Day 27 - Greenville to Eufaula

You know it isn't a good sign when you get woken up not by your alarm clock but by the rain battering on your door and window. Day 4 of riding in the rain. My poor bike shoes are beginning to protest as they are beginning to smell like a wet labrador these days.

To be absolutely correct, I didn't get rained on today. A monster storm passed through during breakfast and stopped just as we got going. It did mean that my shoes and bum got soaked pretty quickly too. Mental note to throw away my old shorts soon as they are getting a bit transparent, especially in the rain these days.

My little group also managed to miss the rain on the run in to lunch. I did a little rain dance to deflect its force for a while so we only have to deal with more wet shoes and bums instead of a total soaking. This was payback for yesterday when I went through a very isolated storm and almost everyone else stayed dry.

On the run in to the last aid station today, the clouds started to look a lot more ominous and I could see the lightning. I told Jeanine that if she wanted to get in while it was dry we'd need to hustle. Hustle we did. For the last 17 miles, it was full on time trial mode. We hit 35mph several times and then rolled into the hotel parking lot with about 5 minutes to spare before the heavens opened..

We only have 3 days left. I can practically spit on Georgia (if I so wished) as Eufaula is practically on the state line. Some people have started to eat a bit less as they want to be ready to return to 'real life' portions. I'm happy to keep up my sea food diet. You know the old joke right?

Today's ride was pretty lumpy. Lots of rollers on country roads. Chip seal roads suck but smooth tarmac rocks. Alabama has definitely had some of the best road surfaces on this trip. Thank you.

Tomorrow we cross into our last state Georgia. I need to remember to take pictures of both the Alabama and Georgia signs as we missed the AL one at the other end. We also finally hit Eastern timezone tomorrow. I had a look at the map when I finished tonight. I know we have only been biting off a small piece each day but it looks pretty damn impressive now. Almost done.

OK, my roomie is almost done with the shower. Time to get cleaned up and laundered before I eat like a horse again.

Pictures are here

Day 26 - Livingston to Greenville

It rained for the third day in a row today. This time it came as a welcome break. We managed to avoid it for the first 95 miles and then 3 or 4 miles before the next rest stop, it got really dark, really windy and then really wet. Apart from getting wet socks and shoes (again) it felt really good to cool off as it had been really humid. The only sucky thing was that it meant I would have to clean my bike again tonight. Oh well.

This morning started out nice and mellow. Jeanine has relatives that lived in Livingston and work in a pastry shop. As soon as she told me this, I was up for an impromptu stop. It surprised me that no one else wanted to come with us. That was their loss. So we stopped at the pastry shop and looking at the size of the pastries, decided to split a cinnamon roll. This thing was the size of a baby and it was only a dollar. Good times. The only bad thing about it was that we spent most of the day chasing to catch up to everyone else. It was definitely worth it though.

Apart from the food excitement... burritos for lunch, it was a pretty quiet day. Hot and humid but probably still better than Portland. Dinner is delayed tonight as another storm rolled in and it got really dark just before the heavens opened. I have no desire to get drowned on my way to dinner.

So instead of talking about the rest of the ride, here's a list of the small pleasures that make us happy on our trip. Older hotels (or motels) are better than newer ones. Most motels have the rooms facing right onto the parking lot. This is great for when you wash your bike clothes in the shower or sink as you can leave them outside to dry. Well, maybe not tonight as it's pissing down.

Warm food for lunch on a wet day is fantastic. I almost cried two days ago in Mississippi when I got to lunch (dirty and drenched) and we were getting Mac and cheese.

On a hot day, which seems like every day, a cold beer at the end of the ride is perfection. Who needs recovery drinks when you can have a cold beer instead?

I've also given up using Heed or Clif bars or Power gels at the rest stops. I'm fueling my cross country trip with Salt n Vinegar Pringles and shortbread. Don't knock it until you've tried it. Just the right mix of salt, sugar and butter. Yum.

Ok, enough for now. I'm going to risk the thunderstrom and go for dinner.

Pictures are here

Day 25 - Kosciusko to Livingston, AL

Another day of rain in the morning. Another new state, Alabama, and one more flat tire. That makes 4 now.

You could tell we were moving away from the Mississippi river as the roads today were constantly rolling as opposed to the flatness of the last two days.

The last couple of days have been pretty similar. With the rain, I've been trying to rush through the day to get to the hotel. At the same time, I don't want this trip to end. Obviously I can't quite reconcile the two things.

Despite having to get up early in the morning, ride in the rain or heat or humidity, I am getting sadder about the tour winding down. We have built a good camaraderie between the riders and the crew. There are only 20 riders and 10 support crew. We eat breakfast together, ride parts of the day with each other and then eat dinner together. Over the last 25 days I've had the chance to ride (or drink beer or eat dinner) with everyone. It's been great to hear all the different life stories, the different reasons for doing this tour and to get to know everyone. I think I have made some good friends that will be in my life for a long time.

