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.