It can't be fun all the time - Impromptour - CycleBlaze

October 16, 2018

It can't be fun all the time

Day Six: Belmont, MS to Houston, MS

Up before 5:00, I alternated between watching the weather forecast on the television and wandering around the hotel's large lobby and dining room. There were no other guests in the place, and as I examined a few of the other unlocked rooms, I realized I'd been given the smallest, least attractive of them. I was probably given the small room because of the low lodging standards touring cyclists are presumed to have. Not a big deal, but slightly annoying.

Each time the weather report came on, I was hoping for a miraculous reversal of the predicted all-day rain, but that never happened. A sensible person would have taken a day off in Belmont to wait for the rain to pass, and perhaps spent some time attempting to discover some charming aspects of the town. I was not that sensible person, though, and eventually rode out into a cloudy but (initially) dry morning.

Earlier I'd contemplated a complete change of direction in order to escape the predicted rain - Birmingham, Alabama? Head toward Arkansas? Start riding home? - but the weather map on the television was a solid mass of green everywhere, so I decided that I might as well keep going south.

After the dog encounters yesterday, I decided to wimp out and just get on the Natchez Trace again. A lazy, unadventurous plan, but I didn't want to simultaneously deal with near-feral dogs, rain, and the necessity to improvise a route on my phone during the ride today.

I took a different, much nicer route back to the Trace. After a ride through town and a short climb, I rode about four miles on a ridge that had been clear-cut sometime in the past, and was now covered exclusively with four-foot tall pine trees. Very ugly, but easy riding with not a single falling-down house or yard from which multiple dogs would escape to chase me.

Downtown Belmont
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As I turned onto the Natchez Trace, it started to sprinkle, then it started to rain, and it didn't stop for a single minute the rest of the day.

For the next hours I just ground out the miles. Traffic and rain got heavier as I approached Tupelo. I stopped at the Parkway Headquarters and Visitor Center, and talked to the employees there for a while. A northbound touring motorcyclist in full, heavy rain gear walked in, looking as unhappy I felt about the cold rain. 

A sensible person would have stopped for the day in Tupelo. I was not that sensible person, however, and continued on toward the town of Houston on the Trace. The multiple warnings I'd received about heavy traffic in and around Tupelo proved unfortunately accurate. As the mile markers slowly counted down, I'd think "Surely traffic will start thinning out *now*", but it never really did. It's obvious that the section of the Trace between Houston and Tupelo is a major commuting route, and not primarily a recreational route.

The rain was at its hardest and chilliest about four miles from where I planned to exit the Trace and turn toward Houston. I turned off and went into one of the rare restrooms on the trace, and was extremely happy to find a hot air hand dryer there, which I used to warm up for about half an hour.

Rain continued as I exited the Trace, rode three miles to Houston (population 3,623), and checked into what was, many years ago, a Holiday Inn, but was now the crappy "Holiday Terrace". I've stayed in many cheap motels in the last decade-plus of bike touring, and this apparently recently remodeled room is one of the memorable ones. Virtually everything was crooked, the paint and mismatched furniture was incredibly garish, and for some mysterious reason the toilet was mounted at an unusual angle only a couple of inches from the shower.

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Still, the room was clean-ish, the shower was hot, and the motel was immediately adjacent to a Chinese buffet.

I felt homesick, called Joy, looked into the possibility of renting a small U-Haul truck to go home tomorrow, but ultimately decided to wait until morning to see what the weather was like.

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Today's ride: 76 miles (122 km)
Total: 441 miles (710 km)

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