Day 5 - Feb 19 - A three dog night

When last I wrote, I was sitting down at a real table in a real house to enjoy homemade chicken pot pie, courtesy of Debbie Fountain. It was deee-lish. But the best was yet to come. Hot apple pie ala mode. Heaven on Earth! You are the best Debbie and Andy.

Bedtime was 6:30 p.m., which is biker midnight. It wasn't that cold when I went to "bed," so I slept reasonably well until midnight. For some reason, every dog within 5 miles went on a barking rampage. Don't know what it was all about, but it lasted quite awhile. And wouldn't you know, nature called. I laid there in denial for awhile, but knew I had to get up. It wasn't going to go away on its own -- at least not in an agreeable way. So zip, zip, zip went the sleeping bag and tent and fly. Out into the cold I stumbled. Brrr.

After that, the temperature plummeted to a foot-freezing 28 degrees. The dew point was fairly high, too, so I awoke at 6:15 a.m. with ice covering everything I owned. It was definitely a three-dog night. Fortunately, I could flee to the warmth of the Fountain's house, where coffee, ham, biscuits, etc. awaited. What a treat.

Given our differing riding paces, we all split up today, so I rode alone for quite awhile. I enjoyed the ability to ride at my own pace without feeling like I was holding someone else back, and without feeling like I was being held back. Once again, the scenery was nondescript: pine forest, a few houses, pine forest, a few more houses, and so on. There were no facilities of any kind, like gas stations or shops. By noon, I had ridden about 35 miles. We were headed to Perkinston, MS. At breakfast, I thought I had announced that I had managed to make a connection to stay somewhere in Perk, but apparently, only Bryan and Mike heard me, so Jeff and Ryan found a place to camp at an RV park. Ultimately, Bryan and Mike and Carol and I reconnected and made our way to Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College.

My BFF, Meredith, has an uncle (Coach Long) and cousin (Lindsey) who work here, coaching the girl's softball team. Go Dogs! So they were gracious enough to let us use their new baseball/softball facility. Hot showers and laundry. Yay! They even gave us a free ticket to the cafeteria, which we're going to use for breakfast in the morning before we hit the road. Sara Fleming is going to let us crash in her dorm room, so we get to sleep indoors tonight. Thanks, Sara! And thanks again, Meredith, for hooking us up in Perkinston!

                                          (Mike writing in his journal and Rosie passed out)

                                                        (Bryan on his "Crackberry")

I've really been amazed at the kindness of the people we have met on the road. Yes, some of the people in cars have been a pain, but otherwise everyone else has been so friendly and helpful. They are bending over backwards to help us out. It's just amazing.

Tomorrow, we're headed to Poplarville, MS. It's going to be a relatively short day, but (a) there's a campground there, and (b) Ryan and Bryan want to detour to New Orleans, so they will be leaving us there and heading south. The will join us again in St. Francisville, LA, on Wednesday, which is where we will pick up another member of our troupe (which I've dubbed the Cereal Killer Krewe).

I'm glad tomorrow will be a short day. We did 40 miles today, and my knees are quite sore. I shortened the boom on my bike, which made my pedal stroke shorter. I'm not sure yet whether it was a good thing or not. Perhaps not, since my knees are sore, but I need another day or so to decide. I can always put it back to where it was. Meanwhile, I'm a little concerned about my brakes. I have hydraulic disc brakes and the left caliper got too hot today when I came down a steep hill. By the time I reached the bottom, the brake had frozen and my left wheel wouldn't turn. Ultimately, I sat there long enough and the disc cooled down and contracted, so I could go on. Since we will have mountains to cross in Texas, I'm concerned about them. I might have to find a bike shop and have them looked at. The problem is we're traveling through such a rural part of Mississippi and Louisiana that I don't think we'll be near a shop for quite some time, so it may take awhile to address the problem.

Gotta go now. Laundry should be done. No rest for the wicked. Later.