Day 19

I began the day by turning the wrong way to get out of Wheeler State Park. Instead of finding the exit, I found a dead end, so already I'd added three miles to the days total without getting anywhere. Eventually I made it back out onto US 72. Give me a little tailwind and a relatively flat and smooth road, and I can make some good time. I was in Florence before 10AM, after averaging 15.5 mph for the first 30 miles.

I found the brand-new Florence library, but it wasn't due to open for a few more minutes so I started to ride around it to the other side. All of a sudden a woman driving a minivan on the street in front of me beeps, waves, and pulls over. For a second I thought it was going to be a repeat of the stalker-woman from the first day in Gary, Indiana. Instead, it turned out to be the complete opposite. She was a fellow touring cyclist! I'd beep and pull over too if I saw someone riding a loaded bike through my town. We talked for a bit, and it was quite cool for a change to speak with someone who has a good understanding of what the heck it is I'm doing. It sounds like she's been riding all over the place, including Australia and Europe. I wonder if I'll end up with a touring resume like her's one day?

By the time we were done speaking, the library was open, so I went in and checked it out. It's a beautiful new library, and I saw Ethernet ports all over the place so I asked if I could connect my computer to the network. They said no, not after the recent Supreme Court decision involving Internet filtering. So here they had a building all wired up (which was done before the decision), and they were unable to put it to use. So I used one of their many Internet-enabled computers together with my own and spent a good bit of time plotting out my days between here and St. Louis. As if to prove how silly and annoying Web-filtering software can be, I could access my Perpetual Motion message board, but not the Search page for it. Excellent, job well done. Speaking of politics: in case anyone was wondering, the voters of Alabama said "No" to Amendment One, some giant tax-increase package put forth by the Governor. The "Vote No" signs on the roadside have outweighed the "Vote Yes" signs about 70%/30%, and I think that's about how the vote came down. I saw a whole bunch of "Vote Yes" signs ripped in half, so I guess they really aren't big fans of high taxes in Alabama.

I got out of Florence around 12:30 after getting lunch at the world's busiest Subway. County Road 2 took me 15 straight and fast miles to the Natchez Trace Parkway (it was the perfect road on which to see my first armadillo-roadkills). The Natchez Trace Parkway is a National Park road (much like the Foothills Parkway in the Smokies that I tried to take) that runs from Nashville, TN to Tupelo, MS. It's also part of an Adventure Cycling route. So I figured I'd check it out. It's basically a two-lane road, with overpasses over all the crossing roads, and infrequent on-and-off ramps. There is little to no development along it, and in most places there are about 30 feet of mowed grass to either side of the road, and then lines of trees. It's a very peaceful and relaxing place to ride, and it basically feels like all the roads I've been on within state park boundaries. I imagine it could start to get boring over long distances though, because there really isn't much variety.

I actually took the Trace southwest, so I could cross the Tennessee River yet again. Although it was quite wide at that point, I guess it wasn't wide enough to be a lake. I stopped at a Visitor Center area to fill up my water bottles, and I somehow broke my Rollamajig again. Luckily I knew exactly how to fix it by now, so it didn't take much time. It seems to be caused by the cable getting caught by the handlebar bag in the wrong way. I'm really going to have to keep an eye on that. I was only on the Trace for about 8 miles, and then it was back west on US 72, where I soon crossed into Mississippi. I could have taken a shorter route today, but I wanted to check out the Trace, and I wanted to go through Mississippi, both so I could add another state to my list, and so I could see if they used the same stupid State Route signs as Georgia and Alabama. They don't, they use a nice, sensible circle. Now I think the Carolinas and Delaware are the only states east of the Mississippi that I haven't been in yet in my life.

I stopped in another Subway in Iuka, where the son of the owner (who looked about 11 or 12) was really interested in my bike and my trip. He was only about the second or third kid I'd talked with about my ride, so that was fun. And just before that a couple kids getting out of a car saw me riding by and said "Look at that cool bike! I want a bike like that!" It's funny how most kids who see the bike immediately think that it's "cool", despite the fact that it's actually a rather un-cool bike according to American bicycle marketing. So it's good to see these kids having open minds. Overall this seemed like another one of those days where I talked to a whole lot of people about my trip, whereas yesterday I don't think I got a single question (except from the park ranger). Strange how that happens.

From Iuka, it was 20 miles north to Pickwick Landing State Park, on Pickwick Lake. Yeah, it's just the Tennessee River again, though apparently it's wide enough here to be a lake. Whatever floats your boat. (hah! I've been waiting to write that one all day long!) About halfway there I crossed back into Tennessee. So this state park is another place listed in The Best in Tent Camping. However, the primitive campground (which I'm sure is what's written about in the book) is on the other side of the lake. Not far as the crow flies, but 11 miles as the bike rolls, and with the sun getting low in the sky and the miles already way up there, I settled for the regular campground. It seems alright, especially since I haven't found a ranger yet to pay my $14.25 to. If I hadn't had my obsession with Mississippi, it would have been about a 75 mile day, and I would have been on the right side of the river/lake for the good campground. Oh well. The long days don't really wear me out that much, they just eat up most of the daylight hours. Even with my highest average speed of the trip so far, I was still out there from just after sunrise to just before sunset. At least the moon has been really bright the last couple nights, so I don't even really need my flashlight once it rises high enough.