We hope the picture captions and location tell part of the story over the last few weeks. I planned to write up a narrative summary but sleep and talking to all the new people we've been fortunate to meet recently has been a higher priority.
On Monday March 7th we met 2 Nicole and Judy, who are also biking to the east coast, just as we finished our days ride from Franklinton Louisiana to Poplarville Mississippi. All 4 of us got caught by 2 recent road closure our 1st of the trip. I was aware of most of the road closures by printing out route changes from the Adventure Cycling website before starting the trip but this road closure happened only a few weeks ago. We were lucky with the 1st bridge out and we got through but ended up a bit dirty as I helped drag Aaron's bike through dirt fill that ended up being a deep mud pit! Feeling emboldened by our success on the 1st road closure we thought nothing of ignoring a 2nd road closure sign 3 miles further down the road. When we encountered a 10 foot wide stream and only bridge pilons in place their was no choice but to backtrack adding 10 miles to todays ride.
Very early on March 9th a terrible thunderstorm hit. Around 4am we all woke up to constant loud thunder, bright flashes of lightening, rain pelting the RV metal roof and high winds. After 2 very close strikes we discussed if we'd get fried if lighting hit the RV. The hope was that the electric hookup ground would divert a strike. Still not sure if that would help but at the time made us feel better. We pulled up the weather channel on our phone and saw a tornado warning for our area. Contemplated a dash to the brick shower house but decided the tornados rarely hit trailer parks so we took our chances with laying in our warm and dry bunks. The next day the manger told us the storm set a record number of lightning strikes and a tornado touched down 10 miles north of us. The next morning the small creek 30 feet from our site was roaring with water.
This major storm forced a rest day on March 9th and gave us an opportunity to drive into Gulfport Mississippi to buy a new rear wheel and fix a broken spoke on the one I borrowed from Rick. Aaron had about 15 flat tires to my 1 flat but my 3 broken wheels are much more of a bummer. About 2 weeks ago I broke the hub flange on my wheel. Aaron lent me a delicate racing wheel that quickly started to wobble. A few days later Rick brought a 28 spoke wheel. It was a bit sturdier but busted a spoke after a week. I went back to using Aaron's wheel after trueing the wobble but after 2 days the wheel bearing went making it unrideable. Luckily we found a gem of a bike shop called Competition Sports. Robert Driskell fixed Rick's wheel and sold us a sturdy 32 spoke rear wheel. Robert also helped me with a Specialized cycling shoe insert that helped with some mild arch pain and toe numbness when riding hard.
After an added day of rest and the bike in working order we heeded the call of the rooster had Lenny's eggs in a hole and departed on Thursday for a planned 92 mile ride with our 2 new companions. This would be our longest day of the trip (and the longest self supported touring day for Nicole and Judy too). Weather today was on our side. We had a 10mph perfect tailwind all day. After some initial hills we were lucky to have flat riding all the way to the gulf coast town of Bayou La Batre!
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