We took a rest day yesterday in Vicksburg. And what a great place for a rest day! There’s the Vicksburg National Military Park to visit with a driving tour through the park. Well worth it, even when it’s pouring rain outside like it was for us. I think the favorite part of it for me was the reconstruction of the U.S.S. Cairo, a Union ironclad gunboat that became the first ship in history to be sunk by an electrically detonated torpedo.

Below are some photos from our tour through the Vicksburg National Military Park.

As for today, I wasn’t sure of the best route through Mississippi so on our rest day I sent an email to the Jackson Metro Cyclists to see if anybody could help me or even wanted to do some riding with me. No takers on a ride, but I got a couple emails with some route information. One of them is a fellow by the name of Robby Toombs. He and I exchanged about half a dozen emails with details about routes.

Today’s ride took us 60 miles to the southeast of Vicksburg to a little town called Hazlehurst. With the help of Robby, I managed to take mostly back country roads. Roads so minor and infrequently used that there’s grass growing in the cracks in the pavement! It was great cycling!

Towards the end of the day — actually just a mile or so from Hazlehurst — I got to the last turn of the day and who was waiting for me at the corner but Robby Toombs! He said when I told him what route I had decided on, he knew exactly where I would be making the last turn towards town. Then curiosity got the best of him and he drove down to say hi. We had a nice chat and a good laugh about Crossett, Arkansas, the town where he grew up and a place Pat and I stayed at several days ago. My post from a couple days ago mentioned a great meal of southern cooking (Our last dinner in Arkansas). He said the place was called Country Vittles and he had eaten there many times.

Robby mentioned a rumor of a bridge that might be out on our planned route from Hazlehurst towards Hattiesburg. He said he would drive down and check it out and email me the status. Well, I just got an email from Robby. Not only did he check out the bridge (it’s open), but he went all the way to Prentiss, checked out the route through town and onto the Longleaf Trace, a 40-mile long running, biking, hiking, and equestrian trail through South Mississippi. He also emailed me some possible places to stay in Prentiss and maps for the entire ride tomorrow to Prentiss! I tell you, are people great or what?! Another example of people going totally out of their way to be helpful. It’s so uplifting to experience that. Thanks, Robby, for making my day!

Coming in to Vicksburg, the terrain was very flat. Leaving Vicksburg, the terrain was pretty hilly. I’m not sure what made the difference between the two sides of the Mississippi, but I definitely like the rolling hills of Mississippi better than the flat, delta lands of Louisiana. Here’s some photos from the scenery along the way from Vicksburg to Hazlehurst.

It had rained overnight and the morning was cloudy with a bit of fog. I took most of these photos simply because everything was so green! The fifth of the photos above shows a tree that had fallen across the road. It was easy enough for me to ride around it, but a car would have had a tight squeeze to get around it. Things like this are another sure sign of being on “the road less travelled”.

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 7th, 2006 at 7:50 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.