It's going to be tough to roll back into 'normal' life again. The current norm says it's normal to eat your oatmeal in a hotel parking lot just after sunrise. It's also normal to wash your bike clothes in the shower at the same time as you clean yourself. Going to bed at 9pm is normal. I never thought I'd see myself doing that. It's normal to ride 100 miles and not sure where you are or where you are going. It's also normal to drink a beer as soon as you get off your bike for the day.

Pictures are here

Forecast is for more rain tomorrow. Can I swap some of Portland's 100+ degree weather for some of the South's rain please?

Day 24 - Clarksdale to Kosciusko

In my ignorance, when I saw today's finish town, I thought we were travelling to Poland. I didn't realize that this town (formerly called Red Bud Springs) was renamed for the Polish General who assisted the military efforts of the colonies during the Revolutionary war.

The town is also on the Natchez Trace Parkway. Oh and Oprah Winfrey was born here too.

OK, history and pop culture references over.

To say it rained today would be a slight understatement. If I had swum across the Tallahatchee river, I would probably have been drier than I was cycling. I could go on for hours about how wet it was but a few examples will probably suffice. At one point I was riding up a hill while a river of water was flowing towards me. I felt like a salmon swimming up stream to spawn. When Lori finished today, she cleaned the mud off of the bottom of her bike and cleared the drain hole in her frame. Water drained out of her frame for a couple of minutes.

The day started off not too bad. As the weather channel (my new favourite channel) predicted temperature in the mid 70's, I didn't take a raincoat with me. Big mistake. We rolled out of town on a quiet road. After about 10 miles, we had to get onto Hwy 49. This turned out to be a serious chicken run. The 'bike lane' was about 9 inches wide and to add insult to injury, there was a rumble strip right through it so we had to ride on the main part of the road. Looking up the road and you'd see the other cyclists disappear in the spray as a car or truck passed by. Fortunately we were only on this road for about 12 miles and then we got back to quieter, safer roads.

We also got to see the two sides of Mississippi today. Our lunch stop was in the town of Greenwood. You could easily tell which side of the tracks was the wrong side. Lunch was in amongst the mansions with the lovely manicured lawns. On the other side of town, we saw the wood shacks that a lot of the African American families have to live in. Definitely a land of the "haves" and "have nots".

I don't want to jinx myself but it seems like I was pretty lucky today. At dinner, everyone had their flat tire horror stories. Most people got one, my roommate Greg got 3 and poor Jonathon got 7. Yuck.

Most drivers have been pretty nice to us recently. This morning I was riding along on this quiet road while the rain was bouncing off of me and the road. A car drew up next to me and the passenger window rolled down. I was expecting to get some abuse but 2 young African American girls just wanted to know what I was doing, where I was going and why I was riding in the heavy rain.

We had a couple more injuries today. My roomie Greg can hardly walk. When his feet got wet they started to hurt him. It now looks like he's walking round barefoot on broken glass. Melissa crashed in the rain too. She landed badly on her hip and went to hospital. The x-rays proved inconclusive but she can't walk, has crutches and is on the Disabled List now. That's 3 hip injuries now. Hopefully we are done with them as it hurts to see good friends not be able to ride any more.

With all the rain today, it seemed like tonight was the night to bring out the Highland Park malt whisky. As each of the riders came in, I started handing out shots of Scotch. Mark, thank you for the bottle. Everyone in Pac Tour thanks you too.

Pictures are here

Day 23 - Pine Bluff to Clarksdale, MS

One of my favourite films is the Blues Brothers. There is a scene where they say something like we are 24 hours form Chicago, it's dark and we are wearing sunglasses. Today, we had breakfast at 6am just after the sun came up. We were on the road at 6:30 and I worked it out that I had 135 miles between me and the Delta Blues Museum in Clarksdale, MS. So, I decided today I would be on a mission to get there in time to go tot the museum.

Normally my roomie Greg and I are the last to leave in the morning. I'm not sure how we manage it but, by the time we pack our bags everyone has left. Not today. I started off fast(ish) with Jeanine today. We got the hell out of Pine Bluff, crossed the Arkansas river (which is a lot bigger than I thought) and then headed off into eastern Arkansas. Passing one of the many soy bean fields, or maybe it was a corn field and Jeanine got a flat tire. By the time we got it fixed, it seemed like the whole world rode passed us by. This pissed me off so I decided it was time to get into time trial mode. Riding at 27mph for about 1/2 an hour and we'd caught up to everybody again.

After this, we started riding in 10 man paceline which was pretty exciting. The highlight of this was we we got to watch a crop duster and then saw him buzz us. Thanks to young Greg for the video

By the afternoon, our paceline had whittled down to just 5 of us. Young Greg, Jeanine, Lori, myself and Steve (the part time guy). We tacked the only hill of the day which turned out to be the bridge across the Mississippi. Everyone told me that it was narrow and dangerous. Obviously none of these people have ever ridden across the Long view bridge on Seattle to Portland weekend...

The last 30 odd miles into Clarksdale were like the rest of the ride. Flat, hot and humid. Fortunately we'd gone fast enough for me to get to the Blues Museum. After a quick shower, it was out the door to get my fill of the blues. Pretty cool museum if you happen to be in the Delta.

