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.

The old Trace trail

This is where the Tornado damage starts

Destruction

More Destruction

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.

Just started raining. first time I'm trying out the rain suite

 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.

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.

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
.

Leaving Bill's house, let's get started (note: my right pannier is not attached correctly).....

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.

So far a total of 5 miles and again I'm off my bike, this time I need a shifter cable replacement. 

New cable installed and ready to go once again...

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.

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.

Spring is around the corner hopefully Natchez, MS will be blooming

Getting on the parkway

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