October 3, 2022
Day 12 - Belmont, MS (Sparks B&B) to Collinwood, TN (Fire Dept Bldg)
Hello Alabama; Goodbye Alabama
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Statistics, Useful & Otherwise;
Elevation Gained Today; 2,783 ft Cumulative; 19,692 ft
Roadkill Seen Today; Possum(1), Coyote(1)
Cumulative; Hawk (2), Raccoon(2), Possum (7), mouse (1), Squirrel (2), Armadillo (1), bird (1), Coyote (1), unknown (2)
Found Money Today; $0.01 Cumulative; $0.30
Lodging Cost Today; $0 Cumulative; $915.83
Bad Drivers Today; 0 Cumulative; 8
Dog Chases Today; 4 Cumulative; 6
Average Speed Today; 9.5 mph Cumulative; 10.29 mph
Summary of Today's Ride; A great ride even with some dog chases and headwind.
Today I rode in Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee. Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee; am I riding a bicycle or a rocket? Okay, there was only a little of Mississippi as I left the state, the bulk of today was spent traversing the northwest corner of Alabama, and the day finished in Tennessee. So that's how I rolled today. We'll get to the exhausting details later, but since this is the only entry in the Alabama section of this journal, first let's have a historical note about Alabama's role as a Confederate state in the Civil War.
The secession convention was held in Montgomery, which makes it the birthplace of the Confederacy. Other slave-holding states were invited to form a Southern Republic with Alabama, and 7 of the southern cotton states initially did so. The details can be found here; Alabama in the Civil War. A more general discussion of the Confederate states can be found here; Confederate States. Alabama is as central to the confederacy as a state can get, so today I rolled through Johnny Reb country. But let's start from the beginning so I don't get more confused than I already am.
I was at Spark's Diner in Belmont, Mississippi at 05:00 this morning, and there was already a half-dozen local guys having coffee waiting on the diner to start serving. They sat at a table labeled the "Smart Table" and they discussed all the local politics and weather and such. I've seen this play out all across the country now - if you want to know what's going on in a small town, find the local diner and be there when they open. I had a great breakfast with pancakes, sausage, and eggs, and enjoyed the "Smart Table" conversation. They asked me about my bicycle journey of course, and the usual question about "aren't you afraid to ride a bicycle so far?" At some point I told them I didn't feel qualified to sit at the "Smart Table" and they laughed. Anxious to roll on, I was on the road before 06:00.
From Belmont I followed a bicycle detour route that had been developed by the Natchez Trace Travel website. It was a great route, kept me off the busy roads and on low-traffic roads. I knew it would be too dark for me to read the cue sheet, so I used the Ride With GPS app and placed my phone in the handlebar bag and I could hear it speak the turn directions to me. So I rode on in the dark on strange roads and turned left or right as the app commanded until it became light enough to see and I shut down the app. It's a bit eerie traveling in pitch black conditions with just the bicycle headlight and making frequent turns on county roads as the computer commands - but it worked out fine.
I had several dog chases today, probably 8 or so. I had been warned to expect dogs on this detour route, so it wasn't a surprise. Most of the time it was just a dog or 2 defending their home territory and not really being a threat. But there were 4 instances when the dogs were more aggressive and I logged those in the "Dog Chases" statistic. None of those was an actual endangerment, just a hassle to deal with.
Rural Mississippi is a lot like rural Arkansas - many homes have abandoned vehicles in their yard or fields. Surely there must be some salvage value for the metal that would make it worth hauling them off. This truck was interesting; it was completely surrounded by trees, so first you need a lumberjack to make way for a mechanic to get this oldie running again.
I entered Mississippi on Day 4 and I'm leaving on Day 12, so it took 8+ days for me to get through it. That's longer than it takes me to cross most states.
