Oct 31 day whatever Even I am comfused now

We started moving early this morning to get David to the Airport for a flight home.  So that meant I got up early and had a McD breakfast and then down the road.  As we stopped north of Vicksburg Dave rode in the car to the start and then took the car to Memphis with Angle and Angle came back to get  dinner.  I will miss him we had a really good time together.

Above is a backwater of Mississippi
Andy and started off before 7:30 which is early for me but we made it as I had plenty of coffee in me.  We covered more than 70 miles stopping for a lunch at a waffle house.

Horseshoe lake
The scenery improved quite a bit today with some back water the Yazoo river and to make my life tough some hills The good news is once I had to wait for Andy but only once, (now that is unfair score keeping as I think he had to wait for me 6 or 7 times, but as with Wahoo and Hills one hill wipes out all Wahoo me waiting once whipps out all his waiting for me). This is as example of the power of the writer and him not editing me.

It looks like we finish in the next week and I still wondering what I will do after I get home.

Sorry I do have pictures just can't get them to load.

Thankful for Today
I really am thankful for the time Dave spent with me.  I wish he could have finished up with me but time just ran out. This ride would have been a lot harder without him and having him along and joking with daily made the days fly by.  So thanks Dave and thanks  Donna for sharing him with me for the last 6 weeks.

Love and kisses to all and to all a good night.
Allan and Andy and Angle

Oct 29 and Oct 30 Day 9 & 10 after DI

I am combining a couple days as things are busy and I am tired.

We reached Greenville last night and slept in a discount hotel which only cost $38 per night our cheapest spot ever.  We did enjoy the room without bugs or mice.  However the hot water only worked in the  bath tub and not in the sink.  The total distance we covered during the day was 74 miles which is why it is being posted here today.

Today Dave and I rode a total of 66 miles from Greenville to nowhere.  However with Andy joining us and Angle having a car we were picked up and are quite happy about that.  So tonight we are staying in a Super 8in Vickburgs. 

The views yesterday and today the view was all flatland and there are plenty of pictures pictures posted of cotton fields and plowed lands already posted.  Dave has not been really confortable with the locations for the last couple of nights.  First Dave is not happy about Clarksdales and was even less happy in parts of Greenville.  I now I was not happy with the drivers in the Greenville the traffic was high and people did not want to provide any space.  Dave has found that it was best to take a whole lane and hold up taffic than try to be polite and let them drivers crowd us.  One pickup truck passed us with a dog in the back and when that driver passed within 2 feets of us the dog barked right into my ear, I jumped right out of my skin.  A full size transport truck passed within an inches and sounded his horn that also caused me have clean some shorts later in the day.

Thankful for Day
I am most thankful for Andy and Angle giving up their time to come down and help me finish out the ride.  Andy is great company and Angle is driving support and that helps as we can stop anywhere and pickup the ride the next day.  So thanks for the support guys.

Love and kisses to all and good night to all.
Allan and Dave

Oct 28 Day 8 after Di

As there are no pictures from yesterday here are a couple today.
Dave still talks about the Kudsu so here is his picture of me coming up the final part of the trail.

Here is a picture of the Mississippi from the crossing yesterday into West Memphis

Here the actual view of the bridge from a Bike.

Enough stuff from yesterday. 

This morning I was really upset when my stocking tore apart while I finally getting them up.  I am too upset about the lost just the 10 minutes I spent getting them almost on and then having to start all over again.  Breakfast was at a Sonics drive in resturant as the town did not a better spot to eat. 

With the wind behind we covered the 35 miles to Hellena AK before lunch time and the down town section was still closed so rode around and looked at the all the old homes.  Some of them were cool but if you missed the high class area by a couple of blocks and you were in the less acceptable parts of the town.  Here is a picture of one of the nicer homes.

Dave and I discussed our options for the day and we finally decided to move on even though it commited us to moving at least another 30 miles.  So off we went to the US 49 and crossed over to the river on the bridge below.

