I didn’t sleep much last night. I rarely do in a tent (although Lily’s tent is pretty fab). Every couple of hours I had leg cramps, smallish ones. The kind that go away but make you dread of a monster cramp to come. It never did. being awake meant that I could at least listen to the barn owls hooting all night.
Breakfast was more than adequate. Jeff made amazing coffee with a French Press. Our group drank loads of it.
We headed out in fits and starts. Virginia was ahead of me on the camp road and stopped suddenly. An armadillo was lying in the middle of the road. She gave it a nudge with her foot and discovered that it was an ex-armadillo. It had ceased to exist. She used her foot to push it to the side of the road.
Yep, it’s dead
Back on the road the only other wildlife I saw all day was a large gathering of vultures dining on the remains of a roadkill deer.
I could do this all day. (That’s John the Fastest. I am John the Skowest.)
The day was planned to be a 48-mile return to the hotel in Ridgeland. The side path near adjacent Jackson was under repair. The Trace has notoriously bad traffic (and no shoulder). I ride without fear but most people tint so we agreed as a group to stop in Clinton after 34.5 miles and use the van to shuttle the group the last 14 miles.
We all seem to be in good spirits and looking forward to an 80-miles day tomorrow. The weather remains perfect.
After a hotel breakfast we loaded our non-biking gear into the van, gathered our lunch and snacks , and pedaled a mile and a half though Natchez to the start of the Trace.
It was chilly and I wore multiple layers. I was overdressed and stopped three times in the first two hours to de-layer.
The road surface on the Natchez Trace Highway is perfect. The terrain went from level to gentle up- and down-slopes.
After 13 miles we left the Trace for a mile to check out Emerald Mound, the second largest Indian mound in the country dating from 1300 to 1600. It features two tiers and is enormous.
The lower portion and right half of Emerald Mound
Back on the Trace we cruised along for another 20 miles. There we left the Trace to check out Windsor Ruins. These columns are what remains of a massive plantation house that burned to the ground in 1890 when a party guest dropped a lit cigarette.
Windsor Ruins
In Port Gibson, we briefly rode on Highway 61, the famous Blues Highway
This side trip was hillier and bumpier than the main route. We were ducking wind until the descent into Port Gibson where we raided a small grocery store (that was once a Piggly Wiggly).
After snacks and drinks we continued on for another 17 miles to Rocky Springs campground. We were expecting pit toilets but were happy to see actual restrooms (with no showers and no potable water).
We’ve been stopping at nearly every historical sign, most of which seem to describe Grant’s grind toward nearby Vicksburg.
Dinner was a feast cooked by Jeff and Beth Ann our tour leaders. No complaints from my tummy.
I neglected to mention The Mule hit 79,000 miles recently.
Today began with the entire 15-person tour group assembled after a pretty decent hotel breakfast. Tour co-leader Jeff climbed atop the mega-van and loaded all 15 bikes without injury to anyone or anything. Pretty impressive. Meanwhile Beth Ann loaded the trailer with our gear. I worried that I had over done the gear thing but a few others had even more stuff.
We didn’t lose a single bike.
We piled into the van and Jeff drove us two hours south to Natchez. I wore an N 95 mask and had a pretty good headache when we arrived at the hotel. We put our gear in our rooms and met at the van. Jeff expertly unloaded the bikes and Beth Ann set up a mini-deli where we made sammies and grabbed snacks.
After that I headed out on a 13-mile ride around Natchez. It was chill, literally and figuratively. I wore all the things.
During the ride I was chased briefly by a ferocious dog. This chihuahua gave chase but stopped at the first speed bump.
Natchez is your basic southern town; think Mayberry but poor. I stopped at the Melrose estate with its Greek Revival mansion; the Spanish moss on the trees was more interesting to me. Another stop was the Grand Village of the Natchez Indians, which had three burial mounds. Interesting but kind of underwhelming . The best stop was atop the bluffs overlooking the Mississippi.
Spanish moss with Melrose in the distance
Looking up the Mississippi
After the ride we had a couple of organizing meetings and some dinner in the hotel lobby. I must say the tour leaders seem to have their act together which is a big relief.
Tomorrow we start the tour on the Natchez Trace in earnest; a 60+ mile day to a primitive campsite. There is an optional side trip to the ruins of a plantation but I’m going to stick to the main route.
The weather forecast is about as good as it gets. Fingers crossed.
