Day 4, part one

The overnight low was 67, and the high today was 84. Light breeze and clear sky. (just rubbing it in to you people in the cold north!) It was another one of those humid mornings, and everything outside was covered in dew. I had bought a cheap shower cap at Walgreens before I came on this trip, and I put it over my bike seat at night. Everything else comes in the tent with me. We packed up camp and headed up the trail. It was about 30 miles to Jackson, and the first Wal-mart or fast food places we'd seen the whole trip! We stopped at the first one we came to: Wendy's. Time for a Double with cheese and a Frosty. Every little gas station in Mississippi seems to have a fried chicken stand. I forgot to mention that yesterday as we were leaving Port Gibson we each got a chicken breast at a gas station on the edge of town. It was run by this little old black lady, and that chicken was so good, it's what defines what GOOD fried chicken is. Real, honest-to-goodness (kind of in a "Mc-heart-attack kind of way!) Southern fried chicken! Anyway, after Wendy's I went to Wal-mart and bought some stove fuel for my backpacking stove, so NOW I can start eating the dehydrated and freeze-dried stuff I brought from home, and kick the "sweet tea and candy bar" diet! Then we got back on the trace, rode up to the north end of Jackson and east and north and this way and that way in the going-home rush hour traffic to the city campground on the reservoir. We're near the dam, and below the dam are a bunch of people fishing for catfish. One guy had about a 15-lb catfish on the bank near him. The guy in the picture above was riding on the trace, and his wife has his gear in their car and meets him each night at the campground. Later we met him riding back... his wife had called on the cell phone, the car wouldn't start and he had to ride 10 miles back to the campground!