day 7: clarksdale to senatobia, mississippi 62 miles

a much cooler and shorter day.  temps only in the low 80's.  the thunderstorms that rolled through clarksdale last night took some of the humidity out of the air.  today was a flat ride through the rice paddies, soy, corn and, yes, cotton fields.  saw a bunch of field hands planting cotton.   mostly a flat ride for the first 40 miles before we started climbing into senatobia.

there's a reason that mississippi is the poorest state in america and, for much of this ride, we've been witness to that poverty.  there are no major cities and no major industry except farming in mississippi.  even in a town like clarksdale, home to morgan freeman and the delta blues museum, there is little sign of wealth or even a thriving middle class.  and, once we got outside of clarksdale, the situation only got worse.  we rode through ramshackle towns with dilapidated buildings, unpaved streets and little to no sign of hope for a better tomorrow.

two examples are shown below.  we've been passing church after church along our ride routes.  this one, long-abandoned, is a prime example of the small baptist churches we've been passing day after day.  many, like the one below, are also abandoned, especially as the local congregational populations have severely dwindled or disappeared altogether.

the second shot is from a convenience store we used as today's one pit stop.  i'm taking a bit of a literary license calling this a convenience store.  i'm not talking about a brightly neon lit 7-11 with shelves teeming with the latest snacks, coffee stations and glass enclosed cases with milk, beer and soda.  this was more of a "gas-n-go" store you'll find throughout the south.  i'm not really sure what it is, other than something that escaped from a 1960's time warp.  we were told, in advance, about this place and it's proprietor, a 80-something year old woman who sits every day in her barco-lounger watching television.  sure enough, when we got to the pit stop, there she was, right where we were told she'd be; sitting in her lounge chair, watching a tv rerun from, yes, a 1960's drama.  walking into the dimly lit store, we saw long, low shelving with canned and bottled goods.  basic staples only.  no snack foods.  no candy bars.  no gum.  no hot pot of coffee or a soda and ice dispenser.  the one refrigerator case that was working barely had two six packs of beer, a couple of quarts of milk and a dozen eggs.  how this place remains in business is beyond me.

the picture, however, is from the outside.  it's of the one gasoline pump in front of the building.  what caught my eye was the "3" pasted in front of the per gallon price at the pump.  this pump was so old that, when it was installed, gasoline cost much less than $1 per gallon.  there was no thought to it ever going above that price, hence the pasted on "3" in the dollar position.

as we got closer to senatobia, the farms began to show more life; the farms and homes a bit more upscale.  we even started riding through legitimate neighborhoods.  eventually, we started to see that we were technically entering the outskirts of the southern suburban metropolitan area of memphis.

tonight's revelation came during a dinner conversation with a couple of the guys on this tour.  for many of these guys, the rides are a kind of addiction.  and the addiction they feel when riding is something they don't seem to be able to capture in other parts of their lives.  maybe it's because so many of them are retired.  in a way, they seem to live for these rides.  i think it's a combination of the camaraderie, the physical rigors of biking day in and day out, and of seeing various parts of the country that you could never see by car.  at least seven of the people on this tour are either jumping right into the next event, the cross-country north tour (52 days from astoria, oregon to portsmouth, new hampshire) which starts four days after the end of this ride, or will be heading to astoria later in september for the west coast ride (25 days from astoria to newport beach, california).  many of these riders average two tours a year.  that's at least 75 days on the road, biking across parts of america.

i think i understand the feeling of addiction.  it's how i felt when doing all those aids rides years ago.  couldn't wait to ride in the next event and was a bit depressed when a ride would come to a close.  i missed the adrenaline rush every morning; the spirit of community among the riders riding for a common purpose; and the ability to see some of the most beautiful parts of america.  but i'm not there just yet with this ride.  maybe it's because it's much longer than i've ever ridden before.  maybe it's because i'm doing it for myself and not for a charity.  who knows.  we'll see how the next couple of weeks play out.

tomorrow we'll hit memphis by lunchtime.  and a much anticipated day off to follow.

day 6: greenville to clarksdale, mississippi 83 miles

another hot and flat day riding through the farmlands along the mississippi.  temps were over 100 degrees again today; even 98 in the shade (we take the average of all the bike computer readouts and use that when we all either report home or write up our evening blogs).  more corn and wheat fields and, for the first time...rice paddies.  okay, it's not the best of photos.  very different from the paddies i've seen in japan and china.

the rice paddies of mississippi

rosedale turned out to be much less than my romantic expectations had hoped it might be.  whatever was driving robert johnson to get there 80 years ago wasn't there when we rode through.  what we saw instead was a very quiet, run down town with a smattering of churches, gas stations and a handful of homes.

