Bike Ride from Louisiana to Tennessee

In April of 2010 I took my bicycle on the train from NW Montana to Louisiana, where I pedaled up through Mississippi and Tennessee. The plan was to go north to South Bend, Indiana and get on the train to go back home.

When I was almost to the Kentucky state line I ran out of "Spring", with cold weather, rain, and the leaves on trees weren't open yet. Campgrounds were still closed, and motels were out of my financial reach! So I pedaled back down into Mississippi, arriving in time for the tornadoes in central Mississippi!

I finally took the train home from Jackson, Mississippi.

This blog is posted in such a way that you will read it backwards, unless you scroll through all the pages and start from the beginning, which is kind of at the end, since that's the way blogspot works!

wrap up

Well, there's Chicago, where I changed trains. I rode my bicycle for 3 weeks, riding 1,064 miles, which does not count the 60 miles in a pick-up truck at the end! Those are actual pedaled miles. I very much enjoyed the scenery and seeing a place so contrasting to the pine- and aspen-covered mountains of NW Montana, and talking to those lovely people with their southern drawls, and eating that delicious southern fried chicken, fried catfish, and southern biscuits, and oh yes, the Sweet Tea! It was cool seeing cotton fields and old plantation houses, civil war historical sites and learning so much about the Choctaw and Chickasaw Indians. One of my favorite things was all the Mexican people in Carthage who work for the Tyson meat packing plant. Imagine this: mexican spanish spoken with a southern drawl! I loved how openly the people of Louisiana and southern Mississippi openly embrace their Christianity and faith in the Lord. Over and over I heard "God bless you, I'll pray for you". I'll cherish the memory of the smell of flowers and damp earth and fresh-cut grass. More than anything I enjoyed being warm. My comfort zone is between 80 and 90 degrees! I loved it! It was an amazing experience to roll along the backroads of the deep south.

In closing, I think of the book "The Hobbit", and how at the end of the book Gandalf told Bilbo Baggins that his adventure was not ending, but was only beginning. And like Toad in "The Wind in the Willows" you can bet that it won't be long before I'm caught up in another adventure. I do know that every day is the first day of the rest of our lives. We don't want to reach the end of our lives, as the author Henry David Thoreau wrote in "Walden's Pond" and look back and see that we never truly lived.

SO....all of you go out and do something you always wanted to do!

May God bless you and keep you safe in all your journeys.

Tornado

Saturday morning I woke up in the motel, still hearing rain. Over the morning several rain storms moved through, a few with lightening, but no more hail and no tornado. Not in Carthage anyway. A woman who works at the motel offered me a ride the last 60 miles to Jackson, where I could catch a train home. I'd only planned to ride a couple more days anyway, and after these storms and the continueing rain, I decided to take her up on it. When she (Annette) was done cleaning rooms we loaded my bike and bags and she drove me to Jackson and down to the train station. The train left at 5:44 PM and headed north. About an hour later we stopped because a tornado had roared through the town of Yazoo City a few hours early, leaving behind a path of destruction which included trees and powerlines laying on the tracks. When the tracks were cleared enough for the train to go through we went past some of the worst damage I've ever seen with my own eyes. I had a lump in my throat, and the passengers of the train were, like me, dumbfounded and kept muttering "oh, my god", looking at it. I snapped several pictures, could have had more but I would find myself just staring in horror, too stunned to take pictures sometimes. 1o people died in that tornado, and it's amazing it wasn't more. Huge trees, really HUGE trees were just snapped off and tossed through the air and lay heaped this way and that. There were houses with roofs torn off, windows blown out. Power lines down all over. People standing in the road just, well...standing in the road. When you look at the pictures, realize that hours before, those were huge, tall trees. Now you see dozens of broken stubs of limbs and it's hard to fathom how much damage there was.
Being this close to the raw power of destruction gave me a feeling of awe for the power the creator - God - has. Very humbling.

Tornado in Yazoo, Mississippi

Tornado pictures

Day 21

Friday April 23, 2010. It was warm and muggy this morning. 67 degrees at 6:30. I made a pancake and hot chocolate for breakfast and began packing up camp. A couple in a nearby motorhome brought me a sausage patty, English muffin, and a cup of orange juice, then returned a while later with 2 bananas, 3 apples, half a loaf of bread, a package of cookies, and a bag of chocolate chips. hat added about 6 more lbs to the load on my bike! I did appreciate their generosity and concern for me. It was cloudy and already a strong wind when I pedaled on south. I stopped on a bridge and called Steven and had him check the weather forecast on the computer. He said they were predicting rain and thunderstorms toward evening and overnight, so I got out my map and looked for a place within riding distance that would have motels. The first town was too close, barely 30 miles away, but there was another town, Carthage, that was about 55 miles away. I decided to shoot for that town. I reached the first town by noon, and considered stopping there. The clouds had a dark gray look and were kind of boiling in the sky, and the trees were rolling all over in the wind. But I decided to push on for Carthage, and it began to rain when I was still 5 miles out. When I got to the bypass road I turned and headed for the motel. 3 miles later the rain was pouring and still no sign of a motel. It began thundering and lightening and pouring harder and harder, mixed with hail, and I was soaked and scared. I pulled my bike up on the hillside next to the road, laid it down and pulled out my groundcloth tarp and spread it over my bike. Then I sat down on the wet ground between the seat and handlebars, and pulled the tarp up over me too. I pulled out my cell phone and called 911 and explained my circumstances and asked where in the world the motel was. They sent a deputy out to check on me. Meanwhile I sat huddled under there while water poured down all around me, and the thunder was terrible. Finally the deputy pulled up and I crawled out to talk to him. He wanted to give me a ride to the motel but while we were figuring out what to do about my bike the rain let up. He told me how to get to the motel, and I rode toward it. Passing traffic covered me with gritty mist from the wet road, and there was so much water on the road I was afraid my bike would slip. My hands were so wet I was having trouble holding the handlebars. Unlike Montana, though, it wasn't cold, it seemed almost warmer after it started to rain, but I was shivering anyway. Probably from fright and exhaustion. The deputy pretty much stayed with me, driving up the highway and coming back, making sure I made it to the motel. I checked in and went to my room, and I filled the bathtub with hot water and got in it until I stopped shivering. Wave after wave of terrible storms passed over. It was like a dam burst in the skies, it poured so hard. The wind would blow and practically lay huge trees over on their sides, then it would get so calm you almost felt like you couldn't breathe. The phones and internet went down around 8:00 in the evening, and during the night the power went out. I had a tornado plan: I'd grab my bike helmet and get between the toilet and bathtub in the bathroom. No tornados passed through Carthage that night, though, thank the Lord. Miles ridden today: 63.9. (The last picture above actually goes with tomorrow).

