Flat and Fast

Day 2    Ridgeland to French Camp, MS       84 miles

The sightseeing highlight of the day was Cypress Swamp. We all spent our time there swatting mosquitos!

Five of us got going at 8:45, about 20 minutes after the rest of them. It was a nice sunny Sunday morning, with only a slight wind. Within one mile, we were back on the Parkway at Mile 100.

The other scenery highlight of the day was this lake – the Ross Burnett Reservoir. Bob Long and Thurman are rolling along in this photo. The lake was huge, and it paralleled the Parkway for eight miles.

The final two riders to leave the hotel were Paul, the tour leader, and Nate, the 22-yr-old mechanic who also is a Category 1 racer. They have the ability to leave way after any of us and still catch us within not too many miles. Well, in this photo, they have caught us. You also can see that the Parkway itself hasn’t changed a bit. Except for a few more cars due its being a weekend, it’s like a bike path for us.

We five riders finally caught up to the original group, and here we all are other than a couple who deliberately dropped off early to take photos. Can you see our tandem couple? Yesterday was the first time either of them had ridden 100 miles.

We all arrived at Cypress Swamp at Mile 122. Isn’t it cool to see the reflections, and all those cypress trunks coming right out of the water? The sign said if you took the self-guided trail, you might see an alligator or two. None of us, in our cycling shoes, took the hike.

The Chief and me. Everyone loves our leader, Paul Wood. He and his staff know how to take care of us in style. Everyone on this tour has ridden with him before, which made us all want to do another.

Here is our first rest stop another couple miles up the road. Stopping at the swamp was a rest, yes, but it wasn’t an official rest stop for us because we didn’t have our layout of foods, treats, and water refills. It was at River Bend, which was on the Pearl River. Sunday boaters went by frequently, making their 90-degree turns right in front of us.

I’ve mentioned how well we are treated. Well, at this rest stop, THEY put the peanut butter on the apple slices for us, THEY put the Nutella on the cookies for us, and so on. YUM.

The Parkway today was flat. Our total “up” for 84 miles was only 800 feet. It can’t get any flatter. Plus, we had a tailwind, so today was FAST. My average speed was in the high 17s. The scenery was nice and green, lots of trees, Ross Barnett Reservoir, and more swamp land. So, I didn’t take any more photos until…

Lunch! With the food Rod and Lisa prepare, we absolutely look forward to lunch. As you can see, it was a nice shady oasis, at Mile 154. The chairs were all in a circle waiting for us. They made vichyssoise soup, cut up a fresh pineapple, and cut a watermelon which they then served to us without us having to budge from our chairs!

We happened to have cell phone service, so I had a nice long conversation with Janet to get all caught up!

It was kind of tough getting on the bike again after lunch. I had been there for a LONG time. I settled into a rhythm with Bob Long, and we rode together for quite a while. This picture shows him headed under one of the bridges over the Parkway.

We had only 28 miles after the lunch to our destination, and it was still flat, so it went by relatively quickly. Along the way, I let Bob go on so that I could go see:

A section of the Old Trace. This is a funny story: When I saw this sign, I assumed you had to walk somewhere to go see the original Trace. So, off I walked into the brush, with all its mosquitos and mushy ground. I didn’t see a trail, but I just kept going thinking I would “get there”. I finally gave up and went on back, with several bites to scratch all evening. When I got back to my bike, I realized the original Trace was just right there, paralleling the Parkway. See in the photo, how there is a wide flat section that looks mowed? So, the arrow pointing to right could have said “15 feet from here”.

I continued on alone, and took this picture of the first cemetery I’ve seen on this ride. Usually, on my rides in Ohio, I pass cemeteries all the time. This was next to the Berea Baptist Church, only a few miles from French Camp.

At Mile 181, at exactly 3:00 pm, I got to French Camp. The church bells played Barcarolle to welcome me. It is a small village, dominated by the French Camp Academy (begun 1870), which also runs the B&B we are staying in. It is all a National Historic Place.

This old cabin, moved to this site from nearby, is where two of our group are staying. Other couples are in other cabins, while seven of us are about a mile away in a lodge. This academy is a non-denominational Christian school for pre-12th grade, with 190 kids actually boarding here.

We walked or got a ride in the car back down to the old-cabins area where we had a great dinner. They served all of us a southern classic: fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, salad, and apple pie ala mode.

We walked on back, through the campus, to our lodge where I’m now composing this in a Word document. These dorm rooms have no Internet, no TV, no clock, no phone, and no radio. So, I could not do my blog tonight, Instead, tomorrow morning while waiting between breakfast and departing, I hope to transfer this pre-written text onto my blog and publish it before taking off (they DO have Internet back where we ate dinner tonight, and where we’ll be for breakfast).