DEER PARK LA to NATCHEZ, MS

Saturday Apr. 18. 26 miles
Short mileage so we could be in a town for Church Day tomorrow.

We're still getting used to driving these "big rigs"! I've toured loaded before but Rusty hasn't and the bike manages quite differently. We joke that it takes two lanes to get the rig going straight as Rusty waits until there is no traffic in sight before he starts up. With a zig and a zag, a swerve and a wobble, he is off and rolling. Once the loaded bike gets up speed, it cruises along smoothly but then stopping is another challenge. Think of the Big Rig trucks on the road. We are the bike version.

We survived the night in Deer Park RV but one of us has some battle scars. Mosquito & red ant bites: Rusty= 33, Georgia = 0.

Today we rode to Vadalia, LA and had breakfast at 11:30A. Checked out the city library but it is closed on Saturdays. Rode to Wal-mart to see if we could find fuel for our MSR stove - Nope!

We continued on the MRT route across the US65 bridge over the Mississippi River into Natchez, MS. It was the first of some honest to goodnes hills we have had to climb thus far. Just across the bridge is the Visitors Center. We stopped in and saw the film on Natchez history. More than 1/2 of the millionaires before the Civil War lived in Natchez. The money was made in cotton. The boll weivil hit in 1908 and devastated the cotton crop to the point that Natchez didn't even notice the depression when it hit.

We rode on up and over the hill to a Day's Inn where we did laundry and microwaved a couple of dinners we had bought along the way.

Thunderstorms and rain hit about 7:30PM. Life is good in Natchez!

Glove Tally.. On our last tour we started keeping track of abandoned gloves along side the road. We're noticing them again.
AND...we're keeping track of shoes as well....
So the Gloves vs Shoes score thus far: Gloves =3, Shoes =3.