Day 44: Wiggins, Mississippi to Pascagoula, Mississippi

Day 44: Wiggins, Mississippi to Pascagoula, Mississippi
Miles: 71.44 ------------ Total Mileage 2,517.67
Theme: THe Kindness of Strangers

We woke up this morning and the sky was blue and the temperature and humidity were down. If it thundered and rained last night - it missed us! Once again we skirted the weather issues and today it is perfectly lovely outside. We have been extremely fortunate on this trip!!!!!

And so we headed out down the road with light jackets on as it was a bit chilly but not bad at all. We had to ride about 7 miles on Hwy 49. It wasn't too busy but It probably helped that it was a Saturday morning. It is hard to keep track of the days - so normally I don't know whether it is a weekday or not. Usually someone in my riding party informs me of the important information that I might need. The things that are routine in my "normal life" (like which day of the week it is) have little importance out here - (other than if it relates to how much traffic we will be dealing with). Instead our routine is checking the tire pressure each morning, making sure your water bottles are full, getting the snacks you need for the day and making sure you have your route cue sheet. You quickly get back to basics when riding your bike across the country!

Once we got off Hwy 49 we spent the majority of the day riding on smooth road surfaces that were lined with pine trees. We would come along houses every now and then - some with large vegetable gardens already well established (can't wait to get ours in when I get home) or beautiful flower gardens. At other times we would come across fields that had horses grazing in them or long horn cattle. Kathie noted that we have seen much less trash on the sides of the roads in Mississippi. I have to say Mississippi has been beautiful - and having virtually no humidity made it that much better!

The ride today was pretty stress free other than a dog or two. I had to totally stop my bike at one point as a small dog (some might refer to it as an overgrown rat - but certainly I would not!) would not stop chasing us. Doesn't matter the size of the dog - they can make you go over - or even worse go out into oncoming traffic. Fortunately the roads were so quiet and nice today that I just stopped, yelled at the dog to go home and no further actions were needed.

At the first sag stop we learned that Victoria had a broken seat post early in the day. Unfortunately she fell as a result and had a few scraps -- but from what I hear she is doing fine. She got the seat post fixed and didn't miss an inch of the ride! Later in the day she had a flat tire. I tell you, if it's not one thing, it's another.

Because of these incidents, the line of riders got pretty stretched out today. We were suppose to see the sag around mile 38 or 39 but Marge was still helping others when we got to that point. We met up with Young Pup at Joe Batt Rd (the designated sag spot) and talked about what to do. There was a couple across the road who were fixing their fence so I went up to them and asked if they had a hose that we could use to fill up our water bottles. They were more than happy to help out. Taylor and Georgia (I believe that was their names) drove their ATV type cart up to the house and we followed on our bikes. There was a beautiful Red Headed Woodpecker in the yard.

Taylor and Georgia were fascinated by our ride. They wanted my blog address so I gave them it (I hope I gave them the right address!) And yes - you guessed it, I of course had to take their picture! We filled up our water bottles, thanked them, called Marge (the sag driver for the first half of the day) to let her know that we were headed down the road and we had all we needed. Again it is the generosity of strangers that makes one renew their faith in people. Too often we just hear all the negative things on the evening news, but all across our route I have been amazed and impressed with the generosity of complete strangers - whether it is offering us cold water, giving us directions, giving us a chair to sit on out of the sun, or simply staying back and giving us space to ride our bikes safely. I am grateful for those we have had the privilege of meeting on this journey.

And so we rode on once again. Kathie, Tex and I took a slight detour (on purpose no less) to see the Mississippi Sandhill Crane National Wildlife Refuge. The Sandhill Cranes are currently on their way back north so we didn't expect to see any but I was interested in seeing the Visitor Center anyway. (I still have to go the International Crane Foundation in Wisconsin --- so this will spur me on!). Doug was the ranger there and gave us all sorts of information. I think that this time of year not too many people stop off at the Visitor Center. He was happy to have an audience to talk to!

We got back on our bikes and rode the last 10 miles or so to our hotel. We crossed two bridges - one quite high. There was a large shipping port off to the left. We rode just over 70 miles today and were in by about 1:00. I wasn't hungry as I had plenty of snacks and a PB & J on the road. So I kicked back in the hotel room, took a shower, called home (where it is snowing!), with Eva's helped printed up my shipping label for when I have to ship my bike home, and worked on my blog. Tex, Kathie, Young Pup, Dianne and Linda went to lunch. They brought me a treat back -- deep fried pickle chips. Now that is a first for me! Can't say I have to have them again, but it was sweet (or maybe a should say salty) of them! Another great day riding - we only have 10 actually riding days left - so we are all trying to enjoy them to the max!

PS: One thing I forgot to mention is that as we were riding today, a truck came up to us and shouted to Tex, "Do you know where a gas station is?" It struck us all as very funny -- to ask someone on a bike where a gas station is. Later on thinking about it, it made sense. Most normal people would be riding in places they knew (like a ride near that home...), not riding across the country! Duh!!!!