Day 41: Mississippi Flat

We got out of camp early and then …

Ten miles into the 72 miles we heard a loud pop that sounded like a gunshot. As I looked around, Lisa said “That was us.” Our rear tire, which I have been meaning to replace for the last week, had a catastrophic failure. To make matters worse the two tubes that we were carrying (brand new) had holes. We were delayed for at least thirty minutes. Thank goodness for Chandler coming to the rescue and we had to borrow a tube from Bruce2, which we will repay.

There seem to bean inordinate amount of unrestrained dogs in Louisiana and Mississippi–or dogs that have a lot of pent-up energy. They all come bounding out of every corner of their yard as soon as we ride by and the chase is on! If we see them in time, I give my best “Marlene” voice (anyone from Custom Canines know what I fondly mean!) and most times it works. I did use my water bottle and sprayed one particularly tenacious mixed breed of some sort, which also seemed to work. Most dogs are just out for the chase game and most likely not out to make a meal of us, so it usually does not worry me much.

The rest of the day, aside from finding no Diet Coke in the camp cooler or the SAG cooler, turned out OK. I have offered on multiple occasions to pay Bubba to keep DC in the cooler, which he refuses to take, and during the day if I need some, there normally is a gas station or mini mart on the route. Not the case today in rural Mississippi, but I survived without getting a migraine, so that was a relief.

Tomorrow, we ride into Dauphin Island, AL, for 2 days. Forecast is for rain most of the day tomorrow and cooler temps in the low 60s. Hopefully some sunshine on our day off. but not much control over that. We have a nice camp spot tonight, so we hope for a quiet, storm-free night.