Friday August 26th 2002: Started this tour yesterday from Pensacola, Florida. John Shaw and Robert Lee Dixon. Bicycled west on 90 after leaving my van in the storage area. I had stayed two and a half days in Pensacola with Ray and Verna Minshew before leaving. I was doing work on the bike and it was a major pain in the ass. New back wheel, chain, rear derailleur, and freewheel. Made about 33 miles yesterday to west of Loxley Alabama. We slept under a bridge.
This morning we left out around 6:45. We are now in a Waffle House in Daphne, Alabama it looks like. It's about 7 miles from the bridge. The road has a small shoulder. There are many trees. Sweet potatoes are growing along 90 West in this area.
Saturday August 24th 2002: 98 west is much too hilly. Robert is overloaded and has no gears for climbing. Yesterday we got off 98 and went south on a country road to Tanner Williams Road in Alabama. It is mostly gently rolling, with trees on both sides, rustic houses, yards, forests and green fields. We sat at a convenience store at Tanner Williams Road till past 1900 when the store closed. I drank a quart of milk and ate some pie. Then went to a field at tall grass to look for a sleep site. Immediately, a man pulled up in a truck and said, "This is private property." I said I was just leaving. He said there had been a lot of break-ins in that area. I told him I don't do that kind of thing. I reloaded the bike, went back to the store where Robert was sitting. We cycled a few miles more south on Tanner Williams Road till past dark looking for a campsite. Most areas were fenced. I checked a few areas with the flashlight. It was too damp or clumpy or too overgrown in most places. Finally I found a narrow ATV trail into the woods. We walked the bikes back into the trail, off the trail into the trees and set up a sleep site. There were hardly any mosquitoes whatsoever. According to the radio, 14 had been killed by mosquitoes carrying West Nile virus. And there I lay completely exposed under a poly-tarp suspended between some bushes.
On the road by 0645 this morning. We took country roads to 613 south to Pascagoula Mississippi on 90 West. It was a nice peaceful country road with shade and little traffic on the way there. We rested at Hardee's on 90 West and went west on 90 over the Pascagoula river. It is hotter than hell. We did make some stops at waffle house, and Circle K Now in Wendy's in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, 1515. Robert dropped back again about an hour ago. I have not seen him pass here yet. I just had a side salad, chicken nuggets, with water. Here is Robert now at 1520. Robert disappeared again outside Biloxi. Here it is 0845 next morning. No sign of him anywhere. I cycle through Biloxi. Just stopped at Waffle House again and had a cheese and egg sandwich. I waited. No Robert. The usual problems cycling this area. Narrow roads, fast traffic, broken occluded sidewalks. Early morning was a welcome relief from the heat and sun. Around 1900 I sat and waited in front of the armed forces retirement community on 90 West just across from the beach and the gulf of Mexico. I got and drank water in a jug from a security guard in a shack. He had a water fountain inside. I was on the bench outside. Three homeless looking bums came walking slowly along. They sat at my bench, so I got up and left. I got to just east of the sign for Pass Christian corporate city limits. I saw a vacant lot grown over in some low bushes. I got off the bike there. I laid the bike on its side. I slept on the closed cell foam pad, shirtless. I did not use a blanket. It was sweltering all night. There was an early breeze from the Gulf but no relief tonight. Later still, no wind. The sky was clear. I had just thrown a gatorade bottle into the bush here. Later on I was awakened by the sound of raccoons tearing it apart.
Sunday August 25th 2002: 0855 at McDonald's next to St Paul Church on 90 west just west of Pass Christian. Just had a soda, bacon egg cheese biscuit, and yogurt parfait for $5.04. it is already quite warm for cycling. This is not going to be easy. I usually do this sort of thing in winter. Someone said New Orleans is about 65 MI away.
It is now hot as hell. I got into Waveland City corporation limits at 10:15 a.m., got on to 190 West at a roadside park with picnic tables where I got directions from some men and women. They have been riding these big motorcycles. 190 is level. Farther along it was narrow, two lanes, insane with traffic, and no side lane. In Slidell I ate a large salad at Taco Viva. I heard thunderstorms had moved into the area on the radio. There was no shelter for the bike at Taco Viva. I walked across the parking lot. It started to rain while I was crossing the lot. I sat under and overhang near a bush at a shopping mall while it rained half an hour.
