There’s a direct route from Lake Providence, LA to Vicksburg, MS along highway 65. A 52-mile ride (mostly headed south) with the forecasted wind from the north and cloudy skies was sounding like just the thing I needed after covering 156 miles in the previous two days.

Unfortunately (you knew this was coming, didnt’t you?), highway 65 is a very, very busy road. While it had a nice shoulder in the Lake Providence area, I knew nothing of the road conditions further south. So, I mapped out an alternate route through back country roads. It added 20 miles to the ride, but it was well-worth it. I spent all day on roads with no shoulders, but they were also roads with little or no traffic. They were the kind of roads that when you passed someone driving the other way in a car, they wave at you. Excellent riding!

The plan was to finish the ride in Vicksburg. One of the reasons we decided to cross the Mississippi at Vicksburg is because the map showed an old highway 80 bridge right next to Interstate 20. My plan was to cross that older bridge. Well, the ride was cut short on the Louisiana side of the Mississippi because the highway 80 bridge is closed to all traffic for the past five years. Pat spoke with a very nice man from the Louisiana Department of Transportation who said they maintain the bridge, but the pavement is still very broken up. They don’t let any kind of traffic on it, but he said that they regularly give cyclists a ride across the river by loading them up in his pickup and driving them across the highway 80 bridge to the other side. Pointing down a dirt road that led to underneath the bridge, he said that if I wanted a ride, when I got to the “Road Closed” sign, all I needed to do is ride down this road to their office underneath the bridge. Underneath the bridge? What are they, trolls? Pat said he then drove off down that dirt road in his pickup truck and proceeded to get it stuck in the mud.

I decided to call Pat when I got there and have her come and pick me up.

This entry was posted on Friday, May 5th, 2006 at 2:51 pm and is filed under The Dream Tour, Bicycling. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.