Day 9 - April 20 - Kosciusko, MS to Mathiston, MS - Crossing the T.....Part One

April 20, 2024

Day 9 - April 20 - Kosciusko, MS to Mathiston, MS

The Waiting Game

Ed’s Story

The subtitle is our interaction with any rain we may have. Yesterday when we stopped it was to be raining when we awoke and rain all day. Now the start of the rain is pushed out later at each town we go through; as such the waiting game.

I started the journal early as we sit around the room waiting for the restaurant to open. All we need to do after we eat is load the bikes and go.

Well we waited for the restaurant but it never opened….until we were riding away after an in-room breakfast.

Todays ride was much different from the others. It was cooler with temperatures in the low 60s and a northeast wind. We finally got the headwind we knew we were expecting. We also dressed differently….tights, wool base layer, outer shirt or jacket. Right now it looks like it will be at least this cool tomorrow morning.

One good thing is that there was no rain. There was also much less traffic on the Trace today. Guess folks don’t travel as much on weekends.

Our first stop of the day. The original store was the only game in town for a while.

As soon as we walked in, I immediately thanked them for having the heat on. I had a coffee with a white chocolate raspberry scone. It was very good.

As far as waiting, we also waited for the wind to go away. It never did, but it did slow down. The trees also provided some relief from the wind.

This probably would have been a great place to camp if our itinerary had been different. As it was, we never got past the “you are here.”

This rest stop was almost 13 miles from French Camp and brought some relief from the wind.

We have seen references to the “Old Trace” since we got on the Trace in Jackson.

We finally made it to Mathiston where we are staying at the Mathiston Motel. The owner is an older Indian gentleman who has run the motel for 40 years. He said they used to be really busy, but it has died down a lot. We are the only guests. When I talked to him yesterday, he said to give him plenty of notice because he had a limited number of rooms. Maybe he meant a limited number of rooms ready for people to sleep in.

It is the only hotel in town and I’m sure it saw better days back when traffic was slower and US 82 just a 2-lane road.

The important fact is that we are out of the impending rain.

Snug as a bug in a rug….yes, John checked for bugs.

Todays ride:

Tomorrows ride is 57 miles to our brother David’s house in Tupelo. With luck we will be on the road before 8:30 AM.

Until tomorrow, happy biking!

John’s Story

The beheaded corpse of my Wahoo Elemnt Roam GPS.

I’m taking the deceased home with me, and will at some point attempt the microsurgery to restore it. Most likely my surgery will not be successful. That’s OK. I’ll have the new one I’ll pick up in Tupelo on Monday. Carol, I’ll bring home the label from the box and you can give it to me for my birthday. (If we stick to our itinerary I’ll get home to Oklahoma City the day before my 71st birthday.)

Without a working bike computer, I tracked my ride today using the Ride With GPS app on my phone. It worked great, drawing my phone battery down far less than I would have thought, from 100% to 65% over the ride. The trouble is that the phone was in my handlebar bag, not where I could see it. The only way I could tell where we were or how far we’d gone was to stop, take the phone out of the bag, and look. I actually lived without a dedicated bike computer for 7 months after my last Garmin died and before I bought the Wahoo, using the Ride With GPS app on the phone, but it was all local riding. I always knew where I was and generally how far I had ridden after almost 20 years of riding the same roads around Oklahoma City. It’s different when you’re in an unfamiliar area, although I could have handled today’s ride without a map. Get on Natchez Trace at Kosciusko, ride 45-46 miles, get off Natchez Trace at Mathiston.

As Ed has already said, the promised rain did not make an appearance during our ride today; however, there has been a big change in the weather. Temperatures are about 20 degrees lower than they have been. We should see a couple mornings in the low 40s by the time we leave Tupelo on Tuesday.

The Trace was more of the same today. Mostly hemmed in on both sides by thick woods, with the occasional meadow to break it up a bit. There were a few scenic spots.

Did Abraham Lincoln live here at one time? That’s a mighty fine split rail fence.

Occasionally the understory beneath the big pines receded and left them outstanding in their fields.

Definitely one of my mottos. I’ve told my wife many times that not knowing where you are and being lost are two totally different things.

Most of the flowers I saw today were again the same ones I’ve been seeing for days. There were a few exceptions.

These yellow flowers were in only one spot along the road today.

Even without blooms I know what this is. Wild violet, aka common blue violet (an oxymoron?) I have a flowerbed at home so infested (a harsh word for a wildflower) with wild violets that it has become the de facto ground cover, and I have come to depend on it to flourish.

No blooms on this one yet, but very distinctive leaves. I’ll bet Bill can identify it. It was the only plant of its kind I saw.

Ed is being generous when he says the motel we’re in tonight has seen better days. It practically looks abandoned from the road. The walls of the room have multiple poorly repaired holes. The bed sheets have been worn to a state of translucence. The lower sheet is not fitted. I’m thinking (and hoping) that the stains on the sheets are rust. The drawers in the little dresser by the bed don’t close properly. There’s one single bulb light fixture in the ceiling. The bathtub is stained and the caulk around the tub moldy. The water from the sink tap is non-potable. The hotel owner gave us water bottles when we checked in. The water pressure is minimal. It took running the water forever to get anything warm. Ed took a cold shower because he didn’t have the patience to wait it out. It’s an extra $10 if you want to use the TV. There’s no phone. All in all, not an ideal home away from home. The most you can say is that it’s a roof over our heads. If you were to name the hotel after one of the seven dwarves, I don’t know if it would be Seedy, Dumpy, Moldy, Dirty, Gritty, Oldie or Worn.

We’re in Mississippi, so the liquor laws make my head hurt. The town of Mathiston is in Webster and Choctaw Counties. Just a couple miles up the road from Mathiston is Maben. Maben is in Webster and Oktibbeha Counties. All three counties are dry counties, yet there is a package liquor store in Maben just 200’ past the county line in Oktibbeha County. How does this make sense? It’s apparently legal to possess and consume alcohol anywhere in Mississippi if you’re 21 or older. You just can’t buy it in some places. How does this make sense? Anyway, the gist of the story can be summed up in a short poem: “No beer near here”.

The Waiting Game is over. The rain finally started pounding down at about 4 pm, and it’s going to last for hours. We togged up in our rain gear and walked the 1/4 mile or so to the Trace Way Restaurant. We decided it was safer to walk in the heavy rain and fading light rather than ride, considering US82 here has no shoulder and lots of traffic. I had some of the best catfish I’ve eaten in a very long time.

Stepping out the door to head to the restaurant.

We’re back in the room and the place is decorated with dripping gear. Hopefully it will be dry tomorrow morning. But what does it matter if it’s still raining?

Today's ride: 47 miles (76 km)
Total: 477 miles (768 km)

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Dorothy ShinstockSounds like a "Bucket List" motel
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