Hubby and I are in Mississippi for one of his golfing/gambling weekends. I brought my new bike for several reasons. #1 - I can't stay in the casino ALL day long. Well, I can, but it often has negative consequences. #2 - It's a new bike. #3 - If you go to the trouble to bring a bike 300 miles, you are sort of obligated to ride it.
And by the way, just where was this weather last weekend? We were in Florida last weekend, and we nearly froze to death. Today I was able to wear shorts and sandals, and the temperature was nearly 80 degrees. Stupid weather.
I had mapped out a route for today that was supposed to be 39 miles. I have mentioned before the dangers of creating route maps on the computer, especially when I'm dealing with unfamiliar territory. I had ridden my bike here once before, but I just did an out-and-back on a fairly busy highway. Today I wanted to do a loop, so I plotted a route on the website and uploaded it into the GPS. The computer doesn't tell me, however, when roads are dirt. Two different times today I got to my turn and couldn't turn because it was a dirt road. I was headed down one road on my route, feeling proud of myself for riding and for venturing out on a new route, when the road changed to dirt unexpectedly. I decided to tough it out, because turning around at that point would have meant doubling back a little more than 4 miles. I thought I might be able to navigate the dirt road if I went slowly and proceeded with caution.
My bike started fishtailing immediately, and then the road turned to pure sand, and my bike ground to a halt. I decided repeating a little more than 4 miles was preferable to wrecking my bike, so I turned around. That explains the weird little appendage in today's map.
The name of the route stems from the fact that I wound up in Madden, Mississippi, not a place I had originally included on my route. I stopped at a little store there, and there were several very nice people there who spoke to me about being out there riding.
I just THOUGHT I lived in the country. Some of the roads I was on today weren't just rural. They bordered on desolate. I vacillated between being thankful for the lack of traffic and being nervous that I was out there all by myself. I made it back without incident, even coming back on a busy highway with big trucks and very little shoulder. I wasn't afraid they would hit me; I was afraid they might scratch my bike. When I got back to the parking lot of the golf course where I had dropped Hubby off, my GPS said I had been 49.62 miles. So I rode around the parking lot until it read 50. Rozmo would be so proud of me.
I haven't mentioned the gambling part. Last night we played 3-card poker, which is my favorite. Tonight the cards weren't going our way, so we moved to the craps table. I am not a huge fan of craps, but I won a little over a hundred dollars tonight. I just hate that the only way to play craps is to stand up. And I still can't reach the table when I need to pick up chips. My legs were already sore from riding today, and then I stood there for a couple of hours.
So Hubby and I are turning in early. I'm planning to ride again tomorrow, but a much shorter route. I want to be back before college football comes on.
I will try to take pictures of our suite tomorrow. It has more square footage than my first apartment, I think. Good night!
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