riding with four others today (doug - retired air force/american airlines pilot from texas; dan - retired exec with mead johnson from indiana; rolly - retired lawyer from iowa; and bill - retired naval officer from colorado) we all kept up a steady pace line, averaging over 15 miles per hour for the last 60 miles of this leg; and that includes slowing or stopping for traffic intersections, water stops and the occasional dog in the road.  to continue a pace line, each rider leads the group, riding for a given period of time (we each took turns pulling one mile at a time) before peeling off to the back of the line as the next rider takes over leading the pack.  we all cycle, no pun intended, up through the line until it's our turn to lead the pack.  when we were really cranking, we were averaging upwards of 17 miles per hour for over half an hour at a clip.

and one last note:  road hazards.  they come in all shapes and sizes.  

i mentioned dogs before.  down here in the south, it's not uncommon in rural areas for dogs to roam freely on properties.  as such, there's always the danger of aggressive dogs trying to chase you down or, worse, attacking cyclists on their local roads.  a couple of days ago, a bunch of us had to deal with five large dogs coming out in the road and getting very aggressive.  this morning, we had to deal with two pit bulls.  sometimes you can outride them; sometimes you have to yell or distract them to avoid attacks.  fortunately this morning, they were all bark and no bite.

other road hazards include all varieties of critters that didn't quite make it across the road in time.  down here, that means lots of dead armadillos and raccoons.  

but the worst are the rough roads themselves.  down in the south, as well as in many parts of the west, country roads aren't fully paved.  in some cases, as was the situation for about three miles this morning, they are just gravel roads.  always tough on cyclists and especially their tires.  but equally as nasty and far more prevalent are roads with just a cursory paving.  the process is known as "chip and seal."  while main highways are fully repaved and smooth, municipalities often take the easy way out when it comes to repaving worn out roads.  that cheaper process, chip and seal, involves coating a road with a petroleum, tar base ("seal") and pouring crushed gravel over it.  eventually the weight of car traffic helps to create a smoother road surface.  in metropolitan areas, the crushed gravel, or "chip," is usually ground very small.  however, out here in rural areas, the chip size can be at least half an inch or more.  driving on those roads with heavy trucks and other farm equipment is no problem.  however, when you ride a bike over that rough a surface for miles at a time, you can feel the fillings in your teeth rattling.

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.

day 4: natchez to vicksburg, mississippi 91 miles

my ass is sore.  don't worry.  that's the extent of my discussions about body parts.  suffice it to say, it was a long, hot day of climbing.

no, not the rockies kind of climbing.  just a slow, steady 2-4 % grade kind of climbing for most of the day.  with no clouds for much of the morning through early afternoon and temperatures in the low 90's, it made for a long day.

we got a late start out of natchez this morning.  normally, we'll eat at the motel we've been staying at, or at a restaurant right next door.  that latter choice wasn't an option this morning and the motel offered only the minimum of continental breakfasts.  nothing to really sink your teeth into and certainly nothing to fuel riders on a 90+ mile trek.

the next, best option was a local coffee shop called the natchez coffee company.  it's a true throwback to a time before starbucks.  and they served the same big breakfast we're becoming accustomed to scarfing down before we get out on the road.  whether they are called "grand slam breakfasts" or "the big joe" or whatever, it's always the same platter of eggs, some kind of breakfast meat, pancakes and either fruit or grits.

a true coffee shop, complete with books and couches

as we left natchez, we hit more farmland and back roads.  sixteen miles into the morning's back country route, we turned onto the natchez trace parkway, a national park with the smoothest roads and nary a car for miles.  the trace is believed to be centuries old.  originally a trail carved out by migratory animals who went from salt lick to salt lick, the trace became a long trail used by native americans from the area.  soon after discovering it, settlers began using the trace, extending it to over 450 miles from natchez to nashville, tennessee, as a means to get back home.  traders would load flatboats in nashville with all kinds of goods to be sold and traded down the mississippi.  once they got to natchez and offloaded their wares, they used the trace as a roadway to get back to where they started.  my smartphone takes nice pictures, but i wasn't able to capture the depth of the sunken trace section that we stopped to see along the road.  and, as a national park, the trace parkway isn't open to commercial traffic.  so for about the 45 miles we rode on it today, we cyclists had the road basically to ourselves.  it was so quiet that, at times, when we talked to each other on the road, you could hear the echo of our voices bouncing off the trees that lined much of the route.

the mississippi portion of the natchez trace

once we left the trace, we headed to vicksburg, site of the most famous siege of the civil war.  this gentile southern town is situated high atop a bluff that overlooks the mississippi.  during the civil war, it was a strategic point on the river that the union knew it needed to capture.  i don't remember how many days and how many lives were lost during the siege, but it went on for quiet awhile, (maybe upwards of two months?).  the house below was one of the few to survive the constant bombardment.