So we kept up the rate and finished the ride into Clarksdale MS covering a total distance of 61 miles.  With the wind behind us covering the distance much easier.  Most of the scenery was a repeat of flatland as yesterday.  The only exceptions were in the town where the challenge was find areas where Dave would be "willing to stop to tie his shoe", and some hills that where the challenge was to get my breath back. 

In Clarksdale when Dave finally found a Package store where he felt we could stop to resupply the bourbon whiskey.  We asked the seller about Hotels and Motels his parting words were, "don't leave anything outside that expect to find 5 minutes later".  The drivers are best discribed as crazed fools, Dave addes some other discribtors in front of the crazed.  Only two of the cars did I really want to catch and pound on the roof.  Once we stopped and tried to walk across the street and twice cars cut David off while pushing his bike. I suppect that the rules of "driving for Al" changed to include some partial points for grazing Dave. 

Thankful for Today
The wind blowing from the Northwest is something to be thankful for.  But I was not looking foreward the bridge crossing.  When we got the enterance the traffic was heavy and the cars did not yeild much of the right lane to us.  But at the top the road became a one lane for consturction.  The none driving lane was blocked off and Dave and I took that all the way across with our own lane and I was happy and thankful for that.

Love and Kisses to all and to all good night.
Allan and Dave

Oct 27

Oct 27 Day 7 after Dianne

This' morning was a Super 8 motel breakfast that is not a super way to start the day. Two guy about our age come in and ask if we are riding bikes and we say yes. Th'ey then ask where to and we said New Orleans and we started at Lake Itasa. They then told us about their three week ride from Prescott to Memphis. We then spent about half an hour exchanging stories about the ride.

Then David and I started out. As the fellow rider had the day off they came out and reviewed our gear and they indicated that they thought we were fairly compact, I take that as a compliment. The start of the day was the most interesting part it more stupidity just like yesterday. A dog walking in the park chased us for a short period of time. Then we walked up the hill to the I55 bridge and started across the walkway on the side. I was not too happy 'about this as the bridge shakes with the trucks, the wind was blowing and there is trash all over the place I am trying to avoid. At the end of the bridge we walk down the embankment and spent the next 30 minutes going back up embakment and getting on and off the highways. The directions being off a little bit on the milage did not make this chase any easier.

Once out of West Memphis the day became as dull as dirt (Dave's Quote) all we saw as flat plowed land and lots of it. There were a couple of tractors and not much traffic. Lunch was in Hughes AK and we ate hamburger just across from the High School there were great.


One thing that is different here is trash. I have given up counting as it would be infinite the people here seem to lack a dump and they just throw the stuff out on the road. Dave has taken to adding dump site to the end of all wildlife refuge site we see.

After riding 58 miles we are at Marianna AK staying in what is best discribed as a “bonus motel” as it is not listed in the book. Looks like we will make the distance to Greenville before Andy and Angle arrive.

Thankful for Today
I admimit although it is a small thing I am grateful for all the people that pick up trash on the side of the road as it makes the country a lot better. So thanks to all those people that do not litter and even a bigger thank you to all those that pick the stuff up.
Love and Kisses to all and to all goodnight

Allan and Dave

Oct 26 day 7 after Di

When we woke up this morning it was just a little chilly out.  I went up front at the Super 8 for a poor breakfast.  As I drinking my coffee it I noticed that the flag was pointing due north (and were to go due South).  The weather channel said, "sever weather worning, tornodo worning and winding worning" for the day.  This did not stop us, and we finished breakfast (just cearal and honey buns with coffed and fruit, not as good as it sounds) and were ready to leave.  Just then it poured not just rain but a falling lake, Dave suggest more coffee and I readly agreed.
At 9:00 it had changed to just a light downpour.  So off we went.  At 11:00 AM we reached the town of Coveingtown, and as the breakfast we had was already digested and used, we decided  to stop.  Dave kept saying it looked like it was clearing.  During lunch the ocean started to fall again so had a second cup of tea and kept praying for clearing skies.  Finally it was just a light downpour and we started out again. 
The drizzle stopped about 2 so we finally started to dry out.  About 4 I finally started to believe the rain would stop and took off the styling blue coat. 
At 5 pm we were in Memphis and discussing sleeping arrangement for the night.  Remember we are wet dry and very tiried, but more importantly cheap so all the downtown hotels were out.  After discussing this problem we agreed to go to AK for the night only a short 4 miles more. 

