Ridgeland to Port Gibson, MS

Saturday, October 11, 2003
Distance Cycled: 77 miles
Total elevation gain: 1,505 feet
Our Total Flat Tires on trip to date: 1

Today was not the best day of riding that we have had on this trip, but it still was a day of miracles. We had to go from north to the south of Jackson, MS. In the process we definitely got lost once and we thought we were lost another time. We stopped at a convenience store where Mary Kay took off her coat and put it into one of our packs but forgot to close the packs zippers. At the same location, Becky thought we had turned a corner and gone in the wrong direction. She thought she was chasing us so she turned down the wrong road to get us turned around. Neither of us knew where the other had gone or why. After trying to contact Becky on the radio and the cell phone, and 10 minutes had passed we started to follow Becky. We climbed one hill and she was at the bottom of the hill and just turning around to come back to the convenience store. We then continued on our way.

We went down a hill, crossed a railroad track, turned several corners, and headed south out of Jackson. We had gone about 4 miles when our cell phone rang and Becky told us that something had broken on her bicycle. We turned around and headed back. Two miles later we came to where she had stopped, at a Baptist church, and found that a bolt had sheared off that held up her rear rack. When I looked for my billfold I could not find it. The minister was kind enough to loaded Becky's bicycle and me in the back of a SUV and drove to a hardware store that also rented equipment. They had the necessary tools to remove the broken bolt and we replaced it with a new bolt. We then returned to the Church and I found out that my billfold and the jacket that Mary Kay had put into the pack, on the back of the bicycle, were both missing.

Mary Kay and I got on our Tandem Recumbent bicycle and headed back the way we had come earlier. Three miles back, just beyond the railroad track we found Mary Kay's jacket but no billfold. We began riding the bicycle on the wrong side of the road against traffic and in about 2 blocks we found the billfold laying in the middle of the traffic lane without any cash and missing some cards. However my driver's license and all my credit cards were still in the billfold. We then rode back to the church and Becky. When we got to the church, Becky had over $30.00 in cash that a member of the church, had made a special trip to get. A woman, whom we had not even met, had left Becky with cash to replace the cash lost from my billfold. We were truly blessed by the prayers and generosity of the people at St. Marks. It is wonderful how people will reach out to each other in need. I gave the cash to the minister and told him it was a donation to the church, and to continue to pass on the blessing, as we did not have a cash problem because we had traveler's checks, and still had all my credit cards. We left the church, feeling like we were blessed and continued south. In about 5 miles we were on the Natchez Trace Parkway.

In a short distance we came upon a cotton field where picked cotton was sitting by the side of the Trace waiting to be shipped to the cotton mills.

We continued south but we were really pushing because we originally had a 65-mile day and at the end of 5 hours we had only gone 28 miles. Now our day was going to be 77 miles long because of all the backtracking we did to find the jacket and billfold. The good news was that the trace was very flat and we were able to travel at 15 or more miles per hour most of the time. However, all good things come to an end and just before we reached the turnoff for Mangum Mound, the other bolt holding up Becky's rear rack sheared off. We did not know what had happened until we reached Mangum Mound. I made a temporary repair and we continued on our way. We reached a portion of the old trace road that was sunken. The old trace road was worn into the earth at least 20 feet.

We were very happy when we pulled into the Motel at Port Gibson one hour before dark. As soon as we had the bicycles in the room we walked up the road to a small restaurant and ate a quick supper, it was dark before we returned to our room, a long good day!