I went for a short bike ride round town afterwards. Like most of our hotels, it's at the edge of town so it felt like a luxury to wander round town. After shooting a few pics, I looked up at the sky and saw that it was turning black. One last quick time trial back towards the hotel, with a quick pit stop to buy beer and I manage to get back home before the rain dumped.

Photos are here.

Tomorrow we are off to Oprah Winfrey's home town. It's also a long day (140 miles) and unfortunately rain is expected too. Oh well.

Life is good. I'm not looking forward to coming back to reality.

Day 22 - Arkadelphia to Pine Bluff

We got our first flecks of rain today. It actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise as it kept the temperature down. The rain reminded me of the weather when I lived in Tallahassee. More like a hot shower than the Oregon / Scotland rain which is always cold. I have a picture of me standing in the warm rain.

We passed a lot of churches today. Actually, it seemed like second building that wasn't a house was a baptist church. I was wondering about the size of their congregations as it doesn't seem like there are enough people to support them all. I guess it must work out. We also passed a lot of houses that looked run down or derelict but, I'm sad to say they weren't. Living in Portland, I'm obviously living in an ivory tower as to how some other people have to live in this country.

We did do one good deed today. We spotted a turtle half way across the road this afternoon. Instead of letting him go the way of most of the animals we've seen on the tour, Jeanine picked him up and put him on the side of the road in the direction he was facing. Hopefully he got to where he wanted to go.

Today we had another slight accident today. We were all goofing off sprinting for city limits signs when older Greg had a bit of a spill. The end result was some road rash on his hip, leg and arm and a bruised ego. He did win the bad ass award fro the day by riding covered in blood. Get well soon Greg.

The other exciting activity today was when we were riding towards lunchtime. Lori and Jeanine were leading the group and they spied Russell up ahead. They took off at a great rate of knots and I managed to get on their wheel. I felt a bit like Ben Hur on a chariot with my two trusty steeds. As they caught and passed Russell, they mooned him. I'm still snow blind from the whole escapade.

Currently there is a big storm outside. I just looked at the weather channel and there are tornado warnings for the area we just rode through. Fortunately it wasn't that bad for us at the time. Here's hoping tomorrow isn't too bad.

PS. I forgot to say, we had to deal with a ton of athletic dogs today. None of them were vicious but they took great delight in running alongside us for a maybe 100 yards at a time to get their morning exercise. This happened about 15 times today. I guess they don't see many cyclists round here?

Day 21 - Queen Wilhelmina Lodge to Arkadelphia

Arkadelphia, city of brotherly arks? Actually it stands for the arc of brotherly love... apparently.

I pressed the reset button again this morning. Instead of riding with the fast Hofstra's I decided to take it a bit easier today. Cue many photo stops and even a stop for ice cream and soda in between our usual sag stops.

Looking at the weather channel this morning, it predicted weather in the mid 90's with 98% humidity. Lovely. At least the weather man didn't disappoint us. It was really humid. 15 seconds after leaving the lodge, I was soaked through.

Mid morning and my wee band of slackers (young Greg, Lori and Tom who wasn't feeling well) passed by somebody's house who had a big inflatable type pool. We weer all tempted to jump in.

Most of today was spent lallygagging and taking pictures of random stuff. The Looney family reunion, Our Way street sign, vintage cars and bird houses. On the road into lunch, I rode on my own for a while and listening to some music. Playing the blues seemed the most appropriate for the South. John Lee Hooker and R.L. Burnside weer cued up. I know songs about Texas, Oklahoma, Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia but, if anyone knows any about Arkansas, please let me know.

After lunch we got off of State Hwy 8 and get onto to some really quiet country roads. We rolled along some tree lined (and shaded) roads before descending down towards Arkadelphia. Just before the final turn off towards town, we crossed over the DeGray Lake / dam. That was when I realised that I'd actually been here earlier on this year already. When I ran the Little Rock marathon in March, I drove out to Hot Springs, AR afterwards and did some touring before picking up I-30 just outside Arkadelphia. Little did I know I'd be back a few months later.

Upon arriving at the hotel, I found that I had a care package. The vultures usually start to swoop in at this point as it usually means food. Fortunately most people were inside because of the heat and humidity. Saying that, I still had to share. Ann, thank you for the dessert bars, brownies and chocolate. I will share everything except the white chocolate.

As it was a short day today (101 miles), I had the opportunity to burn my forehead and back by sitting in the pool. Deep joy.

Tonight we had the option of Waffle House or Fat Boys BBQ for dinner. I chose the ribs. Greg couldn't decide so he went for 2 dinners. He's excited that Waffle House is open all night so I expect to hear him sneak out during the night.

Tomorrow is the last of our short days (90 miles). We're off to Pine Bluff which is famous for being rated the 'most dangerous metro area in the US' as well as being the 'worst place to live' and one of the US Army's major sites for demolition of chemical weapons. After Queen Wilhelmina Lodge.. oh how the mighty have fallen.

Pictures are here.