“Less History, More Pictures”

That was the critique of yesterday’s blog from a long-time reader. Yes folks, it was a tough day to be a blogger. First thing in the morning, I was accosted by an angry mob of six highly educated cyclists who said that I threw them under the bus in yesterday’s post when I mentioned that they seemed oblivious to area history. Although they claimed that they were indeed interested in history, after breakfast all of them blew past Bayou Pierre which is the area where Andrew Jackson and his wife once lived:

Perhaps overcompensating, Kevin insisted that we instead stop at this not particularly enticing historical site:

He did a bit better with this church built in 1837, the only remaining building from a once vibrant Trace community:

Today’s 65 mile ride from Port Gibson to Ridgeland started out like yesterday, a nice ride without traffic. Here are a few scenes:

After lunch, it started getting really hot and humid. I rode in my usual post-lunch food coma state until a break at mile 50. Liz suggested that I try a bottle of half water and half coke. Wow, caffeine and sugar, it was like jet fuel. I finished a long and hot day of riding feeling strong. Here we are coming to an afternoon stop, with Mary clearly happy since this was the site of General Grant’s camp before the Battle of Raymond:

The Trace was a lot more trafficky by Jackson, the largest city in Mississippi. Tomorrow we are headed back into the hinterlands and hopefully we will be back to seeing fewer cars.

A few thoughts about the South. Southern hospitality? That certainly worked in Natchez and Vicksburg where everyone seemed genuinely nice. When someone asked “how are y’all doing?” I had to remind myself not to think “what does she/he want?”. Jackson appears to be a bit different as it is less Southern charm and more strip malls. Passengers in several cars drove past me while I was riding, opened their windows with fists raised and yelled words I cannot print in this family-friendly blog. When we hit the hinterlands tomorrow, hopefully that charm will appear once again.

Then there is southern cooking. It’s really good, but I am pretty confident that Southern cuisine is not part of a pre-race meal for any Tour de France rider. As an example, the whipped sweet potato dish at last night’s dinner was two parts butter to one part potato, mixed with bourbon vanilla and brown sugar. It was like eating dessert for dinner, which of course did not stop me from then having the Bonzo cake for dessert (don’t ask). And when we asked a cab driver the other day about favorite Southern vegetables, she mentioned fried okra, fried zucchini and fried corn on the cob.

I like to read up on areas that I am visiting. For this trip, I also learned a little about life in Mississippi from my college friend Jody (of Williams College Marching Band glockenspiel fame, see 3/20/95 post). Her mom’s family was part of the once thriving German Jewish community in Vicksburg, having emigrated from Germany in the 1830s. There was once a prominent Jewish merchant class in Mississippi and Jody’s mom’s family for a long time owned the largest department store in Vicksburg. Today’s musical coda is not quite Mississippi, but still Southern

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zJCEHnIX4k