large dusty bottle of Chivas Regal blended scotch, he said people from around here don't drink scotch. So I guess I'll have to go for the recommended local flavor, so I asked the pruned face gentleman, "What's your recommendation" and I see his buying 5 bottles of R & R Whiskey, so that answered my question, so I ask for a small bottle probably a 10 ounce bottle. He then tells me 'That's not enough to even wet my tongue", well that makes sense coming from him, because his tongue is probably so shriveled up nothing can get it wet. So all in all, Mississippi seems to have 3 types of County's for Liquor establishments to exist: Dry, Damp(with restrictions) and Wet.
We head back to the parkway, which was 3.5 miles away, so it was a 7 mile detour for liquor and ride onto Jeff Busby campground. We made pretty good time even with the liquor detour, we setup camp, cook dinner and I finally I'm able to setup the hammock. George builds a camp fire, I open my R & R whiskey and light up a cigar, then relax on my hammock for about 45 minutes. This is the first night where I'm able to relax, usually I'm running around setting up camp and cooking dinner before it gets dark.
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| The old Trace trail |
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| This is where the Tornado damage starts |
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| Destruction |
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| More Destruction |
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| It just keeps going and going for more than 8 miles.... |
Day 3 - 41 Miles Tishomingo SP to Topelo, MS
March 18, 2013:
Woke up around 8:00 am, cooked breakfast the usual oatmeal with peanut butter and peculated organic coffee. We listened to the weather forecast and thunderstorms were to move in around 11:00am so we wrap it up and get on the road ASAP. I take one last look at the radar in motion on my phone to get an idea of how intense and large the thunderstorms we will be riding into and it looks like the storms are going to get here sooner that 11:00 am. We head out and within 45 minutes a few sprinkles come down, pull off to suit up, batten down the hatches and turn on lights. I hope my new rain suit works as well as the new Ortlieb panniers purchased for this trip. So we ride a few miles and it is still light rain, then we hear thunder off in the distance, sooner than later it downpours.
We continue on because its still a warm 74F and I'm sweating inside my rain-suite, it's supposed to be breathable but I think I'm sweating faster than it can breathe. By the way, when it says breathable I'm not too sure what that really means "Do rain suites really have their own respiratory system?". The other thing is how is it able to wick away moisture from your skin and excrete it to the outside of your rain suite when the outside is at 100% humidity and then keep you dry inside. My only solution to this is create another layer in you rain suite that is made of Silica, these are the tiny packets you find in packing material for shipping electronics that absorb moisture.
We rode 5 miles in heavy rain and now lightning is more frequent and closer, I'm counting the seconds between the strikes and the thunder they are about 2.5 to 3 seconds and then one less than 2 seconds and finally one that is about 1 second, now this gets me really moving and accelerate to get out of this stuff. After high tailing it out for about 5 miles the storm moved on and is light rain.. We pull into a rest stop at the Pharr Mounds mile 287 rest stop and try to dry off. I take off my rain suite and strap it to my bike, drink water and check the weather radar. Looks like another round of bad thunderstorms is headed our way, about 45 minutes out so we high tail out of there. The winds started to pick up and the thunder getting loader and more frequent again. the the rain gets real heavy, then wind picks up with very intense gust of winds blowing me around on the bike. Thunder and lightning once again hitting with in 1/3 of a mile from me, then all of a sudden a real cold gust of wind hits me and then its warms up again for about 5 seconds and another colder gust of wind hits me. The temperature dropped from 74F to 54F all in a matter of 15 seconds, the rain gets more intense and all I have on is short sleeve bike shirt and shorts. I kept moving just to keep warm and did not want to stop in the rain to suit up because everything is all wet anyway makes no sense to get more stuff wet. So after biking about another 10 miles I wait up for Bill and George and they were not too far behind me, they are shocked that I'm still in my shorts and short sleeve shirt and its 54 degrees. We regroup on what to do next, the next campground is at the Parkway Visitors Center just north on Tupelo, MS at Mile 266 so we make a bee line to this destination. We arrive, still raining and I'm soaked and chilled to the bone. We get inside the Visitor's Center to warm up and I head straight to the bathroom for a blow dryer, but no blow dryer, this sucks.