Dolly Parton bridge in Memphis.

The first problem was when the bike path ended.  We then cycled up to a church and started our search for a "primitive path".  After trying to follow a drainage ditch down to the Mississippi Dave humor seemed to be a slipping along with his bike that almost slipped into the river.  We then back tracked to the church and searched a little higher and were sort of rewarded.  We followed this &(^%$ questionable path.  At first it was bad quickly becoming #$&^% horrorible!!!.  The Kudzu began to grow around Dave bike and ankles, he then seemed to have lost his sense of humor.  I am fairly sure of this as when he finally passed his bike under a fallen tree he seem to look back at me and snire and giggle that my bike would not fit under.  He continued on in disgust, without looking back, and seemed not to care about me making it.  When I saw him lifting his bike over the next dead fall he started to mumble a lot, and think I heard him suggest that it would difficult to find me in this growth.  Once out it only took 20 minutes to clean all the growth that Dave successfully dragged with roots off the trail.  I feel we cut back the growth hiding the trail so long as someone comes though in the next day it will be easy to follow.  I sure hope the *!!!@@##$ idoit has a more sense than to send us more &^%$# like this.

  Really is this a trail?? What kind of a fool would put a bike though this stuff?  Better question is who would follow directions to drag his bike though this.

View of the river from the path.

Thankful for Today
While the rain was falling I was glad it was not as windy as when the before the rain started.  Then when the rain started while I was having lunch I thankful we had decided to stop for a break.  It was then that I realized that I was really thankful for all the days we have had without rain up to today.

Love and Kisses
Allan

Oct 25 day 6 after Di

Going to a short a post today I am exhausted.  We covered a total of 65 miles to put us into Ripley tonight in a Super 8 Motel.

The wind was still in our face for the whole day.  It was the worse when we came done SH 181 for 24 miles.  We were not fast and manage to stay at a constant speed of 8.5 miles.  Never faster but it was level the whole time and although I tried all the low gears the bike would not go any faster.  It took three hours to finish that part of the ride. 
Here is a picture of this section of the road

And here is picture of cotton blowing in the wind along the route.

Then the flat stuff ended and the route "got serious about routing us off the beaten path, onto narrow and hilly country".  This quote was quite correct and my legs were done at 55 miles and I found several hills that were very comfortable walks up. 

Thankful for Today
The new word for problem today was dogs.  Until  today we had very few dogs that chased us but that ended today.  We were chased 4 times during the days.  I spayed two with water bottles, out ran one and threw stones at one.  Dave picked up a small piece of plastic that made a neat woos when he swung it and that kept a couple off him.  So in the end I am thankful that up to now all the dogs have been tied up and none of the dogs caught me today. 

Oct 23 and Oct24

Check below for the 24^th as I did not Wifi for the last 2 days

Oct 23 Day 4 After Di


I went to bed right after dinner and slept so soundly Dave watching TV did not even wake me. In fact Dave claims he turned the TV up so hear the show over my snoring.

This morning Dave discovered that a mouse or something else got into our food pack. Funny how all this trip with all the camping we have done without problems but in a hotel the food was raided. I have to agree with David the the hotel was a new low for us and the room did look better in the dark maybe that is why the draps were pinned closed and half the lights did not work well.
Here is a picture of the Motel with mice.

After a good breakfast at Macks we stoped in the old manson part of the town and toured one of the homes built in 1869. Grant was a friend of the family as he had bought hard tack from the ower so after his world tour he stopped in for a visit. The house had 8000 sq ft of space and was huge,

At breakfast we talked with the local fire chief and told that bridge into MO was no better than the Bridge into KY so after we reviewed both bridges we decided he was right and elected to go over the KY bridge. It was a little scarey but not too horrible we stopped once to let a truck go by after.

