Happy May Day!

Today we made it over 60 miles from the Timberland RV Park near Jackson Mississippi to a campsite near Kosciusko Mississippi. Today was a very nice day as we made some adjustments to our bicycles, started enjoying the brand new tires we just swapped out on our new wheels, and had a relatively flat day. All of this combined for a promising start to our run up the Natchez Trace to near Nashville.

The beginning of our day started with about 25 miles of Trace running along the Ross Barnett Reservoir which was absolutely gorgeous. Near the end of the  reservoir was a Cypress Swamp that we could walk through and get up close and personal with the flooded cypress trees and wildlife.  I must say that was a very cool experience, and one that I’ve been looking forward to since we started planning this trip along the southern route. It was so neat to see the trees growing in the flooded land! Awesome!

I adjusted my bicycle to a more upright position with higher handlebars, a more forward seat, etc… And I think it helped.  Audrey started switching up her hand position a lot more today, and we are hoping that, combined with some bicycle adjustments, will help her hands. We’ll definitely keep everybody posted on how that goes.

We are thinking that the new tires are helping a ton. We were riding on Kenda 700x32C tires that were at 85 psi and near the end of their life.  We switched out to some tires that were more of a road style at 100 psi, and we can really feel the difference.  Just hope that they are durable and last us the rest of the trip. Audrey still needs to get her front tire replaced since they only had 2 new ones at the bike shop plus the spare we were carrying with us. Hopefully in Tupelo Mississippi this, along with a professional truing of my front wheel, will be able to happen.

Today we also met a group of Trace cyclists doing a self supported tour, where they take turns driving the SAG wagon and do about 45 miles a day (the perfect mileage by the way!).  Awesome way to see the Trace since they are able to take their time and stop at all of the historical sites, and have the SAG wagon for staying at cheap yet nice places at night and seeing some of the sights a little off trail. They were super nice and we really appreciated meeting them.

Tonight we are camped at a free site they have tucked away near the Trace district maintenance station. We would have never known this was here except for the map. Even the Trace information center and museum we stopped at ¼ mile away wasn’t exactly sure where the camping was.

So, hopefully a good nights sleep tonight with the possibility of a long day tomorrow.