Day 15 - Alexandria, Louisiana - Rest Day (no kms!)

Spent the day doing a whole lot of nothing! A nice sleep in, followed up by a massive breakfast including pastries, multiple bowls of cereal, a dabble of grits, some eggs, bagels, waffles, coffee, orange juice, cranberry juice, and toast. Followed that up with a bit of laundry (much needed) and a trip to the local bike store and then some sandwiches for lunch at the deli across the road.

Gave the bike a bit of a wipe to remove some of the built up grime, and then we went and had a bit of a swim and a game of frisbee in the hotel pool. Fairly relaxing day overall. Temperatures for the next week are forecast for the mid 80's (roughly mid twenties cel.). Current big current affairs issues over here - immigration & a college lacrosse team gone wild on the chop!

Bring on the lone star state!!

Day 14 - Jonesville - Alexandria (80km)

Bit of a sleep in today as Bill's lawn felt like a wollen underlay! Cruisy biking day with a light tailwind as we rolled into Alexandria and checked into the Ramada for some much needed R & R. Stopped off at a diner along the way for some burgers for lunch (hit the spot nicely!) and then rolled the final 30 kms into Alexandria...

We are now getting used to the terror strip which surronds each major city we visit - usually a busy road/highway with limited shoulder and plenty of debris to dodge... perks the senses up for a good 5-10kms each time!!

For dinner we made our way along to a mexican restaurant close to the hotel - was quite 'authentic' and served a good feed, along with cheap draft beers - very much welcomed after a solid week of riding! Unfortunately the draft beers are usually Miller Lite or Bud Lite (lite = low calorie), not the greatest, but beggers certainly should not be chosers...

On the paper/rock scissors front, Dave has now lost 14 (100%) on the trot. You do the math.


Day 13 - Clear Springs -Jonesville, Louisiana (102km)

From Clear Springs we passed through the historic town of Natchez (the first major trade town on the M River) before heading over the Mississippi river and into Louisiana.

The Mississippi must the biggest river I have ever seen! Seriously, it is massive!



Along the way we visited a real working cotton farm and although closed had a walk around and picked a few balls of cotton (just to say that we had!).

Going back to the M River, they used to hope it (& others) flooded to cover the flats that the cotton is farmed on with silt, rejuvinating the soil which they used to plant cotton continuously on, raping the soil of all nutrients (no crop rotation here).

On arrival in Jonesville we met areally nice guy by the name of Bill who let us camp in his yard. Bill and his wife Martha were raising their Grandchildren who assisted us setting up camp and introduced us to all their pets. They we all kind enough to let us shower which was hugely appreciated! We shared stories to Bill and Martha about New Zealand and in turn they filled us in on life in Louisiana. Bill isa very interesting guy - an ex counter-sniper now in the petroleum science area.

We also learnt about the 'rattlesnake round-up' competition they hold each march in Texas - thosands of live rattlers are caught in this competition... apparently they find over 100 snakes in some nests...


Day 12 - Prentiss - Clear Springs Recreation Area (near Meadville) (119km)

After the previous days events getting into Prentiss we were not looking forward to riding on the 84. It turned out that the traffic was quiet and only 40km was two lane which was a relief.

We are starting to see a few snakes on the road now (most of them dead), but we all saw a live one at the last minute and had no time to react. We rolled within a foot or so of it, but didn't seem to phase it!

The campground at Clear Springs was really nice and opened out onto a lake. After a day on the saddle we were prettty keen to go for a swim. After walking out onto the jetty and staring into the muddy water we chickened out as the locals had warned us previously that most waterways had 'gators.

A quick stop at the 'Dollar General' provided a welcome addition of a frisbee which we were also keen to try out. In what could be called "Shane Green" styles (ask Ben B - Shane found out the hard way that aerobies do in fact not float...), within two minutes Dave had sent the frisbee soaring into the lake and out of reach. Luckily for him and after the Ben's threats that he could not come back to the campsite without the frisbee the wind blew it back to shore.