the mississippi river bend at vicksburg

the house was built in the 1830's; i can't vouch for the car

the vicksburg battlefield

tomorrow we do our first century ride of this tour.  there'll be two more, so i'm going to cash in early tonight.

day 3: st. francisville to natchez, mississippi 66 miles

today was a day of juxtapositions.  geographical, thermal, you name it.

we started out the morning with an en masse detour to the rosedown plantation.  well, we sorta got there.  a half-mile driveway, flanked by cotton fields, up to the manor house.  there, we ran into an electrified fence and iron gates that wouldn't open until 9:00 am.  oh well.

the best ride of this trip so far was the 20 miles of northern louisiana countryside.  smooth roads with canopies of live oaks that kept the temperatures cooler than normal.  well-manicured plantations and other farmlands teaming with horses or cattle all the way to the mississippi border.  such natural beauty.  what a joy.  oh yeah, i found out why they're called "live oaks."  this species never loses its leaves, which are smaller than the oak trees around the rest of the country.

the "offical" border between mississippi and louisiana

the actual border between louisiana and mississippi on our route was a bit surreal.  were it not for the chalk demarcations left from last year's tour, the only way you'd know you were in a new state was the distinct seam between the different pavements for each state.

once we got out of the meandering roads through the farmlands of louisiana, we ran smack dap back into civilization and onto route 61.

woodville, mississippi on route 61

from woodville, mississippi, where we entered the state, we spent the next three hours on our familiar four-lane blacktop.  as years of sand and soil have taken its toll, the highway is actually colored a sort of rusty tan.  and, unlike the coolness of the morning, the sun beating down on the roadway made life a little tougher for all of us.  while the air temperature hovered in the high 80's, the road temperature, according to many of our bike computers, was registering over 100 degrees.  it was tough keeping hydrated throughout the afternoon.

the one respite, and probably the most un-pc place i've seen in quite some time, was a second en masse detour...mammy's cupboard.  a small restaurant with killer pies and curiously good blueberry lemondade, and air conditioning, mammy's was just what we all needed to duck out of the sun and heat.

mammy's cupboard; great pies and lemonade

the boyz @ mammy's

oh, a note about my fellow cyclists.  among the five guys i've been most riding with, it seems they average around 4500 miles a year on a bike.  for perspective, i'm lucky if i can get 1250-1500 miles a year.  two qualifiers:  the guys did point out that they are retired, so they do have extra time to get around.  cycling is only one of many sports in which i participate and the summer is mainly when i can ride.

from mammy's, it was another eight miles on and off the main highway into natchez.  unfortunately, where we are staying tonight isn't close to the stunning plantations we've all heard or read about.  tomorrow, we're heading up to vicksburg with nearly 40 miles along the natchez trace.  more on that tomorrow.

sunset on the mississippi in natchez

day 2: gonzales to st. francisville, louisiana 60 miles

another hot and humid day today.  we started the day 20 miles south of baton rouge, capital of louisiana and proceeded to ride through much of the city.  as we approached the city, coming up from the south side, we first rode through the campus of louisiana state university (LSU).   the picture below doesn't do it justice, but tiger stadium is enormous.  it holds over 94,000 rabid bayou tiger fans on saturday nights.

LSU tiger stadium

continuing through the campus and on the road bordered on either side by massive athletic facilities (wasn't there an article earlier this week in the new york times about the hugely disproportionate share of monies being spend on college athletics versus academics?), we headed into baton rouge, along the riverside.  as there are a number of veterans among the ridership (from the army, navy and air force), we stopped for a photo op in front of the uss kidd, a retired navy destroyer that now houses a museum.  

exxon mobile refinery in baton rouge

for miles up to baton rouge as well as for some ways beyond downtown, we passed a number of refineries.  as you can imagine, the smell wasn't the most pleasant.  how the folks in town manage is beyond me.  

from baton rouge, it was basically 22 miles of four-lane black top up to st. francisville, a quaint little town of 1500 folks, nestled in the northern woods of louisiana.  st. francisville owes its historical moment in the sun when it was part of the questionable border of the louisiana purchase.  france, spain and even great britain all clamed ownership.  it was actually the capital of the "republic of west florida," a 70+ day experiment when the local landowners through out the spanish government and set up their own independent entity.  months later, it officially became part of the louisiana purchase.

normally, we're all on our own for lunch each day, gathering as a collective only for breakfasts and dinners.  today, however, we all got together for lunch at the magnolia cafe, a famous local joint.  pretty darn good spicy shrimp po boys, downed with gallons of lemonade and cold sweet tea (a southern tradition).

that's dan koch in front of the magnolia cafe.  it was dan's birthday today.

after lunch, a bunch of us toured the historic district of st. francisville.  the houses and buildings in that part of town date back to the early 1800's.  we then headed farther down the street to the famous grace church and cemetery.  it's a classic with wrought-iron fencing surrounding stands of live oak all dripping with spanish moss.  the church was built around 1820.  many of the headstones date back to that time, including a fellow who was born in north salem, new york and died here in st. francisville some fifty years later.  that was a pretty long journey, even back in those days.

