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.
 |
| Inn |
No comments:
Post a Comment