Livonia to Donaldsonville

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Moisture
So you don't believe me when I say it is humid down here. How about this picture, taken with my camera about twenty minutes after leaving the motel room? The lens is still foggy. At 7 o' clock in the morning. How can it be that humid anywhere at 7am?

Early-morning foggy lens

It is not just moisture in the air, the entire land is wet down here. This is not too surprising, considering how low it lies, but even the puddles on the roads seem to be permanent, displaying healthy algae growth.

The route
Since I was not able to obtain a blood transfusion or testosterone cream (which really does not help anyway, as those who use it will testify) yesterday, I decided to make today and tomorrow two reasonably short days rather than trying to get to New Orleans all at once today. Turns out that was a good idea.

I left at sunrise, which, by the way, does not occur here until 6:23am, compared with 5:57am in Minneapolis—that is how far south I have come. The area south of Livonia is much more densely populated than that north of here and has a very different character. This is plantation country and oak trees are everywhere. Huge, old oak trees. In that, it is again a little bit like northern Germany, except that German oak trees are a little straighter, taller, sturdier, and more serious, as one might expect of German oaks.

Southern Louisiana: oak trees and sugar cane

Magnificent oak trees on even the humblest estates

Louisiana or Hexenberg?

Bayous begin
My main companion today was the Bayou Grosse Tete, which, if my French serves me right, roughly translates into River of the Unattractive Breast.

The Bayou Grosse Tete

Bayou is another weird word for something familiar, so perhaps this would be a good time to make a short list of essential terms the traveler in Louisiana should be familiar with:

• 3, 4, 5 mahls: 12 miles
• Bayou: River, but not quite
• Biscuits: Not cookies
• Grits: Do not order this menu item
• Levee: Dike
• Plantation: Farm that used to employ slaves
• Today's special: White beans (as opposed to red beams)
• Tweahlvnaafahyve: $12.95

That should get you by. Post a comment if you can think of anything else.

Donaldsonville
Thunderstorms were threatening all day, I got caught in a little one, but the skies only really opened up just as I arrived at the Magnolia Motel in Donaldsonville. When I was checking in, several lightning bolts struck right next to the motel, and I sure was glad to be sheltered; it would have made for a very scary ride.

Donaldsonville, just in time

The weather report on TV confirmed that today was basically over, a long storm system stretched along the entire route that I had traveled and beyond. Plaquemine was one of the towns I passed through today.

Today's a wrap

The storm let up a little as the day went on, although a persistent drizzle remained. I decided to venture into Donaldsonville to see what it was all about and to do my laundry. Turns out that the only laundromat in town is not much to behold and I ended up hand-washing my laundry at the motel. If you are looking for a business opportunity in Louisiana, though, you might want to consider this.

Washateria for sale in Donaldsonville

I had not seen much of the Mississippi today, so it was nice to catch a glimpse of it on the other side of the levee in downtown Donaldsonville.

The Mississippi by Donaldsonville

Donaldsonville is pretty dead. There is activity on the river, but mostly poverty in town. The work that is being done around here is mostly done by outsiders, who stay at the Magnolia Motel, which was sold out after I booked my room. The locals seem to occupy themselves mostly with drinking beer and eating fried chicken on street corners. Perhaps they talk about the good old times, but I cannot imagine when those might have been. Donaldsonville's proudest places, in any case, are the two corners below, both in the historic district.

On the National Register of Historic Places

Historic downtown Donaldsonville

Road Kill Tally
Armadillos and opossums are still putting on a valiant fight, but I am afraid it is too little too late.

1. Raccoon: 89
2. Opossum: 61
3. Snake: 36
4. Frog: 31
5. Skunk: 26
6. Armadillo: 22
7. Squirrel: 21
8. Deer: 19
9. Cat: 17
10. Turtle: 15
11. Groundhog: 13
12. Bunnywabbit: 10
13. Mouse: 7
14. Fox: 3
15. Lizard: 3
16. Dog: 3
17. Mole: 2
18. Porcupine: 1
19. Chipmunk: 1
20. Boar: 1

• Bird: 124

Natchez to Livonia

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As promised, I followed my own route today, and the first order of business was to ride through Natchez and into Louisiana, which made for the first river crossing in a long time.

Not part of the Natchez Spring Pilgrimage

Leaving Mississippi via the Natchez-Vidalia bridge

Here, the Great River forms the boundary between Mississippi and Louisiana, so after crossing the bridge, which is a highway and has no shoulder, I was in Louisiana, the final state on this journey.