George and Bill were contemplating on the camping option, George makes the executive decision to get a hotel which is only two miles off the Trace at the "Americas Best Inn". So we get back on the bikes and make a b-line to the hotel with in few minutes we see commercialism overload, restaurants, stores, strip malls and of course Walmart. This is the nice thing about the Parkway, it has no signed advertisements, commercialism or houses, the Federal Government owns a minimum of 144 yards on each side of the Parkway. The hotel owners see us soaked in the lobby and brought us extra towels. We change in to dry clothes and the first order of business is beer, we have not had a beer since the night before we left. We run over the Walgreens and pick of a 12 pack and head back to the hotel. Next order of business is where to eat, so we pick Ryan's, it is an all you can eat buffet. We watch the weather forecast, throw a load of wash in the washing machine and head over to Ryan's. While we were eating George is interested in purchasing a stove and food to cook, he has enjoyed the food we have prepared every night, we both have been giving him samples. George lives off from a jar of Peanut Butter and Combos, Power bars also he has 3 bags of microwave popcorn, in which you can pop in on a stove pan, but he has not requested us thus far. So we walk over to Walmart, pick up a Coleman stove, gas, lighters and food such a Knorr's Alfredo, Mac and Cheese, Tuna packets and a few other dry food packets that you can just add water. We get back to the Hotel and watch more weather and drink 11 of the 12 beers. I try to update my Day 1 blog since I have time to do, but it's more difficult that it seems when you are doing it on your smart phone with 5 beers.
Stopped to snap a picture of this snapping turtle..We wanted to help him from getting to close to the road. The only thing we could do is give him a few words of encouragement. I surely did not want to pick him up, he looked like he did not wanted to be bothered with.
Woke up around 8:00 am, cooked breakfast the usual oatmeal with peanut butter and peculated organic coffee. We listened to the weather forecast and thunderstorms were to move in around 11:00am so we wrap it up and get on the road ASAP. I take one last look at the radar in motion on my phone to get an idea of how intense and large the thunderstorms we will be riding into and it looks like the storms are going to get here sooner that 11:00 am. We head out and within 45 minutes a few sprinkles come down, pull off to suit up, batten down the hatches and turn on lights. I hope my new rain suit works as well as the new Ortlieb panniers purchased for this trip. So we ride a few miles and it is still light rain, then we hear thunder off in the distance, sooner than later it downpours.
We continue on because its still a warm 74F and I'm sweating inside my rain-suite, it's supposed to be breathable but I think I'm sweating faster than it can breathe. By the way, when it says breathable I'm not too sure what that really means "Do rain suites really have their own respiratory system?". The other thing is how is it able to wick away moisture from your skin and excrete it to the outside of your rain suite when the outside is at 100% humidity and then keep you dry inside. My only solution to this is create another layer in you rain suite that is made of Silica, these are the tiny packets you find in packing material for shipping electronics that absorb moisture.
We rode 5 miles in heavy rain and now lightning is more frequent and closer, I'm counting the seconds between the strikes and the thunder they are about 2.5 to 3 seconds and then one less than 2 seconds and finally one that is about 1 second, now this gets me really moving and accelerate to get out of this stuff. After high tailing it out for about 5 miles the storm moved on and is light rain.. We pull into a rest stop at the Pharr Mounds mile 287 rest stop and try to dry off. I take off my rain suite and strap it to my bike, drink water and check the weather radar. Looks like another round of bad thunderstorms is headed our way, about 45 minutes out so we high tail out of there. The winds started to pick up and the thunder getting loader and more frequent again. the the rain gets real heavy, then wind picks up with very intense gust of winds blowing me around on the bike. Thunder and lightning once again hitting with in 1/3 of a mile from me, then all of a sudden a real cold gust of wind hits me and then its warms up again for about 5 seconds and another colder gust of wind hits me. The temperature dropped from 74F to 54F all in a matter of 15 seconds, the rain gets more intense and all I have on is short sleeve bike shirt and shorts. I kept moving just to keep warm and did not want to stop in the rain to suit up because everything is all wet anyway makes no sense to get more stuff wet. So after biking about another 10 miles I wait up for Bill and George and they were not too far behind me, they are shocked that I'm still in my shorts and short sleeve shirt and its 54 degrees. We regroup on what to do next, the next campground is at the Parkway Visitors Center just north on Tupelo, MS at Mile 266 so we make a bee line to this destination. We arrive, still raining and I'm soaked and chilled to the bone. We get inside the Visitor's Center to warm up and I head straight to the bathroom for a blow dryer, but no blow dryer, this sucks.