Day 11 - Waynesboro - Prentiss (132km)

Rolled out this morning into a tornado warning in effect for the counties we were going to be passing through. Weather luckily passed a bit further north and we had nothing but sunshine. The road into Prentiss was pretty stressfull. The road narrowed from a 4 lane divided highway into a two lane undivided highway with heavy traffic. Late in the day a gust of wind sent Ben B off the road into the ditch and over his handle bars to claim his first racing stripe of the trip. Two minutes later a truck roared past giving us no room and sounding its horn which sent Dave off the road. Consequently, we were pretty relieved to get into Prentiss. Outside the grocery store in Prentiss we met a fantastic sister duo called Gloria and Lucille who invited us to camp on their front lawn. Gloria was 65 (but you wouldn't know it) and had raised 6 kids . They also cooked us some grilled cheese and Lucille brought around a pound cake which we demolished with some ice cream. Once we had put up our tents the neighbour told us that there was a tornado effect in force until 4am the following morning. We looked at each other as if "what can we do now?", but Gloria was kind enough to let us come inside if the tornado siren went off or if the thunderstorms got too bad. After waking up to every sound of thunder Gloria woke us up at 4am and said that the storm was quickly heading our way. Within minutes we we camped on their lounge floor and the thunderstorm hit the area pretty hard. Luckily no tornados went through the area that night, but neighbouring Tenasee wasn't so lucky with 11 killed by tornados!

Day 10 - Holley's Ferry State Park - Waynesboro, Mississippi (153km)

Crossed into our 4th state today. About 30km up the road we passed a guy on the other side of the road who we thought was our first bike tourer who we had encountered. As we crossed over to greet him his bike was not like any other loaded up bike. We had never seen a bike so fully laden with gear! It turns out that this 'nomadic' type bloke had actually walked this bike thing from El Paso (Western Texas) He had removed the seat and peddles and had made some panniers out out of chicken wire. He had started in June 2005 and wintered over in New Orleans before heading into Mississippi. He averages about 20 miles day. He gave us some good tips on how to avoid rattlesnakes and other hazards on the Texas highways.

After some local advice to avoid one of the highways we had an early lunch and turned off onto a country road with no amenities for 50km. This county road, although quiet had some of the biggest hills we had seen on the trip. The combination of heat and hills took its toll so by the time we arrived in Coffeeville (how ironic!) we each downed 2 litres of Gatorade (cheaper than water over here). With 60km more to go we peddled our heavy legs into Mississippi.

As we limped into Waynesboro late in the day we struggled to find anywhere to camp so the easy decision was made to check into the Budget Inn. We also tried some catfish in Wayesboro which wasn't bad, but the thick KFC type batter kind of dominated the taste so we hope to try some more as we go along. Biggest day of the trip so far. There has been a bit of banter already about the double centry ride or even a 250km day (hoping for the perfect storm - perfect roads, tailwind & downhill). Stay tuned......

Day 9 - Montgomery - Holley's Ferry State Park (136km)

Pretty smooth riding today - good roads, little to no wind and no hills. Nothing really happend until we found our campsite at the end of the day...

On our arrival at Holley's Ferry we discovered that it was literally a boat ramp down by the Alabama river and there was barely a blade of grass to pitch a tent! After a failed bushwaking attempt to find some suitable ground we cut our losses and pitched the tents on some dirt at the side of the car park. This of course sparked a bit of interest with the locals who use this area to launch their boats in search of the great southern delicacy - catfish. The first guy who approached us was weilding a handgun which was a bit intimidating to a couple of kiwis! He turned out to be a real decent bloke. He explained to us that he carries the gun for protection (not uncommon here) and given that he is not as mobile as he once was it gives him a chance to even the odds, so he had appropriately named his gun the 'equalizer'! On his way out he reached into his cooler and gave us a couple of ice cold beers each. The beers went down pretty well with a wholesome feed of 'rice-a-roni', broccoli and cans of tuna! Some other locals had just caught a 50 pound catfish which was still alive in boat which was a bit of a novelty with the tourists as well!