Day 20

Thursday April 22, 2010. These horses were happily grazing in fields of flowers! The land has flattened out some, though there are still hills. The grades are slight but still require gearing down. The bigger problem was the strong headwind. It was work even on the flats, riding into it. I passed through a few smaller towns today, but there wasn't anything of note in them. Sadly, the cafes and Mom & Pop restaurants or stores are pretty much gone. Mostly now there are gas station/covenience stores/quick marts in all the towns, and the occasional chain fast-food joint. A lot of "local flair" is gone and we're becoming a nation of standardized packaging. So on one hand it's nice to know these places are likely to have whatever my favorite snack or drink is, but on the other hand, I miss the experience of localized culture! However I did notice a convenience store advertising Fried Green Tomatoes served daily! The campground was cool, there was enough slope to the land that they had made these neat little tent platforms, which was nice. I'd had to set up my tent on slightly sloped terrain a few times! Kept sliding off my air mattress! Miles ridden today: 42.7.

Day 19

Wednesday April 21, 2010. In the last few days I've quit getting up at 6:30-ish and packing up camp right away with a dewy tent, and hitting the road with, at most, a granola bar-type thing for breakfast. Instead I've made it a more leisurely morning, reading in my sleeping bag until the sun is up, around 7:00, then I get up and make a hot breakfast, usually oatmeal, sometimes pancakes or eggs and hashbrowns. Then I pack up my bags and by the time I take my tent down, it's dry and my sleeping bag has had time to air. When I pedal out of camp, I feel relaxed, organized, and comfortably fed. This particular morning I passed through field after field filled with yellow wildflowers. They're not dandelions. I got off my bike and walked out to look. Sometimes I even stop for a hot lunch, and I've even stretched out on top of a picnic table and relaxed in the sun while my dishes dried before I started riding again. This day I used my dried eggs and added dried peppers and onions to make an omelette scramble! I put dried onions in the hash browns, too, and I tore up a piece of peppered jerky and put that in the hash browns. It was a delicious meal. Of course the first thing I seen after leaving the picnic area was a dead snake on the road! Ick! I don't know what kind it is. It's kind of shiny silver. Readers, anyone know? And there's yet another campsite to thrill you! Every night I have to build my house and inflate my bed! I sleep good in a tent, though, so I don't mind. Miles ridden: 38.5

Day 18

Tuesday April 20, 2010. I expected to see caves in Tennessee, but the only ones I seen had pretty small openings. It was a surprise to find this cave in northern Mississippi with a wide mouth! It was muddy and wet inside so I didn't explore very far. I passed through many marshy areas today, these are just two pictures of them. There were lots of historical markers that mostly dealt with the Chickasaw indians and the early 1800's. I camped at a city campground that had this port-a-potty building for a bathroom, and since no one else was camped there tonight, I guess I had my own private "facilities"! The lady who told me how to get there told me I was lucky, they had just turned the water on at the water pump yesterday! Miles ridden: 64.7

Day 17

Monday, April 19, 2010 I thought this big dead tree looked neat. It was in a field along the road. This next place is the last place I stopped in Tennessee, it was my lunch break, and I felt like I was back home in Montana looking at those deer mounts on the wall! This mule lives in a field with these cows on the state line of Tennessee and Mississippi! Now I was back in Red Clover country. I always called the purple clover in Montana "red clover", but this stuff really IS red! Last is my campsite. They're all starting to look more or less the same! I'd bought oatmeal and hot chocolate packets today, and a little frozen dinner of chicken & rice stir fry for dinner. It thawed enough over the hour or so until I got to the campground that I was able to dump it in my little frying pan and heat it! When I left that little town I forgot to fill my water bottle and had to ride the rest of the way without water! Miles ridden: 37.8

Day 16

Sunday, April 18, 2010. First thing this morning there were turkeys along the road. Three different times I passed some. Then there was this cool waterfall, or waterslide if you wish, along the road. Later I crossed this river that had prettty much a rock floor, and you can't really tell in the picture but slime was growing on the rocks, which would make wading a slippery challenge! There are also so many interesting rock formations and rock walls, it would be hard to post pictures of all of them, but thanks to my digital camera I have dozens of pictures if anyone wants to come to the house and see them! And finally, my campsite for the night. I'm still in Tennessee, working my way back down to Mississippi. Already "Spring" is in the air, and I feel good to be heading south. Miles ridden: 47.8