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 |
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