Day 12: North of Dees, AL to Perkinston, MS

Daily Miles: 70.8 Total Miles: 660.4

Closest thing to a Welcome to MS sign

Today was a big day! Big miles (70+), big climbs (~2900 ft), and a big open road with almost no traffic. This morning we woke up, swung by McDonald's for a quick breakfast since our hotel didn't offer any, and drove back to the trail. I headed out at 9am and less than 5 miles later was at the Mississippi state line. At least we assume it was the Mississippi state line, since there was no sign! I was all ready for another big photo shoot, and nothing. All we could find a few feet up the road was a street called State Line Road. That had to suffice and off I continued. The only thing that welcomed me to Mississippi was a noticeably worse road, one that occasionally improved, but for the most part shook me senseless today.

Hello Mr. Cow

I planned to meet up with Mary in VanCleave, which at 28 miles into the ride was not even halfway, but it was the only spot listed on today's entire route that said it had a place to eat. Well, the place it had to eat was a Texaco station offering a variety of fried things. I bought some chicken nuggets, a Coke, and a PowerBar, ate, and then hit the road again. The scenery today was nothing but beautiful country roads and I saw a ton of animals: horses, goats, a turtle, lots of dogs (not my favorites), and even some very interesting longhorn cows or bulls.

I had the road to myself today!

I continued on along the pretty, but rough roads, climbing along (and also going downhill too, I climbed over 2700 ft, but our final destination was only ~250 feet higher than today's lowest elevation). I met Mary again about 21 miles out from Perkinston, had a snack, chatted a bit, and then set out to finish up. I made it in just after 4pm and finished the 70 miles in 5.5 hours on the bike. We drove 7 miles north to Wiggins and are staying in an interesting local hotel. In other news, we are really getting into the Bayou/Cajun scene! Last night we went to Sidney's a local Bayou La Batre restaurant and I had a grilled shrimp po' boy and Mary had the best fish and lima beans of her life. We're looking forward to eating our way across the South!