Day 11 - Tupelo, MS (Quality Inn) to Belmont, MS (Sparks B&B) - Seeking A Bicycle Warrior's Death, Part II: The Great Rivers South

October 2, 2022

Day 11 - Tupelo, MS (Quality Inn) to Belmont, MS (Sparks B&B)

Confederate Soldiers and Small-Town Mississippi

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Statistics, Useful & Otherwise;

Elevation Gained Today; 1,955 ft Cumulative; 16,909 ft

Roadkill Seen Today; bird (1), squirrel (1)
Cumulative; Hawk (2), Raccoon(2), Possum (6), mouse (1), Squirrel (2), Armadillo (1), bird (1), unknown (2)

Found Money Today; $0.00 Cumulative; $0.29

Lodging Cost Today; $90 Cumulative; $915.83

Bad Drivers Today; 0 Cumulative; 8

Dog Chases Today; 0 Cumulative; 2

Confederate Flags Today; 30 (tiny flags) Cumulative; 1 (plus 30 little flags decorating confederate soldiers graves on the Natchez Trace)

Average Speed Today; 9.6 mph Cumulative; 10.38 mph

Summary of Today's Ride; Pretty relaxing with some wind and hills.

(Dang! The browser went nuts and closed and I just lost an hour's work of the narrative on this page! I may have to rush it a bit now cause I've got a lot to do - sorry.)

I don't watch the news when I'm on tour - not at all - I find it cleansing to go for weeks with no TV. But Fox News was on in the breakfast room of the motel as I ate, so I had no choice. There were 3 commentators, 2 male and 1 female, and they all seemed to be angry. They said there was a breakdown in our society because we have female leadership, that young men need male role models and that female leadership is bad and that we are denying basic biology if we disagree with that. That said that Ukraine wasn't important to us and they didn't understand why we were involved at all and that our leaders are pushing us into a nuclear war. But here's the part that's relevant to us cyclists; they said that green energy is bad and that we need more oil.

Assuming that most Mississippians are watching this sort of nonsense in the morning, then that actually helps explain what happened to me yesterday when I was assaulted with a soft drink by a passing car. While you may or may not agree with these commentator's views on female leadership and Ukraine, I'm pretty sure that reasonable folks will agree that green energy is a good thing. Riding a bicycle is one of the "greenest" things you can do regarding energy efficiency. But if you have been conditioned to think that green energy is a bad thing because it keeps us from finding and using more oil, then you could more easily become enraged when a cyclist slows down your drive for a few seconds and decide to assault the cyclist with your soft drink. I'm glad I don't watch the news while I'm on a bike tour.

It was a great morning when I hit the road at 06:50 after enjoying the motel breakfast. I continue to stop at every exhibit. North of Tupelo there is an exhibit about the Old Trace, and if you follow a path for a few minutes you come upon the graves of 13 unknown Confederate soldiers.

They May Have Originally Had Marked Headstones, But Their Names Have Been Lost Over Time

The 13 graves were decorated with a total of 30 Confederate flags, so that's why the Confederate Flag statistic increased by 30. It's pretty amazing when you think about it; the U.S.government (National Park Service) is honoring the graves of 13 soldiers who fought against the U.S. government. Many folks consider the Confederate flag to be a hate symbol that represents the pro-slavery sates, but in this case they are simply being used as part of an educational exhibit.

After watching the news this morning I'm convinced we could all do with a trip down this road;

It seems to me that my travel via bicycle is sometimes difficult. And it is when compared to the ease of driving along in an automobile. But I can't even begin to imagine how difficult it was for folks in the days of the Old Trace. This fellow's diary entry helps us to envision a little of the difficulty.

I saw another coyote today, but he ran across the road before I could even think about photographing him. Later I heard a woodpecker pecking away quite loudly. So my 2 spirit animals were with me today; perhaps that's why today was such a great ride. I did manage to photograph these wild turkeys before they scurried away.

Wild Turkeys Scooted Away When They Saw Me

And here's your cultural anthropology moment of the day. I photograph every informational sign, but I'll spare you the overload and only show a few.

Cultural Anthropology Views The Way A Society Treats The Dead As An Indicator Of Their Development

My route on the Natchez Trace today crossed the bridge over the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway below Bay Springs Lake. The Tenn-Tom is a Corps of Engineers project that was controversial in the early days, but which has paid for itself since. See Tenn-Tom for details from our friend Wikipedia. The equivalent of 100 million dump-truck loads of soil was excavated to construct the waterway!

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Tenn-Tom Project

The James Whitten Lock and Dam On The Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway Impounds Bay Springs Lake

All vehicles had to exit the Trace at mile 293.4 due to the road construction detour. But while the cars all went left, that exit just happened to be the back roads route to reach Belmont and my B&B by bicycle anyway, and I went right. I rode an extremely pleasant 9 miles on lightly traveled county roads to reach Belmont. Along the way I spotted several of these guys.

It must be Mantis season or maybe they are just having a Fall party before it gets cold. If you're a male Mantis you have to be careful at Mantis partys, because the females eat the males in about 25% of their sexual encounters. Once again it's best to leave the details to Wikipedia; Mantis.

I'm staying in a duplex BnB tonight. It's nice, I have a bedroom, bath, and living area as well as an entry area that's perfect for my bike. And best of all it's next door to the Sparks restaurant.

If you've been keeping up, you know that today was Day 6 of a 9-day run before I get a rest day. Days 7 and 8 are the hardest days in that group. It's not a good setup, but it's what I had to do to reach lodging. You may wonder why I'm not taking a rest day after tomorrow's (Day 7) hard effort? It's because there was no lodging available in the town of Collinwood - the B&B's were full - and I really needed to stay there. So, long story short - you're welcome - the City Manager agreed to let me stay overnight in the Volunteer Fire Department building. I appreciate the inside accommodation but don't want to overdo it by asking to stay 2 days in a row, so I need to move on to the very hard Day 8 immediately after the hard Day 7. So why not take a rest day after Day 8? I'd like to, but I had great difficulty finding lodging near my route on Day 8 until I located an AirBnB sort of in the middle of nowhere. I don't want to take a rest day in a location where the only nearby store is a Dollar General, so I need to ride Day 9 to reach a town with a motel and restaurants. So now you know.

Tomorrow is the day I reach the bridge over the Tennessee River, and I really need to get across it. Road construction is slated to shut down the bridge for 2 weeks in October, but the Park Service can't say exactly when the contractor will close it. So I'll be hitting it tomorrow (Oct 3) and I intend to cross it unless someone physically prevents me. If it's closed I'll try to convince them to just let 1 cyclist get on across. If that doesn't work I'll try to bribe them - I have cash with me. If that doesn't work and it looks like I can get away with it I'll go into Beast Mode and make a run for it - what are they gonna do, shoot me? If it is closed and they are able to prevent me from crossing it will be disastrous for my schedule. I have mapped out a detour to the nearest bridge in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, but that will add an extra day to my schedule and all my lodging will have to be redone. So I'm going across that %$#*& bridge if it's humanly possible. If you don't see a post from me tomorrow night I may be enjoying dinner at an Alabama jail.

Good night folks, I'm getting up at 04:30 to be there when the diner opens for breakfast at 05:00, then I'm making a 10 mph run for the Tennessee River bridge - it'll take me 3 hours or so to get there. And speaking of Alabama, well here's a little tune appropriate for my Great Rivers journey. Hey, who loves you if I don't?

Today's ride: 41 miles (66 km)
Total: 583 miles (938 km)

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