I pedaled my fully loaded touring bicycle to Lacombs, Louisiana where I stopped to eat at a convenience store. A black man and woman told me of Tammany Trace. It is a bike path that goes from Slidell to Abido Springs, just behind the store. It is 12 ft wide, level, an asphalt path about 32 miles long. I got on it and stayed until the end past dark-- trees, small bridges, houses, interesting with many community side roads along the way. And then went south again to get on 190. First I went the wrong way going east. I found a side road and I got off into the pines about 30 ft from the road in among vines and dreadful bugs. I lit the coils mosquito coils and sprayed with off. I heard on the radio, 14 dead from West Nile virus.
Monday August 26th 2002: 75 MI. I ate breakfast at Waffle House. Cycled east on 190, backtracked and got West again. Stopped at another convenience store gas station for eats, power bars. Stopped around 11:00 a.m. at a store for drinks. This was a long day. 190 has four lanes and wide paths in some places. Basically, I stopped and ate and just kept cycling. I kind of miss Robert, but he had not a snowball's chance in hell of doing this even close to my style and pace. I don't mind hanging back a bit for someone, but if it's going to double the length of the tour, that is not acceptable. I kept getting pains in the ball of my right foot. There really isn't much to say basically. I got into Baton Rouge well past dark. Baton rouge is another big town, mostly black it seems, with the usual commercial establishments on the highway. Used side roads getting through the city. The neighborhood seem to be mostly black. There were guys standing on the street corner selling drugs. All the time I was looking for a safe place to sleep but found nothing. Back on 190 west I pedaled past a gambling casino and a large industrial complex, probably petroleum. Finally I went over a large bridge with dangerously large expansion cracks and leveled out on the other side into large areas of agriculture probably corn. Many mosquitoes in this place. I saw a blue flashing lights from a distance up 190. Went to see. Wheeled into the Cajun Crcus truck stop. I had an omelette, hash browns, toast. A young black man told me of a graveyard across 190. I cycled about 300 yards down a dark gravel road, and entered a large, neatly mowed field of grass on my left. I spread out the pad on a concrete slab beneath an overhang of a maintenance shed. I had a hard time getting to sleep. I was awake until 0200. The grass there was all soaked wet with dew.
Tuesday August 27th 2002. It was a night of fitful sleep. A black man was driving up on the grass and around the building. He says, "How do you do?" I got up a few minutes later, snuffed the mosquito coils, packed, wheeled away, back to the Cajun circus where I am right now, time 08:45. Here 190 west is four lanes, divided, with a wide smooth shoulder, and wake-up rumble strips every 40 ft or so. I'm not in any great hurry to get back on the road today, but I will. I'm wearing a broad brimmed straw hat during day to fend the sun, and I wear a cap at night to keep the headlights out of my eyes. This area is level with much agriculture, swamps, snakes, plenty of crickets everywhere, and mosquitoes. The West Nile virus mosquitoes are around. I am now drinking coffee and trying to recuperate from yesterday and last night. In the Cajun Circus restaurant now - - three black men visible, a young Cajun woman, waitress, two women behind the cash register, five red vinyl booths, four tables of four chairs each, a counter with seven or eight stools-all red, mirrors along the wall, a jukebox, smaller store attached, truckers lounge, parking for trucks out back, eight pump stations in front on 190, chords of firewood stacked out front.
More of 190 west with forests, swamps, crops, farms, houses and fields. The shoulder is kind of eaten up here but it is still passable for cycling. It was over 3 miles going over the Morganza spillway bridge, then over another bridge into Krotz Springs where I am now at the restaurant in the Exxon gas station. This is a very small place. Quite warm. Many copulating love bugs are in the air. A pair were stuck to my sunglasses for a while. Finally shook them off. I stopped at the top of the last bridge for a look at the river. A tug and two large barges passed beneath. A railroad trestle was to one side. I saw a large black dead otter on the roadside, also dogs, a raccoon and an armadillo. I suspect Robert is back in Biloxi or Pensacola. Only a moderate amount of traffic flowed by me today. It was like yesterday. I attached a Bell generator light set yesterday but it does not work yet. Maybe it is not properly grounded to the frame. I made my way on this touring bicycle to Appalouses Louisiana to Sunny Oaks motel 1/2 block off of 190 West. Time is now 17:15. $22.50 was the total per day cost of this cheap motel. It was a dump. Later I got a large drink, a cheese bacon and burger at Checkers near there. I slept off and on, and watch TV - - Rio bravo and other programs.