Despite its outrageous price tag, last night’s hotel was meh. Storms raged outside all last night and into the morning. I left at 8:30 with my bike sure to get a good washing.
Five mikes into the drive the interstate I was on was closed because of a crash. I followed dozens of cars as they bailed out down (off) an on-ramp.
The storm continued its rage but the road wasn’t flooded so I made good time. There were several signs of tire tracks where vehicles had left the roadway.
The highways here are in tough shape. For some reason there were cars parked every so often on the side of the road, as if the drivers had run out of gas. I’ve never seen so many tire treads littering a highway as I have these last two days.
I made it to the hotel in Ridgeland outside Jackson by 1 pm. I was allowed to check in early. My room is very nice; twice as nice as last night’s at half the price. Go figure.
I reconfigured my baggage for tomorrow’s van ride to Natchez. Then I went out to lunch at a pretty decent eatery nearby.
Back at the hotel I did some back exercises, showered, and went to the lobby to watch the UConn women trounce South Carolina.
I dropped some dirty clothes in the car and saw our group leaders in the parking lot. One was discussing the closure of a side path on the Trace nearby. I keep hearing how dangerous the road is in the immediate area and all I can think of is “Hold my beer.”
Some of the tour group are heading out for dinner at 7-ish. I’ll probably join them unless my nap gets the better of me.
It’s chilly here but by tomorrow afternoon we expect near perfect weather for riding.
I left home at 8 a.m. and arrived in Titusville, Alabama, just east of Birmingham, at nightfall. Traffic was mercifully light with only a couple of slowdowns in eastern Tennessee.
My bike rack made buzzing noises the whole way but I fought back with loud music. I’m deaf now but them’s the breaks.
I took a bio break at a truck stop and checked hotel prices in Birmingham. They’re very high. So I grabbed a truck stop salad to save some money on dinner and drove until I saw a decent hotel. They gave me a 10% discount which was more than offset by over $40 in taxes. I kid you not.
The room is nice and the place is quiet. Tonight there are raging storms about 300 miles west of here. Some will pass through overnight. I expect to drive in heavy rain for 4 or 5 hours tomorrow. At least my bike will be clean.
My training taper is done. I did 53 miles on Monday then 20, 30, 28, and 30. The last 30 miler was today. I slept not a wink last night and wondered if I was a little insane for riding to Friday Coffee Club. It was unbelievably 70+ degrees when I stepped outside to start the ride. There were a couple of minutes of light rain about halfway to DC but otherwise the conditions could not have been better.
The ride home featured a mild tailwind which was just what my groggy head needed. I had a shower and a snack then hit the sofa for a much needed two-hour snooze. (Tonight I am taking Gabapentin to make sure I am rested tomorrow.)
We were instructed to bring only two bags for the organizers to transport. I was also told that I could not leave my pannier on my bike for the shuttle on Monday from Jackson to Natchez. There was no way I could pack the pannier in either of my two bags. Then I got an idea…
After some of my tours, I shipped my bike home using a bike shop at my destination and Bike Flights, a shipping service. My gear had to either get checked at the airport or go on a train. The easiest way to do this and minimize baggage charges was to buy a cheap duffle bag at the destination city and put all my on-bike stuff in it.
When I started packing for this trip, I could only find one duffle bag. I am certain that I have at least four, one from each tour to the west coast and another from my trip to Key West. After some groping around in a closet, I found another duffle. In about ten minutes I had re-organized my luggage. Duffel number one contains my off-bike gear. Duffel number two contains camping gear and my pannier. When we get to Natchez, I will put my rain gear, a third bottle (insulated), and a few small items in the pannier. There are three nights when we stay indoors, so I won’t need to open the camping duffel which will simplify things. I have a third small duffel that contains clothing for the trip home. It will stay in my car.
The Day One shuttle from Jackson to Natchez involves putting our bikes on the roof of the van and putting our luggage in a trailer. The other day, one of the trip leaders said we should bring a small backpack for this two-hour drive and for riding around Natchez. Um, what happened to the two-bag rule? Yeah, well..
I am not bringing a back pack. My handlebar bag, cane, water bottle and helmet won’t fit so I’ll likely use a tall kitchen garbage bag instead.
