Day 1 from Tallahassee FL to Jackson MS

Sunday March 23, 2014 - 0 miles

Today we drove from Tallahassee Florida up to Jackson Mississippi. We start riding bicycles on the Natchez trace in the morning. With me are Jim and Jane, Steve and Carol, Dennis, Gary, and Jack.

We are doing a semi-loaded tour down the trace. We'll be staying in motels, and taking an easy and fun pace. Looks like the weather is going to be nice and cool. Here's some pictures of the gang at the start of our drive today -

We stopped by Don & Becky's home in Jackson MS to drop off two of our vehicles. Don & Becky are super-neat people, the kind of folk who seem like long-lost friends. We met their mini-horse and cat, then went out to eat at a fabulous restaurant called Babalu's.

After a delicious fish taco and fresh guacamole dinner, Don treated the gang to an amazing concert next door, featuring an Austin TX band called "Mingo Fishtrap". Both dinner and the music hall were located in a beautiful renovated building that used to be the Elementary School that Don went to. What a great start to our Natchez Trace adventure !

Thank you Don & Becky for the wonderful time in Jackson Mississippi !!

Day 2 from Jackson MS to Port Gibson MS

Monday March 24, 2014 - 69 miles

Today was our first day of riding on the Natchez Trace. The morning started out cool, about 40 degrees, and gradually rose up to about 65 degrees. We started out from our Days Inn motel and rode about 2 miles to a bike trail. The bike trail continued about 6 miles along the Trace, until we were almost out of Jackson. This was great for us, as we avoided all the local car traffic on the Natchez Trace. 

Once we were on the Trace, it turned into a gorgeous day. We made lots of frequent stops, some for minor mechanical problems like brakes rubbing or bolts coming loose, and many stops for all the historical info along the Trace. We ended up doing a long 69 miles into Port Gibson, and the weary 7 riders and our support team (Jane Ann) decided to drive into Vicksburg to eat dinner at the Cracker Barrel restaurant. Here's the photos from today's journey -