Canton to Ridgeland, MS

Friday, October 10, 2003
Distance Cycled: 25 miles
Total elevation gain: 200 feet
Our Total Flat Tires on trip to date: 1

We got up today planning on going to Vicksburg, but it was raining so hard we decided to by-pass Vicksburg and go directly down the Natchez Trace Parkway to Clinton as it would be a shorter day. So we made reservations at a motel in Clinton, MS and cancelled our reservations in Vicksburg.

We started back to the Natchez Trace Parkway from Canton. We left the motel and only got two blocks before the skies opened up again and poured water on us. We took shelter under the canopy of a BP gasoline station. We stayed under the canopy until the rain stopped and then we continued back to the Trace Parkway. We were ½ mile from the Trace Parkway when the sky began to sprinkle on us. We took shelter under the canopy of an abandoned gas station and in a couple of minutes the skies opened up again pouring water on the canopy above our heads. We again stayed dry and when the rain stopped we bicycled to the Trace Parkway and started going south. About 20 minutes later it started to rain again and within a couple of minutes it was raining very hard. This time there was no place to hide and we got very wet. Well we continued to ride south. The rain was now coming down steadily but not too hard. We finally reached the outskirts of Jackson, MS where we stopped at a Mississippi Crafts Center. The rain stopped and for very brief periods the sun would shine.

We were all so wet that we decided to stop at the nearest motel. I got on the phone and changed our motel again this time from Clinton to Ridgeland. We bicycled about a mile to the motel, checked in, removed our wet clothes and did our dirty laundry. Around 6:00 PM we walked to a restaurant along a very busy road to a busier road that went over a 6 lane interstate with all of its access lanes. It was a real thrill dodging cars but we made it and had another great meal. Tomorrow we will try to reach Port Gibson.