After re-jiggering my baggage, I put everything but my off-bike bag in the car and attached the trunk rack. In the morning I’ll put my small toiletry and medicine bags in the remaining duffel, drop the Mule on the rack, and take off for points south. The drive will take 15 hours so I am planning on staying in Chattanooga (9 hours away) or Birmingham, 11 hours away. I gain an hour on the way so I can easily make Jackson on Sunday in time for check in.
As for weather conditions for the ride, it looks like we are in luck. There is likely to be some flooding of the Mississippi when we get to Natchez but the tour heads northeast, away from the river. Prevailing winds will be out of the south for five of the seven days including the two hardest days at the end of the ride. No rain is forecast for the entire week. We will deal with cold temperatures (40s) on our first couple of days of riding, after that temperatures will rise from mid-50s to mid-80s. That’s about as good as it gets!
Truman by David McCullough. I had been reluctant to tackle this nearly 1,000-page biography only because of its enormity. I am a huge fan of McCullough both on the written page and from his work on PBS. (He narrated The American Experience and Ken Burns’s The Civil War.) This book took him ten years to write and it is a masterpiece. I’m sorry I waited so long to read it. Sadly, there remain only two McCullough books left for me to read.
The Greater Journey – Americans in Paris by David McCullough. So, I read one of them. This book chronicles the artistic, scientific, and diplomatic lives of Americans who lived in Paris in the nineteenth century. It bogs down in places as the author describes paintings and aspects of sculpture for pages on end. Still, I learned a lot about how art is made. The cast of characters is a who’s who of America. Mary Cassatt, John Singer Sargent, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, and dozens more. Not McCullough’s best but well worth the time.
Watching
While Democracy Turns – My wife and I have been watching the coverage of national politics on The Rachel Maddow Show, The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell, and The Daily Show. It seems amazing that we are only a couple of months into the madness of King Donald.
Daredevil – Born Again – For those of you (like me) who have felt that Marvel Studios has jumped the shark, think again. DBA is absolutely terrific. There are reports that the lead actors and at least one supporting actor insisted that scripts be re-written. The producers, to their credit, listened and the result makes for intense viewing. Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock/Daredevil and Vincent D’Onofrio as Wilson Fisk/The Kingpin are back. Oddly, most of the plot takes place in courtrooms and offices. Fight scenes are intense but brief and very violent. And each episode has a shocker in it that makes you want to watch the next one.
Tour Aotearoa – Mat Ryder and his trusty American sidekick John rode Aotearoa (New Zealand) from top to bottom in about a month and a half. Check it out.
Baseball – The Washington Nationals are back on the field to try to regain the glory of the 2010s. I’ve watched their first three games and let’s just say glory will be a couple of years in the future.
Riding
Most of the month I have been consumed with pre-tour anxiety. Is my 69 1/2-year-old body up to the task for riding nearly 500 miles in a week? Time will tell. Pray for tailwinds.
I rode 987 miles this month. I included seven long and long-ish rides (77, 63, 54, 53, 53, 50, and 44 miles), many of which were deliberately hilly affairs. The second 53-miler was today’s ride to take in the cherry blossoms in the Kenwood neighborhood of Bethesda. The ride back into a stiff headwind put the hurt on me. I only rode 36 miles indoors so I think it’s time for Big Nellie to come out of the basement. I am on track for 9,892 miles for the year.
My plan was to do another monster ride this week in preparation for the tour but I decided that would be unpleasant and unnecessary. I did manage to fit in a 44 miler and a 53 miler. The former was mostly on level ground against a howling wind. What’s with the winds these days? Winds are as good as hills in my book so no worries. I do hope that I don’t end up spending a week crawling into a headwind. I survived the Wind River Basin in 2022 but I was gassed when I rolled into Dubois, Wyoming at the end of an 80- or 90-mile crawl.
The 53 miler was a hilly ride to the impossibly lovely town of Clifton, Virginia. The whole affair included something like 1,900 feet of climbing. I rode there then had a light lunch. I decided to take a hillier route back and it worked out just fine. Yesterday I rode to Friday Coffee Club with a light tailwind. Despite being half asleep I rode like a beast. Afterwards I took a side trip to take in some of DC’s famous cherry blossoms. It ended up being an easy 34 miles. Today, with temperatures pushing into the 70s and light winds I rode another effortless 34 miles. I could have gone much farther but I came home to watch the baseball game.
Last summer my leg strength seemed to dissipate after only a few miles. I felt anemic for the rest of the day. It made for a miserable bike tour. It felt like I had aged a decade over the previous year. Somehow over the last couple of weeks, my legs have sprung back to life. It’s very encouraging.
