The Brothers’ Bike Ride

We left the motel in short sleeve shirts, that’s how warm it was at 8am. And it got warmer as the day went on. By the end of the day, temps were in the 80’s. We finally got a huge influx of vitamin D and all of us got a little sunburn. It feels good after the winter we’ve been having back home. Speaking of which, I do feel bad Marcia’s been dealing with alot of winter wheather while I’ve been away. And there is more on the way, we hear.

We crossed the border into Mississippi and were surprized by no shoulders on main roads. Shifted back to Adventure Cycling maps after about four miles. It would have been impossible to stay on Rt. 26 with no shoulder, rumble strips on the white line and logging trucks every few minutes. One good thing about loaded logging trucks passing is you get a wiff of Christmas every time they pass you in the same direction.

Our accomodations were a couple of cabins at the edge of some woods, a little miles north of Poplarville, MS. Mark cooked a great pasta dinner following directions/recipe provided by Holly. Our entertainment was a herd of cows that were being herded by a four wheel ATV. Two of them kept inching their way over to the porch of our cabin to check us out. They stared at us, moved a few steps closer, stared some more, moved a few steps closer and stared some more. After about twenty minutes, they lost interest and moved on. If they had come all the way up to the fence, which was only 15 feet from the porch we were sitting on, today’s blogs would be filled with a couple of cow snouts. You’ll just have to use your imagination.

My biggest surprize concerning Mississippi, it is HILLY. Totally unexpected after flat east Texas and flat Louisiana. Whenever I have to spell Mississippi, I remember taking the kids on the ferry back from lower Manhatten to Staten Island. We were surrounded by standing businessmen totally engrossed in reading their Wall Street Journals. Mike was maybe 6 years old and he kept spelling M-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-PP to Mary and saying “Get it Mary, PP, get it Mary”. It was hilarious with all these businessmen seemingly oblivious to these little kids yucking it up with potty humor. I guess you had to be there.