Entering Louisiana

Louisiana, the south South. Land of exotic crops, fossil fuels, and intense heat and humidity. South of Vidalia, the route followed county roads 15 and 1, along levees, large plantations, and through small, poor towns. The main crops here seemed to be cotton, sorghum (Hirse), and, yes, corn. The first oil pumps showed up, too.

I never picked cotton. . .

Oil and Sorghum

Between all these southern crops and the heat, the surroundings looked familiar at times. The roads wind along the bottom of the Mississippi levee for much of the way, and levees (or dikes) seem to look the same pretty much anywhere. It makes sense that they would.

Mississippi or Wümme?

View from the cockpit

Eventually, I rode through the Old River Control Structure, without knowing what it was at the time. It is an intricate system of locks built by the Army Corps of Engineers to regulate the flow of the Mississippi and Atchafalaya rivers. Like much of what the Army Corps of Engineers builds, it is an impressive project.

The Atchafalaya River

One of the locks of the Old River Control Structure

The levees here are fairly far away from the Mississippi itself, but every now and then one can catch a glimpse of the Great River, which is bustling with activity here.

Pushing barges down the Mississippi

Parking lot for barges

Final destination for today was Livonia, which appears to be a bedroom community for Baton Rouge, just down the highway and across the river from here. The main attraction is the False River, which used to be a meander of the main Mississippi into the 1700's, but then was cut off and is now a lake. Luckily, Livonia has a small motel with an adjacent diner because I could not have gone any farther today. About 140% humidity, fairly intense heat, and persistent headwinds kind of got me down today, and after a hundred miles I felt pretty tired. Where is Dr. Fuentes when you need him?

Mississippi River Crossings
Finally another Mississippi River crossing. The last one was from Missouri into Illinois. Since then I have strayed far from the Great River, which may or may not have been a good idea, but now I am back by the river and here is the crossing from Mississippi into Louisiana.

Mississippi River Crossing 28

Road Kill Tally
A surprising new contender today: a wild boar. I did not expect that.

Skewing the statistics

1. Raccoon: 88
2. Opossum: 56
3. Snake: 32
4. Frog: 31
5. Skunk: 26
6. Squirrel: 21
7. Deer: 18
8. Cat: 17
9. Armadillo: 16
10. Turtle: 15
11. Groundhog: 13
12. Bunnywabbit: 10
13. Mouse: 7
14. Fox: 3
15. Lizard: 3
16. Dog: 3
17. Mole: 2
18. Porcupine: 1
19. Chipmunk: 1
20. Boar: 1

• Bird: 122

Clinton to Natchez

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Are we there yet?

Leaving Clinton
I left the motel through Clinton the way I had come in to get back to the Natchez Trace, through a residential neighborhood, which looked much like this.

Clinton: "A Most Livable Mississippi City"

Should "A Most Livable City" not really be called "A More Livable City?" In any case, it seemed livable enough. A cold front and thunderstorms were promised by the weather service for tonight, and the day sure started out hazy. It was so misty that I could not even wear my glasses because they would fog up immediately.

Clinton, 7 a.m.

Back on the Trace
One species that populates low-traffic, gently-graded roads around metropolitan areas, which I encountered frequently yesterday, but have not mentioned yet, is one that we all know and love: tri geeks. Even this early morning on god's day they were out and about.

Caution, tri geeks!

Well, back to the daily routine, only 86 miles left. I know I have been pretty down on the Trace, but I do not want to be too negative. There are several advantages to being on it, which I should not forget to mention: the little traffic that there is is strictly limited to 50 miles per hour and consists of mostly leisurely travelers, so it is a very safe road to travel; the road surface is mostly excellent, except for a stretch south of Tupelo, which was chip-sealed (Rollsplit) and wavy; south of Memphis there really are not many good roads to ride any closer to the Mississippi; and the scenery may be representative of Mississippi, I really don't know. I feel like I have ridden clear across the state of Mississippi without having seen much of it at all. Perhaps I am wrong, I hope so.

A squadron of egrets

2,000 miles from Lake Itasca

It is not all grass on the left, grass on the right, then trees, to be fair. Well, actually it is, but the trees change. As the Trace winds its way towards south Mississippi, the trees change to mostly pine trees, reminiscent of those found in Yosemite Valley and the Sierra Nevada in general. Huge, old pine trees. But here they are often covered with vines, from top to bottom, there is green everywhere. These are truly the subtropics, everything feels alive.

About time

Been there, done that

So at the end of the ride, I should be forgiving. Maybe this really was better than any alternatives. And hey, what's wrong with a little time trial practice?