There are several factors that seem to be helping. First, I mostly am riding in shorts. Riding (or running) in long pants has always seemed to be a struggle. Second, I am drinking much more water. When I cover my mouth with a neck gaiter or buff, I tend to drink much less while riding. Third, I have finally found a combination of exercises and a seat position that have eliminated my neck and upper back pain. Fourth, warm weather just floats my boat.
I have only six more riding days before I pack up the car and head south. I think I’ll take another trip to see some blossoms, but otherwise it’s time to taper. Next Saturday I begin the two-day drive to Jackson, Mississippi. The day after that, the 7th, there’s a day riding in a van to Natchez followed by a 12-mile bike ride to see the sights. That’s effectively three days off. I should be ready to rumble when I head north from Natchez on the 8th of April.
My preparation for the Natchez Trace bike tour continues. On Friday I intended to ride to Friday Coffee Club. I stepped outside and was greeted by a temperature of 40 degrees and gale-force headwinds with brutal gusts. The couch grabbed me with its tractor beam and I was back to sleep in seconds.
After my slumber, I pulled out my daughter’s freestanding tent to make sure I knew how to set it up. Most tents work more or less the same way so hers went up in only a few minutes. I discovered two interesting things about it. First, it is HUGE. It’s at least two and half times the size of my lightweight backpacking tent. Second, it is a side-entry tent. This means I don’t have to do the camping equivalent of a kick turn every time I leave the tent. Yay! I might even have room to do my back exercises.
It’s not a tent; it’s a condo!
I pulled out my sleeping pad and used the air sack to inflate it. I also have a little electrical inflator that I can use if I want to wait a few minutes. The batteries were still good but I dug out some spares just in case. I tossed the pad in to the tent and put my sleeping bag and new, bigger pillow in, too. Then I tested it out. Tres luxe, cherie!
Later I managed to go for a 35-mile ride on The Mule. It was considerably warmer but the winds persisted. I was pleasantly surprised by how easy it went. I could have gone much further.
Before the ride, I addressed a couple of problems with the CrossCheck. When I put the bike away after Thursday’s 50-miler I noticed that the back wheel had locked up. Hmm. On close inspection I found that a tensioning spring that holds the brake pad away from the rim had come loose. (I think this happened when I put the bike down from the car rack when I got home Thursday evening.) I compared the spring on the bad side to the one on the opposite side and reseated it. Problem solved. Or so I thought. I also repositioned my bell which had been moved during repairs. (NBD.)
Yesterday I went for a relaxing ride on the CrossCheck. Once again I dealt with howling winds. (It isn’t my imagination; this spring has been much windier than normal.) I made it about 15 miles before using a bathroom. I took the bike inside and, upon leaving, turned it around and dropped it. Once again the brake spring came unseated. Hmm.
I tried to get the spring to re-seat but it kept coming loose. The spring is mounted on a post welded to the frame. There is a screw that goes through end of the post to keep the spring in place. I noticed that the screw had come loose. Ah hah! I reseated the spring then used my multitool, I tightened the screw, locking the spring in place. Success! (Multitools are designed to save space and weight, not for ease of use. This simple repair took 10 or 15 minutes as I turned the screw one quarter turn at a time. With a proper Allen key, it would have take two minutes, tops. The time is not a big deal unless you are trying to do a repair in the rain on the side of a road. Note to self: bring some proper Allen keys for the tour.)
Repair completed.
The rest of the ride involved going into DC, around the Tidal Basin (where thousands of tourists were wandering around looking at the not-yet-in-bloom cherry trees) and up the Metropolitan Branch Trail. I found a bench in the sun and took a load off, eating some Belvitas while checking my phone.
An informational display on the National Mall
After my snack I headed back home. The wind and the gusts were quite intense especially the crosswind on the 14th Street Bridge across the Potomac. (I think I can. I think I can. Made it!) Once on the Virginia side, I had a nice tailwind for the last 13 miles home. I had taken my time but covered 44 miles with ease. Once again I had all kinds of gas left in my tank.
Last night I checked the guide that Adventure Cycling sends to its bike tourists. The guide says that in the month before you start the tour you should work your way up to rides of 50 to 70 miles, seeking out the kind of terrain you will encounter on the tour. That’s exactly what I have done.
