STL2NOLA 18 – Vicksburg, MS to Roy’s Cabins, MS

I had mentally prepared myself for a long, boring ride through rural Mississippi from Vicksburg, MS to Roy’s Cabins, MS. As has happened consistently on this trip, America delighted and surprised me with non-stop entertainment and amusement. OK, I exaggerate a tiny bit. There were, indeed, hours and hours of pedaling through vast empty fields. But there was enough going on between the countryside and my music that I was not bored.

The day started with a 12% grade as soon as I turned out of the parking lot. Oof. Let me explain. My bicycle has a really low lowest gear. I can ride up 6% or 7% grades pretty much forever when I shfit down into that gear. I can push to the top of short 10% grades. I can power to the top of 12% grades if I go all out but I save that effort for times when I do not need to do any more climbing for awhile. That kind of effort really takes it out of me. I did not ride up this hill; I walked the bike. I was not going to kill myself at the very beginning of a 77 mile ride.

Once at the top of the hill, the next couple of miles of the Mississippi River Trail led me through some very neat neighborhoods with wonderful old houses. I finally found my own street sign as I tooled along.

Next up, or should I say down, for the MRT was a drop out of the hills to the river level. I got to see the American Splendor docked there and had a brief conversation with one of the deck hands. Should you want a river cruise, you do not need to go to Europe to do that in style. This is not a real paddlewheeler but the website says that it has that “aesthetic.” I will admit that it looks pretty inviting.

The US Army Corps of Engineers’ Jesse Brent Lower Mississippi River Museum sits right next to the river. This a definitely a place that I want to visit. The Mississippi IV work boat is one of it’s main exhibits.

This boat kind of blew my mind. I always think of steamships as vehicles of the distant past, or at least the early 20th century. I will just quote from the sign.

Commissioned in 1961, the Mississippi IV plied the waters of the Mississippi River for more than 30 years. Though it was the fourth Corps vessel to bear the name “Mississippi,” she was the first to employ diesel power.

We are, today, just sixty-ish years from the switch from steamboats to diesel. That’s not a very distant past.

The road out of Vicksburg was a cyclist’s delight with a nice wide bike lane and lots of space separating it from motor traffic. There was also one post with a bicycle sign on the top and a 45 MPH sign immediately beneath it. Dang! Vicksburg has some strong, fast cyclists!!

My last ascent of the day was up the bridge over the Yazoo River, the “River of Death” according to Johnson’s (revised) Universal Cyclopaedia of 1886. Wikipedia taught me that the Yazoo and Mississippi Rivers form the the eastern and western boundaries of the Mississippi Delta region.

I had opted to ride about 20 miles on US-61 instead of strictly following the Mississippi River Trail. That shorted my day from 92 miles to only 77. Despite being a numbered US highway, and despite US-61 being pretty busy and populated farther north, it is just farmland north of Vicksburg. After more than an hour of riding, I finally found something so I took a picture of it. Isn’t is exciting?

Yeah. That’s what I thought, too. But hey, it was a welcome break from farm fields.

The next welcome break was this sign by a driveway. I need something like it.

Then I truly did get to something cool. I bicycled over a little bridge with a whole flock of swallows swirling around. I just stopped and marveled at the energy around me. They are so fast, I could not get a good enough look at them to figure out which kind of swallow I was watching, even with the help of the photos in the Merlin bird app. More props to slow travel. I have driven over bridges like this all my life but never stopped on one to soak it all in.

Mississippi was kind enough to post a sign of encouragement.

OK… in truth this is a town and it was also the spot where I turned off of US-61 and onto Mississippi route 1.

There was a neat little store at the intersection. Even though it was closed, it had a nice bench, some shade, and flowers. Perfect for a lunch break. Had I not been riding by on a Sunday, it might have been open. The sign said that it would open at 9:00 but did not say which day. If you know, you know.

Route 1 was actually less interesting than US-61. The only differences were a) I regularly past houses, and b) I rode next to the levee.

I whiled away the hours with music. First the soundtrack to Beetlejuice and then I had my own sing-along with Harry Chapin’s Greatest Stories Live. That is one of my favorite albums of all time and it was fun to listen to it from beginning to end without interruption.

That album includes “Taxi” so, of course, the next album I listened to was Sequel. That album also has “Story of a Life.” I had forgotten how much I like that song. Refresh your memory; give it a listen.

When I finally got to a road up onto the levee, I hiked up so that I could see the Mississippi River. I could see water, barely, through the trees. No photo. I took one but it just looked like a line of trees. But here is the view from the top of the levee.

Jump over to this panorama view in Google Photos to savor the full 360 degree-ness of this vervant Mississippi Delta landscape from the top of the levee. You will even get to glimpse the Mississippi River past the trees.

The Shipland WMA was the next attraction on the tour, with a prominent sign telling me where to go, or at least where to look.

I did and boy was I surprised to see the kind of wildlife they have there. Believe you me, I kept a healthy distance. Those beasts can be quick.

Signs are significant features of the day when you are spending nine hours watching farm fields slip silently past. It is always encouraging to know that I am not, yet, lost.

Somewhere in the middle of the next bunch of miles, I heard a vehicle with really noisy tires behind me. I waved for it to pass, expecting a Jeep with those knobby tires. Instead it was a thoroughly beat up small pick-up with the windows rolled down. The driver pulled up next to me and slowed down to keep pace. I looked left to see another grey haired geezer (with a much better, longer beard than mine) grinning at me. “You doing OK?” he asked. Yup. “Need anything? Water?” Nope but thanks. “You drive safe!” We waved, smiled, and off he went.

Sixty-eight miles after breakfast, I reached the southern tip of Lake Washington and a bunch of cypress trees. I think they have the coolest looking roots.

Just nine more miles brought me around to the northern tip of the lake and the Turtle Hole at Roy’s Cabins, my cozy room for the night.

Check out St. Louis to New Orleans for a map of the entire tour and a list of all of the blog posts about it.