Day 6 | Jackson, MS to Natchez, MS 107 miles

Great day!!! 107 miles!!! First time in a long time that I have ridden 107 miles in a day.  That's a lot of road to cover.

Saw a lot of pastures today,

and had a lot of canopy cover, as seen above, for the first half of the day, which really helped get a lot of mileage in early.  I left the hotel just north of Jackson around 6:30 this morning.  The traffic on the Trace around Jackson was fast and terrible, and I can only imagine what it was like a little later.  But then I saw a lot of nature today, like these black eyed Susan's, once I got a little further out of Jackson.

Here is a picture or two of me heading down the Trace today.

Then we stopped and had some Bar B Q from Billy Bob's BBQ.  Lynn went and picked it up and delivered it.  Good sag wagon for sure, she did a great job this week.  There were not enough water stops along the way for me, so glad she was there.

Here is the sandwich, and a picture of the garmin.

A close up of the garmin shows 81 miles down by lunch, at 11:57.  Moving right a long.

And then the count down began, single digits, 9 miles to go.

It got hillier the closer we got to Natchez.  I thought it would flatten out as we are close to the Mississippi River and the coast, but no sir.

1 mile to go, so close. ( notice the hill, not flat)

The End of the Trace.  The bridge looks very similar tot he one in Nashville on Hwy. 100 at the northern terminus.

Then we headed to our B&B, The Burn, and it's on the National Register of Historical homes.  It was built in 1834.

The home is actually 3 stories, but they made it look much more modest from the front.  The top floor is over 4000 sq. ft. and has 4 bedrooms.  The house was also taken over by the union during the civil war.

This is a fountain in one of the gardens.

The dining room

A couple of parlors

Everything in the house was built without nails, they used wood pegs, including the staircase.

Look at the detail.

This is our room.

A couple of pictures of the Mississippi River.

We had a great trip.  The END.  Thanks for reading along with me this week.

Day 5 | Kosciusko, MS to Jackson MS

Well we woke up early this morning hoping to get some riding in early.  Great night of sleep, and no weather to wake us.  So I looked at the radar, hoping that the storm I saw yesterday had passed by or missed us, and this is what I saw..

Not very promising, but thought, if we hurry I might be able to get some miles in this morning.  So we packed and ate in the car, as we drove south to my start point for the day.  By the time we got there it was already raining, and I am heading southwest on the trace.  As you can see, a very big storm and not likely to move out of my way, any time soon.  Then I saw this..

2-4 inches!! with locally higher amounts, heavy downpours.  Ok, I guess we will just have to wait for this slow moving storm to pass, so we headed to Jackson.  Hoping to get some miles in this afternoon.

Here is a picture of a river that I was hoping to ride along today.

Which eventually feeds into the Ross Barrett Reservoir, that is 50 square miles. The Trace goes along the side of  it for many miles, another beautiful ride.

The reservoir, unfortunately, you can't see very much, because of the rain.

The good news is that we got to Jackson and went to the hotel, Embassy Suites, that we are staying at tonight, and they let us check in!!  It's a little after 8:00 a.m. and they had a room ready.  I guess it pays to travel as much as I do some times.

So we checked in and got our stuff in the room and decided to go have another breakfast.  Then I checked the radar again.

The blue dot is us in Jackson, MS, pretty much in the middle of this big storm that stretches from Texas to Tennessee. And the Trace heads southwest, this storm is basically sitting on top of the trace from Nashville to Natchez. So we are sitting here hoping that it will move faster than it has been moving.  Well not all of us are sitting...

Some are thinking of getting a mid morning nap.

So I am sitting here, playing on the internet, waiting for the rain to go away and I look out the window, and I see...

The Washington Monument?? What the...?  I can't be in Washington, can I?  So I google this thing, and here is what it is:

It may turn heads and pique curiosity for passers-by, but most Jackson-area residents know the Washington Monument replica on Interstate 55 in Ridgeland is simply a disguise for a cell phone tower.

But when the split-diamond Madison Avenue interchange is complete in 2014, the monument will take on a new identity – it will become part of the entrance to Colony Park, a mixed-use development along Highland Colony Parkway.

A cell phone tower, now that's a great idea, instead of the ugly metal structures.

1:30 update, it started to clear, and then more stray showers. 0 miles today so far.

3:00 it stops raining, the sun almost comes out, and then more rain.  Decided to call it a day.  A day of rest, does a body good.  So we will hit it early tomorrow and make a big day of it.  To Natchez, MS tomorrow.

Day 4 | Houston MS to Kosciusko, MS 76 miles

Had another good day of biking, did 76 total miles.  But it didn't start out that great.  We were awakened last night several times from a couple of different cell phones going off, because of severe weather in the area again.  (it happened the night before as well)  There were a lot of storms last night.

We stayed at a great place in Houston, MS last night, the Bridges Hall Manor.  The inn keeper, Carol was awesome and the breakfast this morning was delicious, eggs, bacon, sausage, biscuits, grits, and fresh fruit.  MMMMmmmmmmmmmmm goooooood.  The place and Carol made up for the early morning wake ups.