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The photo above is somewhat deceptive. There was no "Welcome to Alabama" sign on the county roads I was riding when I entered the state, so I took this photo when I was leaving the state on the Natchez Trace - I turned around as it were so I could snap it. I'm just being honest - I really did go through Alabama, but the photo above is not where I entered the state. Come on now, there was no Louisiana sign photo op, and the "Welcome to Mississippi" sign was missing from it's posts, so I needed to at least get an Alabama state line photo.
Still on the detour on back roads, I can attest that there are some hills in northwest Alabama. You notice those things more when you have to labor to get up them.
Although I was only in Alabama for a short while, I very much enjoyed the riding. The low-traffic back roads were great.
The bike detour route took me through Cherokee, Alabama and I had researched in advance so I knew where a cafe was located. I had a piece of pecan pie while they made me a hamburger to go for my picnic lunch down the road.
Leaving the Cherokee area I came upon a lot of earth scrapers setting idle in a field. There were 30+ of them, and these are expensive machines - millions of dollars of equipment was just sitting there idly. Inquisitive minds want to know why, and I'd like to know too.
There were some large cotton fields outside of Cherokee. Here's a huge truckload of raw product ready to be shipped off and become cotton fabric.
I never picked cotton, but my mother picked cotton by hand while growing up near Beebe, Arkansas.
If you read yesterday's entry then you know I was concerned about getting across the Tennessee River before they shut it down for some road maintenance. So I was very happy to find the bridge open.
The Tennessee River is incredibly wide. At it's widest point it is 1.5 miles across.
The wildlife photos have been few on this trip. But here's a deer for you, rather curious about what I'm doing.
I've seen no other cycle tourists, except for my sister and brother-in-law who I knew were biking north to south on the Trace. So it was nice to run into John today.
John wasn't aware of the bicycle detour route for the road construction published by the Natchez Trace Travel folks. Since I had just finished it, I gave him my cue sheets - he can follow them backwards since he's going the other way. I hope they help, best of luck John.
I pushed hard and steady today. I wanted to get to Collinwood early as I could just in case there was any problem with me staying at the fire station - the door was supposed to be unlocked for me, but you never know. I was running low on energy when a perfect picnic spot showed up and I took a break and enjoyed the hamburger I had been carrying since Cherokee, Alabama.
I've been on tour for 12 days now. It usually takes a couple of weeks to get my sea legs and start feeling strong on the bike. I was feeling pretty good today, and rolling into Tennessee on schedule (with no bridge closure) was a big win for me.
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Despite my sense of urgency to make it to Collinwood, I still stop at every park display and exhibit. Here's what the Old Trace looked like in Tennessee.
Well, I'm pretty happy with my digs for the night. The Collinwood Volunteer Fire Department is better equipped than I expected.
They have a large room with a kitchen that appears to be used as sort of a community gathering center. I have my water bottles and some Gatorade chilling in the fridge tonight, and I used the microwave to cook a Hungry Man dinner I bought at the local Piggly Wiggly. I guess I've bought food in Piggly Wiggly stores 3 times now on this trip - those little stores are really pretty nice. There are some basic amenities missing in my fire house lodging tonight. Here's the room I will sleep in;
It's nice to have a real bed, but there's no pillow. I can handle that little issue. They have a shower and it was nice to clean up - I thought I might have to do with an alcohol wipe cleanup tonight - but there are no towels so I had to improvise there too. Hey, it isn't a hotel, and I'm staying inside tonight for free, so I'm a pretty happy camper. I'll sleep in my sleeping bag so I don't mess up their bedding. Hopefully there won't be any fires or EMT emergencies tonight that will have guys here disturbing my sleep. And, oh yeah - are you kidding me - there is wifi here too. So it's quite adequate for my needs.
Okay, got to prepare for tomorrow's very hard ride. Tomorrow is Day 8 of this 9-day run, and it's the hardest day by far. And it's an AirBnB and I'm always antsy about those (concerned about getting the entry code). So I got things to do.
I'm not far from Nashville. Good night friends and family...
Today's ride: 66 miles (106 km)
Total: 649 miles (1,044 km)
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