Natchez
So after all the hype, I am finally here in Natchez. A town of less than 20,000 residents, its glory days are long over, but it has a rich history. When the Spanish turned this place over to America in 1797, Natchez was named capital of the new Mississippi Territory. As I already mentioned, Natchez was a final destination for boatmen from the North and starting point for the journey back. This caused considerable prosperity, and the arrival of steamboats turned Natchez into the cotton capital of the South. Half of all of America's millionaires lived here at one point.

The Mississippi flows past Natchez

The Great War of Northern Aggression brought all that to a rapid end, but the antebellum houses survived. In the 1930's, local women got together and began to arrange "pilgrimages" to the mansions, which were to bring in money for the restoration of the same. This was a great success and has been popular ever since. I went into town this afternoon to take a look around but did not last too long because it was insanely hot, and I did not take many pictures. You can see the houses on the official website, in case you are interested. They are quite impressive, but I am not entirely sure how I am to feel about pompous expressions of wealth created on the backs of slave labor.

The Natchez Inn in downtown Natchez

The biggest Baptist church yet

That's it from Natchez. Another 250 miles or so to New Orleans. I have to say that the ACA maps down here have been hopelessly out of date, and since they suggest I bounce right back east away from the Mississippi River, I will ignore them from here on out and follow my own route through Louisiana starting tomorrow. Across the Natchez-Vidalia bridge, then back along the Mississippi towards the Big Easy.

The Natchez-Vidalia Bridge

Road Kill Tally
Surprise, another quiet day. I saw a doe with her fawn up the road, and as I got close to them, they dispersed, mommy to the left, baby to the right. Not a great strategy, I thought, especially because the fawn was in a great meadow. But it lay down immediately and was barely visible anymore. Good job, Bambi.

Does not want to become a statistic

1. Raccoon: 86
2. Opossum: 52
3. Frog: 31
4. Snake: 29
5. Skunk: 26
6. Squirrel: 20
7. Deer: 18
8. Cat: 17
9. Turtle: 15
10. Groundhog: 13
11. Armadillo: 11
12. Bunnywabbit: 10
13. Mouse: 7
14. Fox: 3
15. Lizard: 3
16. Dog: 3
17. Mole: 2
18. Porcupine: 1
19. Chipmunk: 1

• Bird: 120

Kosciusko to Clinton

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Are we there yet?

Grass on the left, grass on the right. Then trees. Same as yesterday. At least for the first sixty miles. The only nice diversion during that time was the Pearl River, pictured below.

The Pearl River

The Pearl River was named in 1698 by the French explorer Pierre Le Moyne, after he found pearls at its mouth. The ridge between the Pearl and Big Black Rivers was used by the Natchez Trace to avoid the marshy lowlands. Since 1812, the last 75 miles of the Pearl River have served as the boundary between the states of Mississippi and Louisiana.

The Trace then reverted back to grass on the left, grass on the right until it reached the banks of the Ross Barnett Reservoir and wound its way into the Jackson metropolitan area.

Jackson

I'm goin' to Jackson, I'm gonna mess around,
Yeah, I'm goin' to Jackson,
Look out Jackson town.

—Johnny Cash

The Pearl River is impounded and turned into a great reservoir with 105 miles of shoreline just outside of Madison, part of the Jackson metropolitan area.

The Natchez Trace follows the banks of the Ross Barnett Reservoir

The Ross Barnett Reservoir

Reservoirs mean watersports, chief among which is fishing, of course. I do not know anything about fishing, have never successfully fished anything in my life, but am surely willing to learn. From observation, I have come to learn that one essential tool of the sports fisherman is a boat whose engine must have a horsepower rating equal to or exceeding the weight of the boat in kilograms. This allows a kind of "shock and awe" approch to fishing, through which a fisherman is able to get close to a fish before the fish can realize it, much like an F-18 fighter jet can drop a bomb on you before you ever hear it since it is faster than the speed of sound. I have seen this practiced in all states I have ridden through thus far, apparently with some success.

Next was Jackson, through which the Natchez Trace has not yet been completed, according to the Adventure Cycling Association. So I followed their detour through a bunch of industrial parks and dirty backroads only to find out that the Trace had indeed been completed, and not just yesterday, by the looks of it. I have felt that the ACA has been taking an easy way out of designing their route by simply directing riders to stay on the Natchez Trace for about 400 miles, and this does not make me feel any better. I am a little disappointed, I'll be honest.

Clinton
Eventually I wound my way into Clinton, a quaint little town on the outskirts of the Jackson metropolitan area, my home for the night. Clinton is home to Mississippi College, which was founded in 1826 and is the second oldest Baptist university in the world. Interestingly, MC does not give away its religious affiliation in either name or appearance.