Bridges Hall Manor

Bridges Hall Manor

So we got up early and took a look outside and it was all wet, and we had heard the storms throughout the night.  So I looked at the radar. The blue dot on the radar is our location.

Thinking that's not that bad, we have a slight opening.  We got the car loaded up and had breakfast.  Then I checked the radar again.  Oooopppppssss  not so fast.

So it was a good thing that I added a few extra miles onto yesterday, because I had to start farther south than expected, thinking we would just go south until the rain stops and then bike south and finish the northern part later.  So we started to head south, and it keep raining and raining.  So I basically ended up at my supposed "End Spot" for the day, and that's where we started and rode North today instead of South.  And by the time I got back to where I wanted to start, it was clear, not great, but clear.  The roads were still wet.  But I was able to get my 76 miles in today.  I am a little concerned about tomorrow, with another big storm coming across the south tonight.

So we will just have to see tomorrow.

In any case, we saw a few things today.  The first, is the devastation from a tornado in April of 2011.  It was the same one that hit Tuscaloosa, AL.  It was wide about 6 miles, and it is hard to describe.

The picture really doesn't do it justice at all.  But the take away is look at the tree sticks, to the left.  They are where the tornado just snapped the trees in half, and left the bottom half of the tree of the ones that are still standing.  The rest of them were all mowed down.  Three years later, look at the height of the trees, not very tall at all compared the other ones in the forest, just down the road.

Some of the day looked like this.

Just wide open road, waiting to be ridden, and not a car in sight.  The traffic was so much better today.

Here is another friend, I found along the way.  He is huge.

So we back tracked some in the car today to get to our B&B, as Lynn was the picker of the B&B's, and this is one that she wanted to stay at, so here we are.  French Camp, MS

It is it's own little community, with a school, B&B, cafe, gift shop, church, blacksmith and probably more.

An old house on property

Blacksmith area

And our place the "Carriage House".  We have the whole Carriage House, with a kitchen, washer/dryer, fireplace, etc.

See the carriage in the house, to the right?  Here is a better shot.

Just 145 more miles and 2 days to go, hope the weather holds.

Day 3 | Belmont, MS to Houston, MS 82 miles

Had a pretty good day today.  If there is a word of the day it's Cars, and a lot of them, will get to that, but first.

We stayed at the lovely Belmont Hotel, in Belmont MS last night.

Belmont Hotel

Had a quick breakfast and hit the road early.  We got back to the Trace and I was on my way by 7:00.  This made for a great day as I was able to get a lot of good miles in before it got too hot.  Around 9:00 I had already ridden over 30 miles.

They had a severe storm blow through last night, the tornado sirens were going off several different times between 7:00 and 9:00 p.m..  Here is a a picture of a flooded field.

We crossed over the TENN_TOM Waterway.

The riding this morning was still somewhat hilly, much more so than I expected, as was yesterday in southern TN, and AL and northern MS. Although later on this afternoon, we saw this sign, and I was excited about it getting flatter.

Thinking that it would be getting flatter, and it did.

We stopped at the Visitor Center and had a nice break, and even sent an email.

And then we start to see signs....like these..

And then it all went down hill, and fast.  Apparently, Mississippi uses the Natchez Trace as a local state highway.  TN, and AL seem to think that the Trace is a National Park, as it is, but not Mississippi.  There were tons of cars, and more cars, going very fast.  By law the max speed limit is 50 MPH on the Trace, but these guys, at least it seemed, were going a lot faster than that.

Here is a picture of 2 STUPID REDNECKS from Mississippi.  My apologies to Faith Hill, and my friends from MS, but these 2 are just idiots.

They passed me, and I guess they either didn't think I should be on the road, or they were just target practicing.  In any case. they threw a bottle of water at me, good thing they are stupid, because they missed. I told you they are stupid, so guess how I got their picture?

They stopped less than 2 miles after throwing the bottle at me to have a smoke.  How many silver Hyundai's with 2 rednecks in it, do you think there are in a couple mile radius of where I was??  So I took their picture and asked if they threw the water at me, of course they said "no".  I told them since this was a National Park that, Homeland Security would be contacting them about this incident, then I left.

We were supposed to me at that rest area, but after my encounter, I keep going, and Lynn, the SAG Wagon found me a mile down the road.

This stretch of 30 miles or so was not good, and the rednecks just made it worse.  After the incident, I had Lynn follow behind me with her flashers on for awhile, to run "blocker" for me.

Once through the craziness, things got a lot better.  Because the roads are used so much in Mississippi, they aren't in the same condition that they are in TN, and AL., but I got lucky and they paved a huge section of the Trace.

We also passed a Lake that was named after me.  Lake Lamar BRUCE.

Who closes a Lake?  Especially named after Sir Bruce??

It was a good day, got started early so it was cool to start, and was riding fast to get through the Tupelo area, and before you knew it, I was almost to the stopping point for the day.  I decided to ride some more, as our room wasn't going to be ready until 1, after we called to see if we could check in early.  So I rode a total of 82 miles today.  Great day.  It's been a long time since I have ridden 82 miles in a day.  I am now half way.  Still have 222 miles to go, but that means I have completed 222 miles as well.

See ya.