Natchez Trace 2013 Bicycle Tour: 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.