Mobile, AL to Poplarville, MS ("56 miles")

Monday May 12, 2008

I got caught up last night in watching a TV special about the Iditarod in Alaska. That meant fewer hours asleep like I should've been. I got up at 4:30am because Robert and I had a crafty plan. I liked spending time in Mobile, and each day that I spent here I knew would have to be repaid in the heat of the desert. So Robert decided to make it up to me by means of a "power boost". The power boost is a lift out of town equivalent to one days riding distance. That way I never actually stayed in Mobile last night (wink wink), and am still "on schedule".

It was a good thing he did that because eastern rural Mississippi along the designated route is a serious sleeper. It is pretty and I saw deer on the road the moment I hit the trail, but unless you have serious things in your life that requires absolute isolation to solve, and no need for any services (no store to buy drinks or snacks, no restrooms, etc, there could be better places to ride.

Luckily for me, a couple hours and some internal review time into the ride, I met the first of 16 long distance cyclists heading east. The first was this amazingly fit guy from Holland. He stopped to talk, but I could see by his eyes watching another pass him that he didn't like being behind anyone. The info I got from him included the fact they were the Adventure Cycling Association (ACA) group (the same people I got the maps from, but these folks also signed up and forked over $3K I think to do the ride with a "guide" from the ACA). After cutting him loose and returning him to the stream of bikers, I met another, Herb from Sacramento. He snapped a photo of me as I snapped one of him, both amused at the ridiculous feat the other decided to try I guess. Near the end of the group was who I suspected was the guide from the ACA, advising me of a closed ferry in St. Francisville, LA, advising an alternate route through Baton Rouge and a police escort across Highway 190 bridge that crosses the Mississippi River there, as well as water quantities to carry in the desert, and prescribed night riding to avoid the heat. Look at that! Just as I was wondering what I was doing in rural Mississippi the first day after a rest period, these guys gave me a boost in morale, if even temporarily.

I knew they couldn't solve my other problem though. I was starting to get low on drinks and, related to that (kind of), would smile if I saw a bathroom. Hours later, west opf Perkinston, MS, these issues needed to be solved. I turned down a side road because the map showed a camp of some kind located down there. Thinking I would just try to fill my bottles with tap water from the outside spigot, use a bathroom, and politely exit, instead I was surprised to meet the gem of the day. At Rogers Lake campground (http://www.rogerslakesilverrun.info/), a really beautiful place with many lakes surrounding it, I met Nella Ruth Rogers. She was as sweet as the day is long. At 82, she ran this housing development project with the help of two of her four children. She had lost her husband, Rayford, in 1985, and had seen some trouble since: breast cancer, appendectomy, and cataracts. Instead of just laying down, she told me that the secret to life is having something to do each day, a reason to get up in the morning. Based on the maps she had layed out and her ease of discussing the installation of sanitary sewer systems prior to selling lots, I could hardly believe she had time for the exercise program she told me she watches on TV between 6:00 and 6:30am each day. "I take exercise, you know. Low impact." she said. Having finished the ice cold Coke she offered me and swapping stories as if we were old friends, she gave me a hug and invited me back to the campground that is only open to those who have purchsed property there, and long distance cyclists. Just about to leave, I took her up on her offer to fill my bottles with the filtered water from inside the house, before leaving her to make bread with the wheat she just ground up. Where was I?

Glad to have visited with her, I paid the price. It was now 12:15pm and the sun was blaring down. I took advantage of a seemingly deserted Volunteer Fire Department picnic shelter I found on the way to Poplarville, MS to cool off and have a snack and some tasty filtered water.

In Poplarville, MS (popln 2,600), a local told me the only lodging was a campground (besides the $75 B&B even he was surprised to find out existed). On the way to camp, I ate a seriously large shrimp po-boy at O'Neals Restaurant where the shy, pleasant, but straight-tooth-challenged Katy was my server.

At the Haas-Ciendas RV Resort, I paid $10 to set up my tent and got full electricity to charge my electronics, hot shower, kitchen access, and best of all, access to their swimming pool. Brad, the owner, was found in the pool when I arrived, and reminded me of a Sopranos character, smaller than Big Bobby but much bigger than Tony. He told me he was from Ohio and New York, but I think it was more one than the other. He and Colleen, the self-proclaimed "coon ass" (which means Cajun she tells me,were in the pool discussing religion as well as New Orlean's Mayor Nagin's "chocolate city" comments of late. A born again Christian, but considerably judgemental based on what I had been hearing, she pulled me into the religion conversation, and not ready for that topic, I threw a curve ball.

Her: "You know God will reveal himself to some but they are not ready."
Me: You know, they say aliens exist and will be reveal themselves to us as well, but they haven't yet because we are not ready."

After a quick can of soup topper to my recent Po-Boy sandwich, I hit the sack.

start: 7:00am pedal hit road
end: 4:15pm
time on bike: 4:23:08
miles: "56.3"
calories: 4098
max elevation on trip so far: 330' (small time, but growing)