Another Tupelo-Baldcypress swamp at Cole Creek



200 miles down----242 to go!!!

 Day 26 - We had a leisurely morning as I got caught up on blogging, since we had a low mileage day planned.  We did not leave our motel room until checkout time at 11:00 AM.  We made a stop at a museum before we even left town and met another couple who were very interested in our tandem bike.  They were tandem bicyclists themselves, although they were touring the Natchez Trace by car.  They mentioned that when they are on their loaded bike it weighs 500 pounds.  This was reassuring to Geri and I because our bike, trailer, all our gear and body weight approaches a quarter of a ton also.  We thought we pedaled the most weight of any loaded tandem!  Our day was similar to yesterday, except we only had to travel about 48 miles.  The weather remained pleasant for us with temperatures never getting any higher than in the low 80's and lower humidity.  We stopped at every exhibit and historical site again, including another Tupelo-Baldcypress swamp and several views of the original Natchez Trace.  It is amazing to us that any evidence of the old Natchez Trace still remains, since it was abandoned over 150 years ago, but in some places it looks easily passable.  I am not a superstitious person, but I felt like I should not have bragged yesterday about how long it had been since we had any tire trouble, because we had a rear flat conveniently at one of the roadside exhibits.  The tire had a noticeable hole in it, so I had to patch the tube and the tire.  I must have run over something pretty big, but I am thankful I didn't hit it with the front tire too.  Just south of Mathison, MS., where we got a motel room for the night, we passed the 200 mile marker on the Natchez Trace.  We are close to the halfway mark.  Just before sunset, like yesterday, we reached a motel.  We picked up a Subway dinner to go so we could eat in our room and not have to go out again.  The weather forecast for the next week is a carbon copy of the weather we have had for 2 days now.  It's payback time for all the nasty hot weather we had to endure for so long earlier!