Woke up this morning as per usual time but just had a feeling today wasn't going to be good! I felt good and the alligator and catfish from last night hadn't had any delayed affects, so there was no reason. We set off a few minutes behind time and made great progress in the first hour which is always the hardest hour as you bed in all those aches and pains and get settled in the saddle. Soon hit the town of Hammond and headed North which put the wind behind me and good speed to Franklington. The route was flat, wooded and swampy with random derelicts of what used to serve this highway, more logging vehicles were on the roads as we went through the forest plantations.
Lunch was at McDees, no food just drinks and a bit of internet time to sort out the remainder of the route, it was as we sat in the car the heavens opened and there was a storm of biblical proportions which passed over within 20 minutes, that basically set the trend for the rest of the day. All of a sudden the wind would whip up and you could see the storm coming towards you, I was lucky that I had Caroline in the car in close proximity for shelter, however for the two cyclists travelling in the opposite direction there was nothing. The hail was hurting as it struck me - another reason for wearing a helmet:-) where was Caro? 2 minutes later she tipped up as if nothing was happening!!!!! Again within minutes it had gone. I prepared myself for the next front by putting my waterproof on, this made me feel like a boil in the bag as it was still in the high 80s and the humidity was in the 90s.
We crossed into Mississippi about 3ish, there was no big welcome sign as all the other states had. I rode on and 2 miles down the road there it was - Welcome to Mississippi - but the most unaccessible sign ever to have your photo taken!
The down pours kept coming all the way into Wiggins and now the lightening has started and a weather warning has been given - one thing I will say about the US TV stations is they know how to do weather:-)
Caroline and I are looking at re-routing tomorrow to avoid the storms, however make come at a cost of an extra day and finishing on Saturday - we will see what tomorrow brings.
Lessons learnt today:
Should have done this East to West (confirmed)
Mississippi is full of petrolheads who love their ve -hicles
No hard shoulder on the main highway I'm on.
People still think we are Australian
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