Day Eleven: Hazlehurst, Mississippi to Natchez, Mississippi

April 29, 2021

As usual, I woke up multiple times in the night. I finally got up at 4:30 for good, got everything ready, and waited for dawn so I could get on the road.

I made my way to downtown Hazlehurst on some back streets along the town's lake, and stopped at a convenience store for a Diet Pepsi and some snacks. The lady working at the store, and the other customer, a truck driver named Wayne, were both friendly, like virtually everyone I've encountered on this tour.

I walked around for a few minutes and took some photos.

The trash, presumably. Unfortunately, and depressingly, it's everywhere.

I rode out of town on a quiet street that soon turned into a quiet country road. I'd be on this road for more than 30 miles this morning, and saw only occasional cars, pickups, and logging trucks.

I picked up and relocated a few different turtles I saw attempting to slowly cross the road.

I rode through more of the extreme rural poverty which has become a familiar sight on this trip.

I arrived in Hermanville, which is a small, very poor community.

I rode past a house, where a man called out hello, and I stopped and talked to him for a while. He was friendly, like everyone I've talked to in rural Mississippi (and Alabama, and Georgia.)

He expressed disbelief that I'd already ridden a bicycle this morning from Hazlehurst - and I had in fact been making good time on the heavy mountain bike. But riding the bike is the easy part of bicycle touring for me. In some ways I might be in better physical shape (for bike riding anyway) than I was in my 2006-2008 heyday when I did multi-month tours. But mentally, it's much more of a strain now being away from home for an extended period of time.

I asked him how many chickens he had. He called them, and suddenly half a dozen came out from under the porch.

After Hermanville I left the country road for a state highway, which had more traffic, but wasn't terrible. I took the occasional side road as a break from the highway, but had the worst dog encounter of the trip on one of those roads - I couldn't shake the dog, who kept running in front of my wheel. I ended up using most of my pepper spray on him.

On the outskirts of Port Gibson, I walked into a convenience store whose biggest selling product was obviously alcohol. I talked to the man working there, who was a refugee from Sudan.

My objective was to get on the Natchez Trace Parkway, but I had to make my through Port Gibson first. I stopped and looked around for a while.

I'd done 40-something miles when I finally entered the Natchez Trace. It's a limited access "parkway", with no commercial vehicles allowed, no advertising, and a low speed limit. Nothing but trees alongside the road. Very bicycle friendly.

I made good time on the Parkway, and arrived in Natchez, on the Mississippi river, at around 2:30, and checked into a motel. I was feeling homesick.

Heart

Comment

Link

Today's ride: 87 miles (140 km)
Total: 808 miles (1,300 km)

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	11
Comment on this entry	Comment	0