Day 5
(Sorry, it’s long)

Today is my little four legged friend’s birthday. Ah Miss Piglet, miss you little one. A decade and a half together flew by. Folks a few times out here have shared with me their “lifelong” dreams which has been as simple as to visit Mobile. I keep telling them I don’t know that I believe you should have a lifelong dream. Most things people call their “dream” shouldn’t remain a dream, you should work to make them reality. “Lifelong” shouldn’t be used in conjunction with “dream” and folks should realize life is short and make it happen. Life is gone in a heartbeat. That’s just my take though! Soapbox for today’s blog is done…continue reading.

Woke up (after the best night of sleep ever on a super comfy, cootie-less bed) with plans to leave early but the fog had descended on Gainesville over night and with two lane highways, small shoulders and ginormous logging trucks whipping up and down the highways, it didn’t seem wise to leave till the fog cleared. Just as Dale had called out…it lifted around 8. 

Oh did I mention? They even let me do a load of laundry! This was the highlight of my morning because pushing off down the highway I could smell the clean dryer sheet fragrance and glorious fresh detergent smell radiating from my clothes which was in stark contrast to the previous day’s pedal. 

From here I crossed over the Tombigbee River. And crossed it a few more times after that.  

Thru a few small towns that are barely a spot on the map (the usual). On to Aliceville. Part way there a big truck pulled up next to me…and slowed down, rolled down his window and kept my pace at around 13 MPH and inquiring about my trip, where I was headed, etc. I kept pedaling and answered his questions. He was shocked and kept pace with more and more questions. After about 1/2 a mile we wrapped up our conversation and he wished me luck, said he’d pray for my safety and took off. I never think to take pictures, must work on this. Stopped to get a pic of his truck as he was taking off but that’s all I got.   

Aliceville was one of the larger towns I had been thru with a population around 2000. I asked at the hardware store where to find a grocery store and a man came out to ask about my trip. I told him I was following the URR to which he mentioned he had flown to Ontario to see the ending point. He said loved that I was doing the trek by bike but thought I was a little crazy and told me next time I should just fly to Ontario, it would be faster. Ha! 

Aliceville had a grocery store, the Piggly Wiggly, a chain down here. OH MAN! Jackpot!!! I was able to get fresh food here. My front handlebar bag was overflowing with fruit, yogurt, and my water bottles had 100% juice in them vs chemical ridden sports drinks, I could barely close the lid to my handlebar bucket. Rad.   

Someone from Subway Sandwiches came out to ask me about buying a bike. Again, wish I had taken a picture. She wanted to buy a bike to ride to work and wanted suggestions on what bike to buy. Sheesh. I had no idea what to tell her but we chatted for a bit about general biking. After that, I was out of Aliceville. 

Just outside town I saw these basketball courts. A few of them and modern buildings. I thought perhaps it was their entire K-12 schooling. As I got closer I realized it was this:  

Oops. I don’t want to shoot hoops with these fools so I pedaled a bit faster. 

For the record … 100% of people in Alabama returned my wave. And I probably waved hi to around 100 people riding up their fine state. Impressive Alabama. Impressive. Let’s see what Mississippi has got on youse!! Crossing into Mississippi seemed a bit…anticlimactic. A small sign and a bit down the road a bigger sign. I don’t know what I was expecting. I guess I was hoping for confetti and balloons to fall from the sky congratulating me for making it to Mississippi. No dice. But…nevertheless, this called for a photo. I hooked my magnetic joby (mini tripod) up to a pole and ran to take a timered self shot with my bike and the Mississippi sign. All the sudden a car heading towards Sweet Home Alabama came screeching to a halt, a door flies open and guy probably about 25 years old starts yelling at me. Honestly…I was so startled by this I couldn’t even process what he was saying!!! WTF is all I could think. Do I run for my pepper spray? There’s nobody around, it’s desolate here, help! What do I do?!?! When I got my wits about me I realized he was yelling “ARE YOU OK!?!?” Turned out, he just saw me at the other pole, then saw me sprinting to my bike then freeze then run back to where I was the first time and he thought something was wrong. I can imagine this looked weird out of context. Ha! I then just explained I was just trying to take a selfie with a camera timer and running to get into the picture. All is well o’er here. Just excited to be in Mississippi. 🙂 He said I scared the ____ out of him. I said he scared the _____ out of me so we’re even. He continued on into Alabama and I continued on into Mississippi. Funny part….it just dawned on me, in my full resolution version you can totally see his car coming down the road in the background of my picture! Ha! 

Mmm…this fine shit was when he scared me and my camera flew out of my hand. Nice work buddy, real nice.   

Adios Alabama  
I had planned to go to Aberdeen and camp just outside town but first I was going to stop in Columbus and get some more water etc. as it had been about 30 miles since Aliceville and its over 80 degrees out. In Columbus I found, as often is down here, the streets change names and I’m never sure if I missed something and am on the wrong street or the street just changed names. So I stopped in a gas station parking lot to take a look at my map. I was looking for a while. I was also doing the mileage math. Two someone’s in a car finished gassing up and pulled around next to me, rolled down the window. Meet Calvin and Jamie.   

They were down here from Detroit, Jamie’s family lives down here now. They were asking (as most people do) what I was doing. I explained I was biking the URR route. They got so excited!!! I got so excited!!! We all were so excited!! They got out, took my picture, then I finally remembered to take a picture myself. We talked about all kinds of things comparing this area of the country to the areas we live in, etc. They talked about some of the things to do/see in Columbus. And, they confirmed I was going the right way, street changes names. They rolled onward. I got to thinking…maybe I I should be checking things out in Columbus. Some of the places they described were too far out for me but I decided to cut through town and try and see something. They inspired me. In town I found a huge women’s university with a beautiful campus.  

Antebellum houses. Google told me I could tour one so I went to the address to find people on the porch but the tour time was over. They were super helpful and kind enough to give me a flier to another house that was open for tour! So not all bad. I rode down there and met super amazing folks there. They were dressed in era attire. The entire house was furnished with era appropriate everything. They don’t allow pictures inside or I would share. They were all SO excited about my trip. I think we talked almost as much about me as about the house and history. I invited them to follow me on my blog and I hope they are! They were all awesome and so welcoming. So far everywhere is beating my expectations. There’s more to this story but more on that later…to be continued..ahhhhh…..the suspense!!!!!    

 
I decided I needed to stay in Columbus. I was running too late after my extended stops. Figured I’d just spring for a motel even though it REALLY wasn’t in the plans to stay in a motel more than once a week. Oh well. Went down to the civil war cemetery, saw the white and black cemeteries. Columbus is the biggest place I’ve been since Mobile. It’s a city. Around 30k people someone said. It has everything pretty much. Motel 6 looked super clean and also gives me military discount for my Coast Guard Aux gig so it’s pretty darn cheap so I just headed there for the night. (Hoping this stay is better than the two previous hotel/motels) 

I was beat, it was another over 70 mile day. I’m about 350 miles from Mobile now. 

(PS I’m having problems with my pictures hopefully they load. :-/)