Natchez Trace Day 3

Today we completed our planned 62 miles from Ridgeland to this town with a name I can't spell. Susan, you could look it up and add it in the comments.

We had a first -- a state trooper (off-duty) pulled us over to tell us we couldn't ride side by side. We didn't anymore. We also had a nice chat with a park ranger at one stop. He was an example of a fine southern gentleman unlike the first guy.

The road flattened out some today and the going was a bit easier. We did miss the down hill but not the uphill. We got our average pace up to what we normally do unloaded at home.

We ended the day at a nice little bicycle-only primitive campground on the Trace. It is unfortunately also within earshot of a state highway but hopefully the locals will turn in early.

Natchez Trace Day 2

Today we made up the 15 miles that we cut short yesterday. It was mostly riding through a mix of forest and farm fields - hay and soybeans primarily.

We stopped mid-morning at The Rocky Springs campground, where we had planned to stay last night. It was the last source of water on the trace before our evening stop (about 50 miles). A very nice man working there gave us two bottles of ice-cold water. It was very welcome!

We did learn that folks in Mississippi must really love their tractors and hay because they take them out for recreation. Since they were on the Trace, we know it was recreational hauling!

The highlight of the day was seeing a heron rookery outside of Clinton. The
photo doesn't really show them but we saw several pairs of great blue heron and at least one pair of yellow-crowned night heron.

We made it in to our accommodations at the Hyatt about 6 pm. Tomorrow night we camp and finally use all that gear we have been hauling recreationally.

Natchez Trace Day 1

The first order of business today was to reassemble the trikes and load the gear we had in the car on to the trikes. As you can see all that stuff did make it on to the trikes. I'm guessing they must have weighed at least 75 pounds before we got on. The sign at the beginning of the Trace said recreational hauling only -- clearly we are engaging in hauling so it must be recreational!

It took about an hour to load the trikes and almost that long to get breakfast at the hotel restaurant so we got a late start. So far, it seems the southern pace especially applies in restaurants.

Once on the Trace we found the going pretty slow. For the first 20 miles we made frequent stops at historic sites.
We stopped to see the ruins of the Elizabeth Female Academy. Founded in 1818, it was the first women's college in Miss.

We also managed to see our 4th cemetery of the trip - a slave cemetery at the Mount Locust stand on the old trace. At least 10 enslaved persons were buried here but only one unmarked stone is present.

Mostly we rode up and down the small hills enjoying the speed of the down hill and crawling up in low gear. It did get a little easier when we put some extra air in the tires about 4 PM.

We decided to stop earlier than planned and ended the day in a B&B in Port Gibson. Tomorrow, we'll have an extra 15 miles to get back on schedules so that will mean an early start.

The Natchez Trace Day -1

Today was our first day in Natchez. We walked around Natchez a lot, visited three different cemeteries, a couple of museums and saw Tiffany stained glass windows in the Episcopal church. Under-the-hill while reputed to be the wild side of town was pretty calm when we were there.
We ended the day watching the sunset from the balcony of our hotel room.

Tomorrow -- the Natchez Trace!

The Natchez Trace Parkway Adventure: Day -2

After driving all day, we planned to stop for the night in Ruston, the home of the historic Lady Techsters of LA Tech. Even though lots of motels were visible from the highway, the only one we figured out how to drive to was full. There were cars in the other parking lots but they must have been transported there since apparently no roads went to those motels. We finally found a room 30 miles down the road in Monroe. Sadly, we are too tired to go look for Cajun food.

The Natchez Trace Parkway Adventure: Day -3

This adventure has been in the planning stages for months.  We wanted to take a longish trike tour that would stretch our skills.  The Natchez Trace Parkway seemed a good place to accomplish that.  It has scenery, historical interest, and is bicycle friendly.  We'll ride for 10 days for a total of somewhere near 550 miles and will be camping most of the nights we are on the road. We thought about riding the length of the Trace from Natchez to Nashville, TN but the logistics of transporting the trikes was daunting so we opted to ride to Tupelo (where we will pay our homage to Elvis, of course) and turn around and go back to Natchez.   We've found that the road back is always different even if you are traveling the same pavement (there's a deeply philosophical thought in that I'm sure.)  

We've planned and packed and today is our last day at home. We'll head out tomorrow for Natchez, MS and will spend two days on the road.

Today's challenge is to take all this stuff (most of which will end up on the trikes) and load it into the Subaru. The trikes are already loaded and take up most of the inside space leaving just enough room for the two of us to ride and drive.  Most of everything else will go into the brand-new rooftop cargo carrier.

Almost all of this stuff will end up on the trikes for the journey.

Subaru with roof-top carrier