George and Bill were contemplating on the camping option, George makes the executive decision to get a hotel which is only two miles off the Trace at the "Americas Best Inn". So we get back on the bikes and make a b-line to the hotel with in few minutes we see commercialism overload, restaurants, stores, strip malls and of course Walmart. This is the nice thing about the Parkway, it has no signed advertisements, commercialism or houses, the Federal Government owns a minimum of 144 yards on each side of the Parkway. The hotel owners see us soaked in the lobby and brought us extra towels. We change in to dry clothes and the first order of business is beer, we have not had a beer since the night before we left. We run over the Walgreens and pick of a 12 pack and head back to the hotel. Next order of business is where to eat, so we pick Ryan's, it is an all you can eat buffet. We watch the weather forecast, throw a load of wash in the washing machine and head over to Ryan's. While we were eating George is interested in purchasing a stove and food to cook, he has enjoyed the food we have prepared every night, we both have been giving him samples. George lives off from a jar of Peanut Butter and Combos, Power bars also he has 3 bags of microwave popcorn, in which you can pop in on a stove pan, but he has not requested us thus far. So we walk over to Walmart, pick up a Coleman stove, gas, lighters and food such a Knorr's Alfredo, Mac and Cheese, Tuna packets and a few other dry food packets that you can just add water. We get back to the Hotel and watch more weather and drink 11 of the 12 beers. I try to update my Day 1 blog since I have time to do, but it's more difficult that it seems when you are doing it on your smart phone with 5 beers.
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| Just started raining. first time I'm trying out the rain suite |
T-Minus 1 day - Taking the Greyhound
Thursday March 14, disassembled the touring bike and put it into a road bike box. A touring bike is much longer than a road bike, so I get the largest road bike box from Performance Bicycles. They actually took me back to the warehouse and we measured about 25 boxes for 5-10 minutes and found the largest one and they unpacked the bike that was in the box and set aside for assembly and gave me the box. While at the bike store I picked up a heavy duty cycling hat for warmth that fits under the helmet and purchased a new rear tire. Rear tires wear out very fast when riding on a trainer. In the future, I will use cheap tires on the trainer during the winter and then change over to good ones when touring or when riding long distances.
I was able to get the disassembled bike into the box with no room to spare. I took off the fenders, bottle cages, front rack, stem, seat post, handle bars and pedals. Getting a touring bike in a road bike box is like putting 10 pounds of shit in a 5 pound bag, but in the end I was successful (well maybe not).
Friday March 15, I work a half a day and I am already to go with everything packed in my panniers, all I need to do is have my wife Danamarie drive me to the Greyhound station. This will be my first ever Greyhound experience, so I'm a little nervous because I have no idea how they are going process and handle my bike at the bus station. The bus departs at 2:05 pm and I leave the house at 12:30 pm and is a 15 minute ride to the station. We arrive at the station I unload the bike, two sets of panniers and a small stuff sack(sleeping pad and tent). I throw the two sets of panniers over my shoulders and one hand holding on to the stuff sack while I grab the handle of one side of the bike box and the other hand reaching over to the other side of the box. I reach the double doors and people are coming out one side, but I need to use both sides so I wait patiently until its clear then other side closes on me and almost take out the other door with a loud crash. This finally gets someone's attention and they realize what I was trying to do and helped me open the other door to let me in, while the security guard 5 feet away is taking wages to see if I can get through the door or not. I did not care if I had to break down the door or knock it off the hinges to get inside, its their fault for not having automated doors in the first place. Of course having something that sophisticated in a hole-in-wall would look a little out of place.
