Day 5: 3/24/22: Jeff Busby Campground to Tupelo, MS

 I woke up at a little before 5 a.m. to another cold morning.  I decided I was going to eat breakfast at the Traceway Restaurant in Mathinston, MS, about 13 miles from our campsite.  Bob and Scott decided to eat breakfast at the campsite so I headed out alone today.  I rode in the dark for about 7 miles.   By the time I got to the restaurant, my fingers were numb and I was chilled to the bone. I sat at the restaurant a little over an hour, and after 3 cups of hot coffee I finally warmed up and stopped shivering.

Pic below is the first historical sign on the Trace that I stopped at today.  I thought it was quite appropriate that someone used white tape to put quotation marks on the word moved on the sign. It made the sign much more legitimate :)

Close up pic 

The temp warmed up nicely as the day went on.  Pic below shows how most of the ride today looked.

Even though commercial traffic is prohibited on the Trace, I did get passed by 1 tractor-trailer (pic below).

Tonight, we are staying at a bicycle only campground across from the Natchez Trace Visitors Center.

Total miles today: 81.22

Day 4: 3/23/22: Starkville, MS to Jeff Busby Campground

 As we were breaking camp today, our neighbor who is in a camper walked over and said, "I don't want to be nosey, but what are y'all doing?  We were in a tornado warning yesterday and y'all came up putting up tents". We told him about our trip. He said he could understand doing that on a nice sunny day, but not yesterday.  We explained you just have to take the good with the bad on a bicycle trip.  You've just got to deal with the elements.

The morning air was quite cool this morning and we had a headwind heading into downtown Starkville.  We rode through the Mississippi State University (MSU) campus enroute to downtown.  My father-in-law graduated from MSU.  I wonder if he recognizes some of the sites in the pics below.

Cleanup of a large tree that I'm assuming blew down during the storm yesterday had one street on the campus closed (pic below).

 

Below is a pic of a nice pedestrian/cyclist bridge that crosses over a major road to connect the downtown district to MSU.

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Few pics around downtown Starkville below.

Pic of me and Scott in front of the Starkville Cafe, where we ate breakfast.

While standing outside the cafe a guy named Andrew  approached us and asked about our trip.  As we were talking, it came up that he worked for the Federal Court.  I asked him what he did, and he said he was a probation officer for the Northern District of Mississippi, and started there in 2009.  I told him I am a retired federal probation officer, and worked for North Mississippi from 1994-2000.  He said he had seen my name on documents.  Small world.  Pic below of me and Andrew.

We spent some time in Starkville doing laundry, and Bob took his bike to a bicycle shop and they repaired his rear derailleur.

After Starkville, we all 3 rode together for about 7 miles and then there was a decision to be made.  Turn left and ride on country roads or go straight to ride on U.S. Hwy 82.  Scott and I chose the back roads route and Bob took the highway route.  Both routes had low traffic.  

Below are a couple of pics of Scott on a back road and on the Natchez Trace Parkway.

We arrived at the Jeff Busby Campground on the Natchez Trace (pic below), with Bob getting there about 30 minutes before we arrived.  Busby is a free campground, first come first serve, that accepts both RVs and tents.  It's a very nice campground that has cold water and flush toilets. We met several nice campers at the campground.

Total miles today: 42.96

Day 3: 3/22/22: Fayette, AL to Starkville, MS

 The day started early with us breaking camp and being at Charles Cafeteria and Restaurant in Fayette for breakfast at about 6:00 a.m.  Below is a pic of Bob and Scott with all our breakfast food on the table.  

We got an early start because we knew we were going to have a long day riding and we were going to be riding into a storm front that was producing a lot of rain and spawning tornados.  Our goal was to make it to our campground and get our tents pitched before the rain set in.

Before leaving Fayette, we toured the downtown district and took a few photos (pics below).  We discovered that the first Golden Eagle Syrup was made in Fayette.

Bob and Scott climbing a hill on our way out of Fayette.  Bob's derailleur problem took away his lowest gear, so hill climbing is quite challenging for him.  A lesser man would cry out in agony, but not Bob :)

We meandered our way on some West Alabama country roads and the terrain eventually flattened out (pics below).

Then we made it to....

A little Mississippi scenery below.

We crossed the Tennessee-Tomigbee waterway (pic below).

About 10 miles from our destination, we again spent several miles on gravel roads (pics below).

Do you remember our objective for today?  To make it to our campground before the rain set in.  Well, we fell about 6 miles short.  As we made it to the underpass of Alt. U.S. Hwy  45, sirens began to blare, and alerts came over our cell phones advising that the area was under a tornado warning.  We waited several minutes under the bridge (pic below) until the rain lightened up, and we then made our way to the campground.

We got to the campground and pitched our tents in the rain with almost everything getting wet.  I took a nice hot shower just to warm up, and then hung out in the bathhouse while I completed this blog entry.  The rain did not let up any while I was in the bathhouse, and actually got harder.  I sure do hate to give up my nice, dry, toasty room, but I know all good things must come to an end, so off I go to my cold, wet tent for a restful nights sleep.

Total miles today: 74.55

Day 2: 3/21/22: Brushy Lake Campground to Fayette, AL

It was a frigid night, but we all slept well.  This morning's temp made for cold, hurting fingers breaking camp.  On our way out of the campground, we stopped and snapped the below pic.

Our first five or so miles this morning was on gravel roads.  Our first bicycle mechanical mishap of the trip happened on the gravel road.  Bob hit a large rock that popped up and hit his rear derailleur, causing his derailleur hanger to bend and completely shut down his ability to pedal.  We were able to finagle his derailleur enough to get him back on the road.  He is riding with only about 9 gears total, but is only using his front 3 gears because he is afraid to shift his back derailleur because it may lock up again.

The first town we went through today was Double Springs, AL.  We would have bypassed it, but they had the closest place to eat breakfast - Jacks, which was about 17 miles from our campground.  We were all pretty hungry by the time we got there.

A little rest break during our ride today.

After Double Springs, a dried up little community we went through was Sunny Home.  Below are pics of an old abandoned home and the old Community Center.  The Community Center definitely leans to the left in the photo and I'm not sure how much longer it will hang in there.

The next town was Winfield, AL, which was about 35 miles from Double Springs.  Below is a pic of Scott and Bob riding through Winfield.

We then had about a 21-mile ride on a quiet back road to our final destination for the day, Fayette, AL.  The city park, Guthrie Smith Park, has an RV park in it, and that is where we're camping.  It is a very nice, clean park.

Below is a scenery pic from today.

Pic of our #1 fan today.

Total miles today: 71.2