live oaks in grace church cemetery

grace church in st. francisville

spanish moss -- part of the beauty of the southland

we also wanted to visit the equally famous rosedown plantation.  however, while walking the grounds of the cemetery, the clouds darkened and claps of thunder had us all mounting our bikes and heading quickly to the motel.  

one final word for the day:  retirement.  i'm the 3rd youngest of the 17 riders on this leg of the journey (there'll be four or five more joining us in either memphis or st. louis).  with one or two exceptions, most of these guys are retired.  as they know i'll be turning 60 later this year, many have peppered me with the same question, "when are you going to retire?"  tonight at dinner, i turned the questions on them.  i asked what they did now that they no longer worked.  many, it turned out, do a lot more biking.  duh!  guess that should have been obvious.  some even carve out three or four months of the year on rides  like this one.  others volunteer or just hang out.  that latter option isn't something i'm looking forward to.  nor even retirement for that matter.  

'nuff said for tonight.  tomorrow we cross into mississippi and end up in natchez.

day 1: new orleans to gonzales, louisiana 65 miles

of course, nobody got any real sleep last night.  it always happens.  the night before the first day of riding and everyone's as excited as a bunch of little kids.  breakfast was from the "grand slam" menu at the nearby denny's.  most everyone loaded up on pancakes, bacon, eggs and fruit.

on a day that promised a lot of sun, humidity and temperatures in the upper 80's, we were off before 8:00 am.  a right out of the motel parking lot, and another right, then back up on the mississippi levee to start our adventure and the ride north up the river to minneapolis.

we left the motel en masse and headed up to the levee.  only one half mile into the ride and we were all stopped by a quarter of a mile long kansas city southern railroad train.  once up on the levee, the group known as "the fossils" quickly formed a pace line and were doing around a 20-mile per hour average.  i got into the second group that was hovering around 18 miles per hour.  we kept that up even after stopping for the group photo shoot and on for much of the morning.

everyone getting into photo op mode in front of the destrahan plantation

the tour organizers requested we all wear the colors this morning; the official ride bike jerseys.  day 1 includes a photo op in front of one of the many plantations along the route today.  this first one, destrahan plantation, is only 10 miles up the road.  i don't have a copy of the group shot, but trust me, it's not all that pretty.  from here on in, we'll only be asked to wear the colors coming into memphis, st. louis and minneapolis.

the first day of a ride is usually when i let excitement take over from practical sense.  i get caught up in the moment and the pace of the group instead of staying within myself.  in talking with many of the guys on this ride, i realized they were far faster riders than i could ever hope to be.  and this morning proved that point.

just as has happened in rides like this before, i go out too fast, keeping up with the pack for a good amount of time, and then pay for it by tiring later in the day.  today, i was able to keep up the pace until around 45 miles.  at that point, i dropped back and either paced myself or caught on with one or more of the other riders who were either coming up from behind or whom i'd caught up to as their pace slackened.

san francisco plantation

our one and only rest stop today was at the 34-mile mark, the san francisco plantation.  although i've promised myself to spend more time actually seeing the sights tomorrow, i'm at a loss today to tell you anything about this one, other that its bright colors which are so unlike most of the more traditional stylings of plantation buildings in this region.

all along the river roads today, we passed sign after sign of the vibrant industrial life along this section of the mississippi.  from steel mills to bauxite refineries (everything approaching and surrounding the area was covered in a fine reddish brown dust) to cargill and adm silos, the route was buzzing with activity.

i just love this sign.  most of the chemical, ore, grain and steel plants were in st. john parish.  while i didn't stop to take pictures of all that scenery, i had to snap a shot of this sign.  is it's actual name, st. john parish, THE baptist parish, or is it st. john the baptist parish?  either way, i love the play on words that the sign creates
(and, yes, it's the latter).

once out of the industrial corridor, we were in and out of farms and wetlands most of the rest of the day before arriving here in gonzales ("the jambalaya capital of the world" -- their boast.  i just report the news).  along the way, we caught some great glimpses of giant blue herons coming out of the marshes, a huge snake just lying in the middle of the shoulder, and cattle.  the cattle ranch was particularly funny as there were tons of egrets all alongside the steers, pecking around for food and interacting with their larger neighbors as if to ask "are you going to eat that?"

one final word about the backroads of louisiana.  scenic as they may be, this state's road system wasn't built to accommodate cyclists.  the roads are extremely narrow and, when there are shoulders, they are filled with all kinds of debris (roadkill, bits of shredded tires, gravel, etc.) that can cause havoc on bike tires.  from what we're told, we'll have to deal with those conditions until memphis.  oh well.