Mississippi College

MC was also the first co-ed college in the U.S. to grant a degree to a woman. Who'd have thunk? In the end, though, Clinton is mostly famous for being the former headquarters of Worldcom. Remember that company with the minor accounting problems?

Dinner
Not much else going on in Clinton, so I checked into a motel and went out to get some dinner. Have you ever tried to walk around near an interstate highway? It is not designed for pedestrians, that is for sure. Bill Bryson has a wonderful description of what life can be like for a pedestrian in his book, Notes from a Big Country.

Out for an evening stroll

The first food place I chanced upon was a Popeyes, advertising "Chicken and Biscuits." Sounded appropriate enough for me, and I had never eaten there, so in I went. It's basically a KFC, as far as I can tell. Their spicy chicken is not very spicy.

Chicken and Biscuits for dinner

This reminded me of a fun heat transfer problem we had as one of our assignments in college. We were to design a cooler that would be able to freeze 20,000 chickens per hour. Imagine killing and plucking 20,000 chickens per hour. Not a pretty picture. I am told that that would not be an especially large installation.

Tomorrow: Natchez. This trip is winding down. A large cold front is moving in that is expected to dump a lot of rain starting tomorrow night. Could be interesting.

Road Kill Tally
Another quiet day on the Trace, with a few more kills close to the metro area. Snakes picked up some slack, most of the race is happening in the mid-field. Raccoons and opossums are apparently in a different league. Suspicious?

Psst! It's sleeping. . .

1. Raccoon: 86
2. Opossum: 52
3. Frog: 31
4. Skunk: 26
5. Snake: 26
6. Squirrel: 20
7. Deer: 18
8. Cat: 17
9. Turtle: 15
10. Groundhog: 13
11. Bunnywabbit: 10
12. Armadillo: 10
13. Mouse: 7
14. Fox: 3
15. Lizard: 3
16. Dog: 3
17. Mole: 2
18. Porcupine: 1
19. Chipmunk: 1

• Bird: 119

Tupelo to Kosciusko

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Are we there yet?

Grass on the left, grass on the right. Then trees. Same as yesterday. Same as tomorrow, I suppose. Let's see what else is happening on the Trace.

There are scenic overlooks, which are anything but scenic. Usually you cannot see very far, and if you can see, you cannot see what is advertised. Like here, where is the limestone? The black prairie? Whatever.

A scenic overlook

Scenic overlooks are somewhat rare, historic sites much more common. All of these sites are advertised half a mile out, then there is a pull-out, a marker plaque, and nothing else because whatever is being remembered is long, long gone. Like the Tockshish historic site below. I even left the marker in the picture, click on it for an enlarged version.

The Tockshish Historic Site, looking left

The Tockshich Historic Site, looking right

Wonderful. This kind of information would be much more easily relayed in a little notebook. I do not have to stare at a plain forest to imagine what the post office might have looked like. Whatever.

French Camp

Louis Leflore established French Camp in about 1812, which was called French Camp because he was French. The village of today retains the name. Go figure. Exciting stuff.

So I pretty much just kept riding. Staying in a motel was exactly the right thing to do, I left at 6am, felt fresh, and finished less than six hours after that. During the ride, things got so boring that I became really reckless and tried something new. I'm so crazy!

Centerline violation!

By the time I got done with my ride, it was already way hotter than it should be anywhere. Another motel, and Pizza Hut again for lunch. All-you-can-eat lunch buffet, it was great. First I had all-you-can-eat pizza. Then I had all-you-can-eat maccaroni and cheese, then all-you-can-eat salad, then all-you-can-eat bread sticks, and all-you-can-eat pizza again. The best $4.49 I spent in a long time.

Ride with Ben
Do you want to experience what it is really like to be riding down here? Well, you are in luck. I have just the thing for you. Click on the picture below for a higher-resolution version, display it full-sized on your computer, place your trainer in front of the computer, turn off the air conditioner, turn on the heat, and ride for six hours.

Tour Simulator

Road Kill Tally
Two dead raccoons and one squirrel today. All are suspected suicides as a result of depression brought on by complete boredom. Poor fellows.

Are horsies pretty?

1. Raccoon: 86
2. Opossum: 52
3. Frog: 31
4. Skunk: 26
5. Snake: 22
6. Squirrel: 19
7. Deer: 18
8. Cat: 17
9. Turtle: 14
10. Groundhog: 13
11. Bunnywabbit: 10
12. Armadillo: 9
13. Mouse: 7
14. Fox: 3
15. Lizard: 3
16. Dog: 3
17. Mole: 2
18. Porcupine: 1
19. Chipmunk: 1

• Bird: 119