We’d like to take a weekend in November and head North on the Mississippi River Trail.

Lisa, Donna, and Nat

Our Lunch Guest Helping Herself

Thanks, all, for blogging along with us on our trip this week…we are in our first car since we started and en route back to Memphis.  Yesterday was quite a trip (in so many ways).  It was a mind trip, just making ourselves pedal that many miles on those bikes with that weight on our last day.

But we had no choice…we had no camping equipment and there are no hotels between the two cities where we started and ended.

The day was actually one of the best and worst in a lot of ways.  Check out the photo of the butterfly who joined us for lunch…literally. She sat on Donna’s cup the entire time she ate lunch.

Then she decided to come and say hello to me.  That was definitely a highlight of the day.

WE NAMED HER NAT

You’re a great kid/woman.

Love you-

Lisa and Donna

Heidi, this one's for you - been there, done that!

THOSE WHO HAVE CRASHED AND THOSE WHO WILL.  That should give you an indication of how our day went…We road 71 miles today, on those heavy bikes…it took us 6 hours and some change and we made it to French Camp, Mississippi and are awaiting Natalie’s pickup tomorrow.

Okay, in a nutshell Donna had two crashes…one while going about 1 mile an hour and one while going about 12 miles per hour…The first one involved her cell phone, and it was minor except for some road rash…the second one involved me riding up beside her and “freaking” her out…we were tired…it was mile 55, I forgot to say “on your left” and she freaked when I came up beside her.  She went down in the middle of the road – there were some cars 50 yards or so down the road, but I managed to get off my bike and flag them around us in plenty of time.

She has some pretty mean road rash…we have pictures and will post them tomorrow.  There is always a bright side, however.  We both believe that this happened because I was hitting the wall…I was literally on my last leg, so to speak, but after the crash, I forgot my little problems and road dutifully behind Donna and her bleeding elbows and knees all the way to our destination – 71 miles total – did I say that already??

So, Christi, your helmet quote was quite appropriate…thank God she had hers on (she cracked it by the way), and yes, we are both fine.  We have no reception here in the boondocks with our computer, but the B & B proprietor let us use theirs just to report in.

I’ll download some cool crash pictures tomorrow.

DONNA WITH HER GROOVE BACK

Hello everyone…I tell you, it just keeps getting better.  All of you members and friends out there who plan on taking a tour with us should be glad we’re working out the kinks on this one.

Let me tell you HOW DONNA GOT HER GROOVE BACK today.  We headed out this morning from our hotel, through the heavy traffic and got almost to the entrance of the Trace when something started “pinging” on my front tire….BIG pinging…so we stopped at nearby “gym” and the guy told us there was a bike store about 3 miles back the way we came.  Donna kept trying to convince me that it would be fine (because she didn’t want to ride all the way back), but knowing that we wouldn’t be near another shop, we finally agreed to go.

We get to the shop and my disc on my brake is the problem…sweet Daniel at Indian Bikes and Fitness (awesome bike shop), got me rolling again.  And just as we are headed out the door I asked him to check Donna’s back tire because I noticed it seemed to be really low.

Now, keep in mind that each tire should have about 80 lbs of air pressure in it…so Daniel puts on the gage and guess what????  Both of Donna’s tires had 20 lbs of pressure in them….all of the guys in the shop were freaking out asking how long we’d been riding like that, etc…when we told them, they said Donna had been working about 3 times as hard as she needed to work.  Mine were low too (60 psi) but no where near as low as Donna’s –  no wonder she has been feeling like every mile is ten.

So, what does that mean for me?  Now that Donna got her groove back, she wants to keep going for another week.  She rode like the wind today, panniers and all.

Love you and get Ron to help you navigate through this blog…there are lots of photos and comments.

xo

Lisa

PICNIC SPOT

Today is the day we head back north…We are re-tracing our steps now and hope to be back around Tupelo by Friday.  We’ll need the weekend to rest up.

Just a couple more shots of the Trace along the way. Did I mention we met a nice little Pitt Bull yesterday???

That was on our connecting section not on the Parkway itself. More later…keep those comments coming.

L and D

RIP

We stopped off in Jackson after only 28 miles today for a bit of a rest.

Actually, there is more of a story here..we were happily on our way to Raymond chugging along at break neck speed (11 mph), when all of the sudden my phone rang.  I was so excited to have service on the back roads of MS that I answered (bad mistake).  It was Shirley, the proprietor of Oak Hill B & B in Raymond checking to see when we would arrive.

This is a good lesson for all of you out there who talk on the phone when you’re driving, or as in my case, riding your bike.  Anyhow, Shirley is one of those Mississippi women who wanted to talk and talk and talk. After 6 attempts to hang up, telling her vehemently that I would call her when we had stopped, I hit a bump…in the road, that is.

And that bump bounced my phone off of my handlebar rack and onto the road perfectly beneath Donna’s approaching front and rear tires….yes, my neat little slider phone cracked and bit the dust….WITH SHIRLEY STILL TALKING ON THE OTHER END!!!  We stopped, and I ran over to get my phone off of the pavement and Shirley still talk, talk, talking…I screamed into the phone, “I WILL CALL YOU WHEN WE STOP.”

Amazingly enough the phone still worked but the screen is cracked and you can’t see a darned thing…we stopped a few minutes later for our lunch and to scream at Shirley across the Natchez Trace and (I kid you not), she called again before we even had time to get off of our bikes…hence our detour and stop today in Jackson to try and find a T-Mobile store.  

So, here are a few pictures from the day…we road along the Ross Barnett Reservoir and the Cypress Swamp. We saw tons of egrets (I think that is the spelling) and I’m inserting a couple of photos.

Now, however, we’re so tired, neither of us has the energy to brave the roads and get the phone. Here are some nice shots from today’s ride.

THE EGRET

Hope we have lots of posts when we’re done today.  Be sure to check out the photo journal before Donna makes me take any photos of her off.

Lisa

Whew…it was a hot one today…we are FINALLY in Canton, Mississippi…at a luxurious Hampton Inn…The bike tourists who camp (God love em) have way more guts than we have…there’s nothing better than a nice shower and most of the comforts of home.

We are now at Milepost 130 – still headed South.  We started at MP 229.  We’re moving slowly, averaging about 12 miles per hour…but we’re rollin on.

We ran into a couple of guys from Nashville today who had already been further south and were on the way when we saw them.  That’s who’s pictured in this post, and these guys are camping.

FELLOW BIKE TOURISTS - NASHVILLE BOYS

Keep those comments coming.