Roadtrip 2019: March 31 - Day One

I got up to find out that it was raining.  I ended up being about 45 minutes late starting because of it.  I basically waited until there was a slack and then loaded up real fast.  After slinging Socks into the catico and getting the feline equivalent of an “Up Yours, Buddy!”, (By Notorious C.A.T. no less, she not liking Socks hear lately) I mounted up and headed west.  I put the iPhone in a zip lock baggie and then mounted it into the phone holder frame.  At the St Charles area I notice that the phone was fixing to it the road, literally!   Grabbed it just in time and realize that the baggie was to slick for the phone brace to hold on to.  I stuck the phone into the brace and then the baggie over it.  It worxs! 

I made my first stop in Wadley Al then continued  on Al 22 to the intersection of AL 5 at Safford Al.  I took lunch at a Jacks in Selma Al. 

From Safford I confined down to Thomasville Al and picked up US 43.  It was at a Thomasville Walmart that I broke down and stripped off the rain pants and booties.  I got many of a curious look in Walmart; the home of the strange and they were thinking me strange.  I continued on US 43 to Grove Hill Al and there picked up US 84.  Now it was truely Westward Ho!

At Collins Ms I stopped at a truck stop to fuel and then continued.  Soon I was in Natchez Ms and crossing the Mississippi.  

Something about crossing the Mississippi, its like a great divide.  There is almost an immediate change from the landscape that is west of the Mississippi compared to east of the Mississippi.  The land east of the Mississippi seems more “Western”

But now I was in Louisiana and heading to Alexandria with daylight vastly eroding. 

I made Alexandria about 8 local time and got to my motel.  

580 Miles and a new personal best!  That’s a personal best  that I believe I’ll let stand for a while.  My seat wasn’t sore.  The gel seat works wonders, it is the bomb, but the physical demand of having to operate a cycle for that long of a distance is what was exhausting to me.  

After checking into the hotel I unloaded everything and took it into the motel room. Then with the gel seat removed I traveled to the Cracker Barrel  about a mile with the factory seat and my bottom wasn’t sore.   Got some grub and took it back to the motel room, ate and then slept.