Entry for Wednesday, 6 May 1998

Ray poses atop the stone columns as we enter Alabama.

Poppies along the road near the Trace Parkway.

We have seen bug catchers like this around the fields ever since we starting riding on the Parkway. There appears to be a compartment in the bottom to hold those bugs unfortunate enough to get into this thing.

Rich and Susan Vecchio, the tandem riders from Scottsdale, AZ at Colbert Ferry.

Ray poses with a Park Service mowing machine driver at the Tennessee state line.

A rainy street in Waynesboro -- waiting for Connie to pass by in the van.

Last Modified on 5/9/98 at 4:46:08

Day's Narrative: I couldn't get through to the internet providers last night, because of bad phone lines, I suppose. This was never a problem last summer on the trip across the nation, however then I was using a Global Village modem, and now I have a US Robotics. Unfortunately, I don't have the Global Village modem with me now to test that theory.

We left the Victorian Inn about 8:00 and had breakfast a "Jack's", a fast food place in Iuka. There we met a very gregarious man who told us much of his life history, including his heart attack, and diabetes. He stopped short of showing us scars. However, he did tell us about another route back to the Trace that avoided much of the truck traffic on US highway 72.

We did our usual touring thing, stopping at all the pullouts to read the historical signs and explore.

As we were leaving the Colbert Ferry site we met a tandem riding couple, Rich and Susan Vecchio from Scottsdale, AZ. They told us about two motels in Waynesboro, which led us to decide to go there rather than search around for other lodging. They had the book Bicycling the Natchez Trace (I believe that was the name), published in 1997, which appeared to have good information about lodging and food on the Trace. We had seen the book earlier at one of the Park Service shops, but had not bought a copy.

The tandem riders caught up with us a few minutes later and passed at a high speed. Neville caught up with them, while Barbara and I trailed behind. Connie caught up with Barbara and I about 11:00 and we told her that we really didn't need to go looking around for a place, that she should go ahead and get rooms in Waynesboro. As we left we agreed to try and meet Connie at the village of Collinwood for lunch.

When we got to Collinwood we couldn't find Connie, so we stopped at an Amoco station in the middle of town to eat lunch. As it turned out Connie was waiting for us around the corner about half a block away in a restaurant we hadn't found.

As we finished lunch, it started to rain and Rich and Susan, the tandem riders, came up and cautioned us about waiting around, because if we hurried we could ride the remaining 12 miles to Waynesboro before the storm hit. Still not aware that Connie was waiting around the corner, we hurriedly mounted up and rode off toward Waynesboro. It was thundering now, but not where we were. Only a block away, Rich and Susan had stopped in order to avoid riding with lightening about. Throwing caution to the winds, we rode ahead in the rain. As it turned out, we sort of rode out of the storm. We lost the thunder and the rain slowly tapered off. We haven't seen Rich and Susan since, although they said they were planning to stay in Waynesboro.

It never did really rain hard on us, but the light rain, together with the spray from the trucks, was enough to get us really sandy and wet.

We got into Waynesboro about 3 p.m. and, of course, Connie wasn't there, she was now looking for us along the road.

Anyway, about 4:00 Neville and Barbara got a room in a B & B in town, while I waited in a restaurant on the square for Connie to pass by, which she did about 4:30.


Tomorrow we have reservations at the Ramada Inn in Columbia, TN. Neville and Barbara will stay in a B&B there.

About Bed and Breakfast Places

Connie and I had to give up on B & Bs. We simply have too much gear to fit in. The typical B&B has some kind of artifact on every square inch of horizontal surface. Sleeping in the room is like sleeping in a museum. There often is no counter space in the bathroom for toilet articles. In one place there was no table suitable for using the laptop computer, and the manager couldn't find one in the rest of the house. So, after the manager left for the night I used his desk in the lobby. All this for better than $85 per night.

In one B&B we obvious had an antebellum mattress in the antebellum house, since it sloped to the middle and we had to sleep on the edges on each side. One of the bolts that holds on the toilet seat on was broken, so if you happened to sit down at a slight angle, the seat would slide out from under you. That was the place that the manager left candles burning in their small glasses in the living room when he left, and the battery had been removed from the smoke detector in our room. That's scary stuff.

We don't stay in B&Bs anymore. On the other hand, Neville and Barbara really enjoy staying at B&Bs and find one every night if possible. They are traveling much lighter and it fits their tastes better than the impersonal motels.

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© Ray & Connie Poore, 1998