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 |
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