April 19, 2015
Big Business In Cotton Country
Leland, Mississippi
The Vicksburg area had the best hills I've seen so far. There have been rolling hills fairly consistently over the last 150 miles, but all that changed very dramatically when I crossed over the Yazoo River this morning. Suddenly there was an immense flatness and, other than a few desolate towns, it was all cotton and corn fields.
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Coming into the dusty town of Rolling Fork, I was greeted quite exuberantly by a very cheerful dude. He was just walking down the road carrying something cylindrical in a plain brown paper bag. It might have been a bottle of Ivory Dish Soap and maybe he was excited about getting home to wash his pots and pans. Or it could have been something else. I don't know.
Then it was back into mile after mile of boring cotton fields, flat landscapes, and run-down town after run-down town. The towns were poor, unkempt, and deteriorated by the intense southern sun. Give me back those view-blocking trees!
I made a bit of a tactical error by not filling my water bottles in the depressing town of Hollandale and, of course, I ran out of water. It was hot and I was thirsty. I took a look at the bottom of my last bottle. There were about two swallows of water left and I considered rationing tiny sips every couple of miles, but when the bottle hit my lips I couldn't stop myself. Nobody was around at the time, but if they had been, they would have been subjected to the pitiful sight of a man trying to lick the the last bit of moisture out of the inside of a plastic bottle. It could only have looked worse if the bottle was wrapped in a plain brown paper bag.
I did pass some swampy areas where I could have gotten water if it became an emergency situation, but it never came to that, thank goodness. I don't know what would be worse--death by dehydration or death by diarrhea. Like I said, it was never an emergency, but I was sure glad to get to Arcola where I guzzled a liter of cold, cold water outside of a convenience store.
This was a day I was glad to get over with. I am dog-tired and I'm writing this while I await severe storms that are supposed to barrel through here tonight. Tornadoes are a possibility. I'm in a dive-y motel with very old furnishings, scary clientele outside who are yelling and whooping it up, and cardboard-thin walls through which I heard my next door neighbor's heated conversation with either his wife or girlfriend.
Today's ride: 82 miles (132 km)
Total: 372 miles (599 km)
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