So I get through the doors and within 3 feet ahead of me is a line, so set everything down and the line is moving along at a snails pace....ahhh maybe not, I think a snail would win at this game. About 10 minutes in line and two feet forward a lady looks at my box and asks me "What in dat box?". I say politely it is a bike and she pulls me out of the line and into a back room and a man says I need to pay extra shipping, I give him my ticket and I ask how much? It's $30 and he prints up a packing slip I give him cash. I figured if he charges me $50 or more, I will then drive up to Nashville, the bus ticket was $17. So my bike costs almost twice my ticket to travel to Nashville. Then the man says that when I get to my bus, I will need to come back to the room and get my bike and take it to the bus. So now I get back in line to check one set of Panniers and I will take one set with me on the bus along with my stuff sack. I stand in line, once again not moving very fast and they ask me if I already have a ticket and then they send me over to another line that is moving, it is a customer service line where they can print baggage tickets. All bags and bike have now been checked, I hear announcements over a heavily distorted speaker system and can make out some of of the city names on where buses will be going, I hear Nashville and hear it again with two different doors, but I did not get the departure times. Announcements are made every 15 minutes or so. There are no bus numbers or a departure/arrival monitor screens where you can find gate/door numbers like the ones at an airport terminal, maybe I'm asking too much for $17(automated doors, computer screens and clear announcements). So I started talking to people in the longest line and compared ticket times which matched up with my time and checked to see if the bus was going to Nashville. An announcement came over the speaker system and called the door for departure and people started moving, I lug my baggage to the bus, dropped everything off along with everyone's luggage in the middle of the street. Then I realize this is where I need to run back to that room on the side of the building and grab the bike. I retrieve my bike and bring to the bus then set in next to my checked panniers and leave it for the baggage handlers to load it onto the bus. I grab my carry on panniers and stuff sack give the ticket to the bus driver, I'm the last one boarding, it's a full bus and ask a college student if the seat is taken and she says no. I sit down and exchange a few words about what college she is attending, studies and small talk about my adventure for about 20 minutes. I did not want to talk to much, I never like it when I fly and sit next to a chatter box and talk the whole way through the entire flight. I think I now know why some people like to chit-chat and babble on and on and on when they fly, because for many people flying makes them very nervous and this is their way of trying to keep calm. I was pretty nervous when they were loading my bike on the bus as well as the whole experience in itself and I felt like I could have become a chatter box for the next 4.5 hours. So for now on when flying, I will keep this in mind when someone gets real chatty who is sitting next to me.
I arrive safely in Nashville, my host will be picking me up from the bus station. I do not know what he looks like but I'm sure I will stand out like a turd in a punch bowl. I lug everything into the terminal and he quickly spots me, we shake hands and introduce each other then helps me with my panniers and I carry my bike to his van. We get back to his house and I'm introduced to his wife Sametta and the cats. Bill has a complete shop for bike repair that would even put some local bikes shops to shame. So I start reassembling my bike while we are shooting the shit about what else but "Bikes". So after about an hour another van pulls up and it is George we all have been emailing each other and I read some of their blogs already so you kind of know who the person is before you have actually have met them. So after about an hour and half I have most of the bike together and Sametta comes out to the shop and see if we are hungry yet where she prepared a high carb meal for us. It was a Pesto Alfredo dinner with garlic bread and beer, the Pesto was fresh from the garden. We had great conversation while eating a delicious dinner, then went back out to the shop to complete the assembly of my bike. The bike was ready and loaded up with all the panniers, Bill asked me if I wanted to weigh it in and I declined, because if I did probably would spend another 2 hours justifying why am I taking this or that trying make my bike lighter.
I was able to get the disassembled bike into the box with no room to spare. I took off the fenders, bottle cages, front rack, stem, seat post, handle bars and pedals. Getting a touring bike in a road bike box is like putting 10 pounds of shit in a 5 pound bag, but in the end I was successful (well maybe not).
Friday March 15, I work a half a day and I am already to go with everything packed in my panniers, all I need to do is have my wife Danamarie drive me to the Greyhound station. This will be my first ever Greyhound experience, so I'm a little nervous because I have no idea how they are going process and handle my bike at the bus station. The bus departs at 2:05 pm and I leave the house at 12:30 pm and is a 15 minute ride to the station. We arrive at the station I unload the bike, two sets of panniers and a small stuff sack(sleeping pad and tent). I throw the two sets of panniers over my shoulders and one hand holding on to the stuff sack while I grab the handle of one side of the bike box and the other hand reaching over to the other side of the box. I reach the double doors and people are coming out one side, but I need to use both sides so I wait patiently until its clear then other side closes on me and almost take out the other door with a loud crash. This finally gets someone's attention and they realize what I was trying to do and helped me open the other door to let me in, while the security guard 5 feet away is taking wages to see if I can get through the door or not. I did not care if I had to break down the door or knock it off the hinges to get inside, its their fault for not having automated doors in the first place. Of course having something that sophisticated in a hole-in-wall would look a little out of place.
