day 5: vicksburg to greenville, mississippi 101 miles

all of me is sore.  right down to my fingernails.

101 miles of long, flat (thank goodness) hot roads weaving alongside the mississippi with temperatures in the low 90's.  no break from the scorching sun, although, as i'm sitting here in the motel room writing this at 7:00 pm, the crack of thunder and lightening can be heard outside.  it's starting to rain.  and cooling down quite a bit.

birth of the "teddy bear?"

not much news along the way.  we rode through miles and miles of corn, barley and soy fields.  no sign of cotton.  saw this sign along the road.  stopped into the small country store and stepped back in time to a century earlier.  other than the refrigerators stocked with coca-cola, it hardly looked like it had changed since teddy roosevelt was here in 1902.

am having fun with a foursome of friends who've all ridden other together in the past, either across america or the west coast ride.  they are friends only from the rides they've taken together; all living far away from each other the rest of the year.  we all seem to ride at about the same pace and i enjoy their sense of humor and their camaraderie.

we've gotten into a pace line routine.  on long stretches, we'll all take a couple of minutes "pulling" in the front of a single file line.  especially as we're riding on two- or four-lane roads alongside cars, trucks and tractor trailers, we remain in single file, more for safety than for drafting.  it really helps break up the boredom of riding alone and, when done right, we can pick up an extra mile or two per hour in speed.

tomorrow we're heading 80 some odd miles up to clarksdale, mississippi, home to robert johnson and the delta blues museum.  robert johnson is posthumously credited with being one of the originators of the blues.  it didn't dawn on me until i saw this sign this morning as we were leaving vicksburg of the significance of the highway we were riding on, nor of the towns we'll pass tomorrow on up to clarksdale.  yes, i could have taken the shot a lot closer.  apologies.

think about bob dylan's "highway 61 revisited."  yup, this is the highway i'm riding on.  or think of the lyrics to the song, crossroads, originally written by robert johnson but made most famous by cream or by eric clapton in his solo years.  the second verse starts with: "going down to rosedale, take my rider by my side."  on our way to clarksdale tomorrow, we'll ride through the town of rosedale.  wow!  it's a bit chilling now knowing i'm traveling through areas of blues lore.