Day 50 – 40 Miles

Grenada, MS to Enid, MS

Total Miles: 2711

I awoke this morning at 7 feeling pretty crummy, my legs were sore and stiff and I had no desire to get on my bike whatsoever. Last night I had decided to pedal another 70 miles towards Arkansas and get a cheap motel and a good nights rest but I knew that it just wasn’t going to happen today. I started doing some strategic googling before I got out of bed and finally settled on a place in the town I was currently in, I was going to get some laundry done and then just relax all day. With that little glimmer of hope in my mind I got up and got my camp packed up.

I pedaled myself to the end of the camp and onto the main road and started to second guess my local motel decision. Do I really want to pay money just to stay in this shitty little town another night? Not really. I figured I could at least push 40 or 50 miles west and find a motel there. I stopped and did a little more googling and found a good spot but I couldn’t find any other camping spots between there and Little Rock. Reluctant to spend money on motels for so many nights in a row I made an executive decision and changed my plan back to Memphis. My cousins live there and had offered me a place to stay should I need it but that still left me with a lot of extra time and nowhere to ride. Google showed me a bunch of sweet looking state parks between me and Memphis so I thought, meh, what the hell, I’ll just do a bunch of short days and take in the majesty of Mississippi and relax with a couple of rest days. Traveling by myself sucks sometimes but at least it lets me just follow my flights of fancy and change my plans whenever and however I want to.

With my new “plan” figured out I hit the road for real. I only had 40 or so miles to my camp for the night so I figured it’d easy squeezy. Not exactly. My legs were just not having it this morning, the weather was perfect, the landscape was pleasing but my body just couldn’t find the go go juice that it needed. I was riding along up a pitifully small hill and using the gears I’d usually reserve for something a little more substantial when I hear that familiar chk chk chk of dog paws on pavement. But this time time it was multiplied by what sounded like a hundred. I didn’t have the juice to outrun a snail at that point so I started to slow down my already meager pace. I intended to just get off my bike and scare the dogs away by being all alpha and shit. Not smart probably but, meh. Before I came to a stop, though, I looked behind me to see what I was gonna have to deal with. It was adorable. I was being “chased” by this momma dog followed by a whole fluffer (pack? herd? flock?) of whittle puppies! They were running beside me, barking like crazy. I felt bad but I knew what I had to do. I emptied a whole water bottle right into their little, cute puppy faces. Not because I thought they were gonna, like, cuddle me to death, but because I wanted them to get out of the road before they were turned to puppy pizza. I’m basically a superhero.

The rest of the morning went by pretty quickly, I felt a bit better after my legs got warmed up but it was still a bit of a struggle. I got to the campground and secured, like, the choicest spot in all of existence. It’s right at the corner of the park and has a 180 degree view of the lake, it’s so good, in fact, that I decided to stay here for 2 nights and get some rest and relaxation in tomorrow. After I got my tent set up I headed back up the road for a bit to get some ice cold beers for tonight. The only problem with brining beers back to my camp I’ve found is keeping them cold but, like the crafty little alcoholic that I am, I found a way. The panniers I use to hold all of the stuff on my bike are waterproof so thought, if they can keep water out then that means they can keep water in. And what’s ice but frozen water, eh? SCIENCE! So that’s gonna be my night, laying next to the lake, drinking some ice cold beers and reading. I couldn’t ask for a better evening. Stay tuned for the next edition of James and his Bike!