On the far side in Wiekliff we stopped for BBQ. Then on down the road fighting a strong head wind. This meant by the time we reached Columbus we were done for the day. Not really finished but both Dave and felt that attempting another 30 miles to the next campground was not going to happen so we called it a day.


For the second time in three days I felt. On Thursday while searching for a campsite in Trail of Tears state park Iattempted to turn around and when I reached the crown of the road found out my legs were done for the day and did not have the push for the turn. So I fell right in the middle of the road. Dave ran to help me up but no cars were coming so I justt injured my pride. Today after entering KY I was swearing at the rummble strips on the side of the road and they stuck back. On a steep hill cimb where I am not going too fast I hit the damn things on my left side over corrected and hit the guard rail on my right side and stopped dead in my tracks. Then fell over onto the road, again Dave ran back to help me up but know it is not a good idea to lie in the middle of any hyway for a long period of time was getting up already. This tiime my elbow that was just healed over is again covered in road rash.

So in summary I dropped my chain 3 time and fell once and had to climb a lot of hills and that just makes me grummpy. Dave has suggested I must be feeling a little better as I threaten to kill him a couple times for teasing me.

Thankful for Today

I am thankful no big trucks were coming when I fell over this afternoon. I am also thankful that Dave was there to help me up although I was moving as soon as I fell it is still nice to see an arm reaching toward you then. In addition I am very very gratefull I did not fall on that damn bridge which had even less space to recover from such supidity.

Love to all and to all Good night.
Allan and Dave

Oct 24 day 5 after Di

The word for today was windy if you stopped for a minute the wind blew you back. The only thing what would make the day better is if all the restuants listed for lunch by the book were closed. So to be evcn happier without lunch it rained on us. Still I was cheerfull and laughed things off. Next came the hail this made the just about perfect day. Just after we left Kentucy we passed a home with 4 kid doing target practice in the backyard parallel to road. They fired more than 20 shots as we passed Dave suggested the being hit by a ricoche woulld make the perfect cap for the day. But the day still had more postive stuff to give us as my rear tire completely wore though and needed to be replaced tonight. As the day just kept getting better the only resturant did not sell alcohol on Sunday. Some days just keep getting better.and better. As the joke goes cheer up things could be worse so I cheered up and sure enough things got worse.

As long as we are discussing the rain today Dave and I discussed the rain as it approached. First I suggested it was raining to the south and Dave said we would past the shower before it got to us. Famous last words. However I made the next stupid comment as a few minute latter Dave stopped and starting puttin on his coat. I asked why he said look at all that rain heading right for us. I then said is not that just some “dust” when Dave stopped laughing he started putting on his rain cap. Being slow I did get a “little wet”.
Sunset from Yesterdays campsite in Columbus KY

Above is plantation home just outside of Hickman KY. 
I did manage to stay upright all day today but there were a few doubtful second about doing this. The first one was coming to a stop at a top of a hill to catch my breath. As the bike stops so fast with a headwind I stuggled to get the foot unclipped in time but stayed up. The second time I going down hill towards an intersection in Hickman I noticed that it was a four way stop but as one way was up a steep hill most cars were rolling stoppes at best. I came to the intersection I notice a car coming up I felt it best to stop, Again it was a fast stop and planted my right foot but the bike rolled towards me and when I finally got my foot down it almost landed on the right and had to stutter step to remain up right. Final example of my great riding ability in Hickman again I missed a turn going up a steep hill I stopped short to make the turn the right foot was planted wheel turned and bike started to roll back down the hill and wheel turned backwards trapping my front leg between the frame and wheel, trying to trip me, but I managed to keep my balance for the third close call.

We finally stopped in either Samburg or Tiptonville depending on who you believe as to where the hotel is. The book claims it is Samburge and the map claimes the other but both agree we are close to Reelfoot Lake.


Tankful for Today
Today after I got the new blue coat on I discovered it was both warm and dry, all that styling too. So I grateful for the being dry, warm and upright all day.

Love and kisses to all and to all good night.
Allan and Dave.