When riding around home, I see things I see every day. Six or seven hours of this is really tedious. On a tour, six or seven hours riding in places I’ve never seen before is invigorating. At 12 miles per hour, riding across North Dakota is actually pretty interesting. (Not that I’d want to do again.)
The weather looks pretty good for the next ten days so I’ll probably get one more long ride in.
On Thursday baseball starts and reading season comes to an end. The Nationals will be lucky to finish in third place so I’m keeping a lid on my expectations.
Well, spring is here. We’re actually getting a few warm days. They happen to feature strong winds but that’s not the best part; tree pollen is through the roof. If you live in the DC area, you do not suffer alone. If they put a tariff on antihistamines, there will be a revolution. (Admittedly, it is hard to stage a credible revolt when the rebels have puffy eyes and are coughing and sneezing incessantly, but you get my point.) I started taking 24-hour antihistamines a few days ago and added Flonase today. My eyes are still itchy but I can function okay.
The winter medical merri-go-round continues. I’ve seen both my eye doctor (routine visit) and my hand surgeon (all’s good with the carpal tunnel recovery). On Sunday I received a covid booster shot. Coming up, my spring dental visit. Then I’m off the carousel.
Between the pollen and the booster, I woke up on Monday feeling pretty dreadful. I managed a 30-mile ride. Barely. On Tuesday, with warm weather, I planned a 70+ mile ride. I knew within 10 miles that my body was having nothing to do with such foolishness. Riding a big counterclockwise loop around DC, mostly on bike trails, I managed to eek out 63 miles. The last 10 I was on fumes despite actually bringing a decent amount of food and water.
Yesterday, I picked up the Tank at Bikes at Vienna and headed out the Washington and Old Dominion Trail. My intent was to ride all the way to the western terminus of the W&OD in Purcellville, Virginia. The round trip would have been 69 miles. Along the way I would stop at a barbecue place for an energy boost. Well, I got a late start leaving the house then chatted with Tim and Beth (Hey, this ICE trike would be just perfect for you!) for close to an hour. After consulting with Beth, who told me the barbecue place was about 25 miles away, I changed my plan and headed out for a late lunch.
Beth was only off my ten miles. I came upon the Carolina Brothers Barbecue place at 16 miles. Still wanting to cover 50 miles, I rode another nine miles before stopping for some Belvitas and a view of the countryside. I knew that my fantastically energetic ride was not caused by Beth’s tune up or my fabulous fitness. I had been coasting on a strong tailwind which, of course, became a headwind beatdown for the second half of the ride. At 34 miles I stopped at the barbecue place and ate entirely too much. The rest of the way I felt like my stomach was a bowling ball. Panting and wheezing, I struggled against the wind all the way back to Vienna.
Nice view at the turnaround point
I expected today’s recovery ride to be a 30-mile slog but it turned out to be a piece of cake. I suspect the booster’s side effects are behind me. Adding Flonase helped too. I ended up riding 35 miles and had all kinds of energy left when I arrived back home.
After the ride, I received a couple of e-mails from the tour leaders. In one I was advised that I’d need a headlight and a red blinkie taillight. I have a handlebar bag so I normally put my headlight on my helmet. That’s not going to work for my neck for six or more hours a day so I tried mounting it on my front rack. I’ll test it on the way to Friday Coffee Club. I have two blinkies. One is a big red disk that hangs from my saddle bag. I got it for free years ago. It stopped working so today I opened it up and replaced the batteries. Alas, the patient is kaput and I am out $16 for the odd-sized batteries.
In the second email we were advised not to ride “heavy touring bikes” and to use lightweight road bikes instead because the last two days will be long and hilly. Why on earth would you not use a touring bike for a bike tour? You would think they’d tell us this before we signed up for the tour. Which begs the issue, is this a tour or a roadie event? Grumble, grumble.
As for the “heavy” remark, The Mule is offended. My faithful steed has crossed dozens of nasty hills (Hoosier Pass, Monarch Pass, and Hardscrabble Mountain in Colorado, Cedar Breaks in Utah, Carson Pass in California, Rogers Pass in Montana, Middlebury Gap in Vermont, and the Kancamagus Pass in New Hamsphire, to name but a few). There may be some walking now and then but as Steven Wright says, “Anything is walking distance if you have the time.” So to the tour leader I say, “Leave the light on for me.”
A Few Spokes Shy of a Wheel 