So I get through the doors and within 3 feet ahead of me is a line, so set everything down and the line is moving along at a snails pace....ahhh maybe not, I think a snail would win at this game. About 10 minutes in line and two feet forward a lady looks at my box and asks me "What in dat box?". I say politely it is a bike and she pulls me out of the line and into a back room and a man says I need to pay extra shipping, I give him my ticket and I ask how much? It's $30 and he prints up a packing slip I give him cash. I figured if he charges me $50 or more, I will then drive up to Nashville, the bus ticket was $17. So my bike costs almost twice my ticket to travel to Nashville. Then the man says that when I get to my bus, I will need to come back to the room and get my bike and take it to the bus. So now I get back in line to check one set of Panniers and I will take one set with me on the bus along with my stuff sack. I stand in line, once again not moving very fast and they ask me if I already have a ticket and then they send me over to another line that is moving, it is a customer service line where they can print baggage tickets. All bags and bike have now been checked, I hear announcements over a heavily distorted speaker system and can make out some of of the city names on where buses will be going, I hear Nashville and hear it again with two different doors, but I did not get the departure times. Announcements are made every 15 minutes or so. There are no bus numbers or a departure/arrival monitor screens where you can find gate/door numbers like the ones at an airport terminal, maybe I'm asking too much for $17(automated doors, computer screens and clear announcements). So I started talking to people in the longest line and compared ticket times which matched up with my time and checked to see if the bus was going to Nashville. An announcement came over the speaker system and called the door for departure and people started moving, I lug my baggage to the bus, dropped everything off along with everyone's luggage in the middle of the street. Then I realize this is where I need to run back to that room on the side of the building and grab the bike. I retrieve my bike and bring to the bus then set in next to my checked panniers and leave it for the baggage handlers to load it onto the bus. I grab my carry on panniers and stuff sack give the ticket to the bus driver, I'm the last one boarding, it's a full bus and ask a college student if the seat is taken and she says no. I sit down and exchange a few words about what college she is attending, studies and small talk about my adventure for about 20 minutes. I did not want to talk to much, I never like it when I fly and sit next to a chatter box and talk the whole way through the entire flight. I think I now know why some people like to chit-chat and babble on and on and on when they fly, because for many people flying makes them very nervous and this is their way of trying to keep calm. I was pretty nervous when they were loading my bike on the bus as well as the whole experience in itself and I felt like I could have become a chatter box for the next 4.5 hours. So for now on when flying, I will keep this in mind when someone gets real chatty who is sitting next to me.
I arrive safely in Nashville, my host will be picking me up from the bus station. I do not know what he looks like but I'm sure I will stand out like a turd in a punch bowl. I lug everything into the terminal and he quickly spots me, we shake hands and introduce each other then helps me with my panniers and I carry my bike to his van. We get back to his house and I'm introduced to his wife Sametta and the cats. Bill has a complete shop for bike repair that would even put some local bikes shops to shame. So I start reassembling my bike while we are shooting the shit about what else but "Bikes". So after about an hour another van pulls up and it is George we all have been emailing each other and I read some of their blogs already so you kind of know who the person is before you have actually have met them. So after about an hour and half I have most of the bike together and Sametta comes out to the shop and see if we are hungry yet where she prepared a high carb meal for us. It was a Pesto Alfredo dinner with garlic bread and beer, the Pesto was fresh from the garden. We had great conversation while eating a delicious dinner, then went back out to the shop to complete the assembly of my bike. The bike was ready and loaded up with all the panniers, Bill asked me if I wanted to weigh it in and I declined, because if I did probably would spend another 2 hours justifying why am I taking this or that trying make my bike lighter.
