April 24 Poplarville to Vancleave, MS. 76 miles.
Have fallen behind on blogging again. Long days and little connection, dinner responsibilities, etc. will try to catch up soon. The pictures here are from the ride on the 23rd, the ones from the 24th are not down loaded yet. Will add them later.
The good folks of Kentwood sent us off with a grand breakfast and parting gifts. These folks will not soon be forgotten, they did so much to enhance our time there.
We headed out on a beautiful day. The country was rolling, forested, peaceful and beautiful. We went thru a town named Bogalossa. I just love saying that name. Two things happened as a first on this day. First, a flat tire. Had ridden nearly 2500 miles over some very challenging roads and this was the first. Hopefully the first and last. We happened to be in front of the Plsinview Baptist Church of Plainview, LA when the flat occurred and had a chanced to talk to the church secretary. This lady was also the recently retired assistant police chief of Bogulossa, checked our map, approved our routing and insisted on a detailed accounting of our trip.
The second thing was that I was told to "get off the road". Not an unheard of directive heard on a bike, but the first on this trip. Oh well...
In Bogulossa, folks at the service station talked so much that we finally just had to excuse ourselves and move on. Then there was Baptista, an 87 year old man that was working out in the park that we ate in for lunch that was working out and in incredible shape. So friendly.
We crossed the Pearl River into Mississippi. The Pearl was flooding, not unusual it seems for this time of the year, into Popularville and a night of camping. A lot of miles but it felt good.
The next day to Vancleave was simply a beautiful day. All the elements were there, good weather, great roads, some gravity but a series of real country roads. No state roads and if Gabe and myself had not 'experimented' with another of our shortcuts, where we did find a service station, the map route had no services for almost 70 miles. A three water bottle day.
The temps are now in the 80s, much higher humidity levels, more like late June at home. But it is nice.
Vancleave offered an interesting story of two. The campground that we were scheduled to stay in was closed due to non-functioning toilets. A show stopper anywhere. We were able to find a suitable camping area 6 miles down the road, off the route, meaning those same 6 miles would be added to the next day's ride which was already 72 miles, and...the road was terrible. No shoulder. A rumble strip from the white line right meaning you were in the traffic. Big time bad!
I was tired and not wishing to fight the traffic. So Gabe and myself did the logical thing, we pulled in for ice cream. After visiting for a while, the owner of the store took mercy on us and had her husband take us down in his truck! Wonderful folks! The ice cream was good too!
That evening, we were attacked by squirrels! Bags raided, food taken! And one badly behaved mockingbird was seen grabbing some remains.
We are by now incredibly close to the Gulf of Mexico. I awoke during the night to the salty, brackish smell of what I thought was the Gulf water. Wrong! It was my socks from the previous day too close to my head!
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