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| In Bill's Shop putting it all together. |
Day 1 - 62 miles North Terminus to Meriwether Lewis Campground
March 16, 2013:
Woke up around 7am had a great waffle breakfast and espresso with my hosts Bill and Sametta. Assembled the bike the night before and had a wonderful Pesto Alfredo dinner. We got on the road around 9:15. Started out to the beginning of the Trace which was 1.5 miles from Bill's house. My rear tire started to rub against the frame, stopped to check it out and forgot to tighten down the quick release. Got back on the bike and headed down a hill and hit bump and off went my left rear pannier at 20Mph then it slide down a 25ft ravine. I climbed down or actually slide down to retrieve it, got back up and no damage. Then secured it correctly to the rack.
Made it the the terminus and started off great going down some nice hills, then a big up hill required to shift to a low gear but it would not go, it seemed to be stuck into 3rd and would not go I kept trying and knew something was up. I grinded my way up the hill, stopped and checked my derailer to see what the issue was, the derailer cable was frayed with only one strand holding the derailer to 3rd gear. Now I needed a cable, so Bill called Sametta and she was able to find a cable and drove 5 miles to my rescue. What may have happened is when I packed the bike into the small bike box, I must have put something next to derailer cable where it chaffed and rubbed against the bare cable and cut the strands. Installed new cable and we were on our way and now its 10:40 and we only biked 7 miles in an 1.5hours .
We rode about 40 miles then had lunch, Sametta pack us each a mini loaf of Zuchinni bread in, which I ate that along with a tuna roll up. As we were departing from lunch, we met a couple pulling in the parking lot where they ended a week long tour of the Great Rivers Route. We talked for about 20 Minutes, then entered the parkway rode a 1/2 mile, I hear a ping from the rear wheel, broke a spoke on the freewheel side. I get out my cassette removal tool and I cannot find the hex key insert to remove it. The other alternative to removing the Cassette is using a large adjustable wrench that will turn the removal tool; which is impracticable to carry because of the weight So Bill had an idea to go back and ask if the couple we just met to see if they had tools in their car. Ten minutes later Bill comes back with a monster adjustable wrench. Replaced the spoke and back on the road again, now I am getting nervous about all of my issues with the bike all within 5 hours. Will my bike make it to the end of a 444 mile journey and I'm sure Bill and George had some serous reservations about the integrity of my bike. So the last 20 miles went smooth, except for the hills and headwinds. We passed two bike tourist, but they did not stop also we did not attempt to stop as well, generally if your on a flat terrain and not zooming down a hill I would stop to chat. The first tourist we passed was walking his bike up a hill and we were hulling ass down a hill, also he looked a little rough around the edges, he was riding a single speed bike, had no panniers, where he had plastic bags strapped to his rack. The second person we passed was solo as well, he looked like a retiree and we waved at each other and kept on riding. Around 6:30 we pulled into the Meriwether Lewis Site campground.
http://www.nps.gov/natr/upload/MLInfoPage.pdf
We setup camp, ate and went to bed around 10:30
.
Woke up around 7am had a great waffle breakfast and espresso with my hosts Bill and Sametta. Assembled the bike the night before and had a wonderful Pesto Alfredo dinner. We got on the road around 9:15. Started out to the beginning of the Trace which was 1.5 miles from Bill's house. My rear tire started to rub against the frame, stopped to check it out and forgot to tighten down the quick release. Got back on the bike and headed down a hill and hit bump and off went my left rear pannier at 20Mph then it slide down a 25ft ravine. I climbed down or actually slide down to retrieve it, got back up and no damage. Then secured it correctly to the rack.
Made it the the terminus and started off great going down some nice hills, then a big up hill required to shift to a low gear but it would not go, it seemed to be stuck into 3rd and would not go I kept trying and knew something was up. I grinded my way up the hill, stopped and checked my derailer to see what the issue was, the derailer cable was frayed with only one strand holding the derailer to 3rd gear. Now I needed a cable, so Bill called Sametta and she was able to find a cable and drove 5 miles to my rescue. What may have happened is when I packed the bike into the small bike box, I must have put something next to derailer cable where it chaffed and rubbed against the bare cable and cut the strands. Installed new cable and we were on our way and now its 10:40 and we only biked 7 miles in an 1.5hours .
We rode about 40 miles then had lunch, Sametta pack us each a mini loaf of Zuchinni bread in, which I ate that along with a tuna roll up. As we were departing from lunch, we met a couple pulling in the parking lot where they ended a week long tour of the Great Rivers Route. We talked for about 20 Minutes, then entered the parkway rode a 1/2 mile, I hear a ping from the rear wheel, broke a spoke on the freewheel side. I get out my cassette removal tool and I cannot find the hex key insert to remove it. The other alternative to removing the Cassette is using a large adjustable wrench that will turn the removal tool; which is impracticable to carry because of the weight So Bill had an idea to go back and ask if the couple we just met to see if they had tools in their car. Ten minutes later Bill comes back with a monster adjustable wrench. Replaced the spoke and back on the road again, now I am getting nervous about all of my issues with the bike all within 5 hours. Will my bike make it to the end of a 444 mile journey and I'm sure Bill and George had some serous reservations about the integrity of my bike. So the last 20 miles went smooth, except for the hills and headwinds. We passed two bike tourist, but they did not stop also we did not attempt to stop as well, generally if your on a flat terrain and not zooming down a hill I would stop to chat. The first tourist we passed was walking his bike up a hill and we were hulling ass down a hill, also he looked a little rough around the edges, he was riding a single speed bike, had no panniers, where he had plastic bags strapped to his rack. The second person we passed was solo as well, he looked like a retiree and we waved at each other and kept on riding. Around 6:30 we pulled into the Meriwether Lewis Site campground.
http://www.nps.gov/natr/upload/MLInfoPage.pdf
We setup camp, ate and went to bed around 10:30
.
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| Leaving Bill's house, let's get started (note: my right pannier is not attached correctly)..... |
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| Went one mile so far and I'm fetching a pannier already, I was going down hill of an excess of 20Mph, when it fell off and went down into a ravine. |
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| So far a total of 5 miles and again I'm off my bike, this time I need a shifter cable replacement. |
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| New cable installed and ready to go once again... |
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| From Left to Right, George, Me and Bill |
Day 2 - 82 miles Meriwether Lewis CG to Tishomingo SP
March 17, 2013:
Started out late, I think around 9:15 am and with in a few miles of riding, I forgot to visit the Meriwether Lewis site/memorial back at the campground. Maybe next time I wont be in such a hurry and remember to visit these historic sites. It was a little cool in the morning had a jacket for the first 20 miles, stripped that off and by the time we got to the Alabama-Tennessee boarder I was wearing a short sleeve cycling shirt. I had a tough time keeping up with George and Bill.
George is 67 year old retired high school teacher who started cycling 8 years ago and Bill just turned 60 and has been cycling all his life and I have been cycling on and off in the past 35 years, but never really seriously. These guys have been doing Brevets/Randonneuring in the past few years. The definition of a Brevet are 200, 400, 600 all the way up to 12000 Km events http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brevet_(cycling) . The headwinds were picking up and I was slowing down where even drafting was difficult, so Bill and George powered off into high gear, I told them it was OK to leave me in the dust.
Now I'm able to take my time and not worry about keeping up with them. If I break another spoke, i should have no problems fixing it because I found my large hex key insert for the Cassette removal tool. So things are going OK, a little fatigued from the headwinds while crossing over the Tennessee river bridge, so I take a 20 minute break at Colbert Ferry. Now I'm thinking that I wish we could have stayed here for the night.
http://www.nps.gov/natr/colbert-ferry-bicycle-only-campground.htm
Instead we agreed that we all would end up of biking 82 miles to Tishomingo State Park.
http://www.mdwfp.com/parks-destinations/ms-state-parks/tishomingo.aspx .
Tishomingo sounds like more of a dance than a park. Back on the bike for another 23 miles to Tishomingo, 15 miles later, I hear ping from my rear wheel, spoke broke just as I was crossing the Mississippi State Line. I pull over at the rest area and replaced the spoke, which was on the freewheel side, so it took me about a half hour to change. I'm only about 7 miles from the campsite and now it was 6:45 pm and it's getting dark. I turn on my headlight, taillight flasher and finally pull into the park around 7:25 pm it's dark while shinning my lights onto campsites looking for reflective material from George or Bill's bikes, I found the site which was few sites past the bathroom. I set up my tent, cook dinner, then take a warm shower, no hot water was coming out of the pipes, but it sure beats having a cold shower. It will be a cool night, supposed to get down in the low 40's.
The only thing lacking so far on this tour was cold beer at the end of a day's ride, the problem is the NTP really never goes through many cities, so access to beer and other comforts are limited.
Started out late, I think around 9:15 am and with in a few miles of riding, I forgot to visit the Meriwether Lewis site/memorial back at the campground. Maybe next time I wont be in such a hurry and remember to visit these historic sites. It was a little cool in the morning had a jacket for the first 20 miles, stripped that off and by the time we got to the Alabama-Tennessee boarder I was wearing a short sleeve cycling shirt. I had a tough time keeping up with George and Bill.
George is 67 year old retired high school teacher who started cycling 8 years ago and Bill just turned 60 and has been cycling all his life and I have been cycling on and off in the past 35 years, but never really seriously. These guys have been doing Brevets/Randonneuring in the past few years. The definition of a Brevet are 200, 400, 600 all the way up to 12000 Km events http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brevet_(cycling) . The headwinds were picking up and I was slowing down where even drafting was difficult, so Bill and George powered off into high gear, I told them it was OK to leave me in the dust.
Now I'm able to take my time and not worry about keeping up with them. If I break another spoke, i should have no problems fixing it because I found my large hex key insert for the Cassette removal tool. So things are going OK, a little fatigued from the headwinds while crossing over the Tennessee river bridge, so I take a 20 minute break at Colbert Ferry. Now I'm thinking that I wish we could have stayed here for the night.
http://www.nps.gov/natr/colbert-ferry-bicycle-only-campground.htm
Instead we agreed that we all would end up of biking 82 miles to Tishomingo State Park.
http://www.mdwfp.com/parks-destinations/ms-state-parks/tishomingo.aspx .
Tishomingo sounds like more of a dance than a park. Back on the bike for another 23 miles to Tishomingo, 15 miles later, I hear ping from my rear wheel, spoke broke just as I was crossing the Mississippi State Line. I pull over at the rest area and replaced the spoke, which was on the freewheel side, so it took me about a half hour to change. I'm only about 7 miles from the campsite and now it was 6:45 pm and it's getting dark. I turn on my headlight, taillight flasher and finally pull into the park around 7:25 pm it's dark while shinning my lights onto campsites looking for reflective material from George or Bill's bikes, I found the site which was few sites past the bathroom. I set up my tent, cook dinner, then take a warm shower, no hot water was coming out of the pipes, but it sure beats having a cold shower. It will be a cool night, supposed to get down in the low 40's.
The only thing lacking so far on this tour was cold beer at the end of a day's ride, the problem is the NTP really never goes through many cities, so access to beer and other comforts are limited.
 |
| State Line Crossing (Today is St. Patricks Day so I have my Green) Also this is the first time I have ever crossed into 3 states in one day on a bike. |
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| Spring is around the corner hopefully Natchez, MS will be blooming |
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| Getting on the parkway |
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| Tishomingo in 82 miles |
Less than 5 days almost ready
Ok, less than 5 days until departure, purchased a ticket from Greyhound and will be departing on Friday to Nashville, TN. My host will be picking me up from the Greyhound Bus depot and take me and the bike in box to their house, then have dinner and assemble the bike.
Went for a 68 mile ride on the Silver Comet Trail on Saturday was a pretty good ride, except broke another spoke, the rim is shot. I'm going to take my wife's wheel off her bike and use it, we have the same bikes so hopefully that wheel will be better. I'm going to bring at least 6 extra spokes.
I have a few more things to do...buy more food, find a bike box, disassemble the bike and hopefully fit it in the box. Checked the weather again and now showing a low of 32 degrees on the third day of the trip. Ordered a 30 degree sleeping bag and will be here in another day, my 45 degree sleeping bag will not hold up.
Loaded everything on the bike except my new sleeping and test rode for a few blocks. Very stable and handles so much better than touring with a set of rear panniers. So I have a few firsts on this bike adventure, first time ever taking a Greyhound bus and first time touring with front panniers
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