Boog's Blog

BSNT Starkville

Weather same as yesterday only more of it.

Good scenic ride today. QB did a section as well, works especially well as I took her bike 🙂

Time for some southern food shots. Seen in piggy wiggly.

The nearest town turned out to be Starkville – home of Mississippi State. School break so campus, a very nice and spread out one, is quiet.

Hot tub at the hotel this evening. Yeah!

BSNT Tupolo Mississippi

Hot, humid, sunny. Did I mention hot?

A day of riding and a couple of nature walks. Usual info about plants, trees, shrubs, edible and not.

The film at the government visitors center is a terrible whitewash of the native American history. "They moved to Oklahoma ".

The Chickasaw village and nature walk was more historically correct with good info about the local edibles.

The hills Have flattened out to manageable and even enjoyable to ride.

For the first time saw more than a few fellow fools… eh travelers.

The trace is either a place to look at conifers for mile after mile, enjoy the hills and heat, or, contemplate how the Higgs boson causes mass, or whether Buddha had the right path for oneself.

BSNT russellville Alabama

Nice riding weather, a little humid.

Alabama we hardly knew you. A few nasty hills and you were gone. Other than colbert landing on the Tennessee river (in Alabama) there were no attractions in Bama.

Mississippi had Tishomingo state park just a few miles and a few dollars from the trace. Excellent nature walk along sedimentary outcroppings and babbling brooks.

No place to stay in Mississippi so had to backtrack.

One highlight of Bama was our morning waitperson. Very soft spoken, southern accent. She did not know where Natchez is. Do not think she got out much. Hardscrabble life in these small isolated towns.

Important question. When finishing an apple on a trail does one toss the core into the woods? KB says yes. QB says no unless there are apple trees around.

Plum pits? Same approach?

Dinner at the Speedy Pig? BBQ. Pulled pork for me. Asked for a beer. Nope. Why not? Don’t know but we were dry until the last election. So, when you were dry did people drink. Well, of course they did (unspoken you ninny)

BSNT Florence Alabama

On the Tennessee river.

Rainy day with some thunderstorms. And.. Endless ridges.

Took one of the nice nature walks along the trace. No wildlife but excellent signage about river bottom trees and how the land subsides to sinkhole. Weak acid soils.

A break in Collingwood, two traffic lights, needs none. Has a welcome center with goodies, local quilts and a corn shredder -about 100years old.

The rain and ridges abated as we reached the state line. As we crossed into Alabama QB wanted to ride a bit. Off to another nature trail a few miles into Bama . Good chance to stretch the legs in another manner.

Hotel has a hot tub. Was good, very good.

Sunny another perfect day then humid with a nasty gusty headwind

Coal, steam and high btu varieties were the morning conversation. Coal employment is down due to epa regulations making natural gas a bit cheaper than steam coal- has about half the btu of metal grade, steel making, which is primarily exported.

Wild Turkey flock. Flock had lots of room as the trace is empty today. Sunday in santorum country. Bible belt.

Ranger told us that there is no beer served today. Lynchburg, jack daniels country, is so dry that they have to send the mash out of the County.

A day of endless ridges. Up a mile to the crest then down a mile. Then the next ridge. Riding perpendicular to the ridge lines. No enjoying the ridge

Gusty headwinds, weather is changing, add to the fun.

Perfect weather for tackling the hills of Western Tennessee.

Breakfast at the Loveless cafe. An establishment just like casa de frutta except loveless is no longer family controlled. An LLC.
Claim they serve 400000 guests a year and 7000 biscuits a day.
Country ham etc.

Good to have eaten as the trace starts with hills. Total climbing for the day in excess of 2000 feet. Not too steep, just many of them hills.

Mostly day riders on this perfect Saturday. Spoke with several and each were doing round trips.

Trace is a perfect road. No potholes, no lights, no cross traffic.

Nashville sunny

Early, by our standards, walk to state park info. Knew less about how to get to the trace than I did.

Found excellent chess pies. Would not have tried except for Paul’s at Marv’s party. Here they are very different. More vinegar, more corn meal, less sugar. No lemon today. Plain, coconut, chocolate.

Puckett’s for brunch. Gumbo and pulled pork. Will need to ride a lot.
Ryman’s was much recommended so off we went and did a tour. Then a walk along second Ave. An historic street in some important register. Surprised by the number of cowboy boots for sale. Looks a bit like gas light district of San Diego.

Evening with Zig Zag Mo. Classic Rock Band. Loud of course. Highlights for me: blondie, Jefferson airplane one pill makes you, and a channeled janus Joplin.

Seated next to us on the flight was the sound engineer for Steve Martin. Has worked with many in the business.

Extremely polite in an immediately recognizable Southern way. Yes sir, yes mamhm. Just nice to hear him speak. That, and he is interesting to listen to.

The music business is doing poorly, very. Their own fault with high prices and a rushed product. He clearly yearned for the old days, his youth. Probably 20 years younger than I am.icays8

Music is now. done. in single track, rushed, the big studios are gone or, like the one used for Abby road maintained by the UK government.

We will test out his restaurant recommendations.

Pictured is one of the first signs when getting off the plane.

Another spring another Boog Adventure.

Boogs Sack the Natchez Trace, http://www.nps.gov/natr/index.htm

A National park and scenic biway favored by bicyclists.

Naturally, as part of this list, you will share some of the park and hopefully a sufficient amount of the antebellum architecture and history.

We will start in Nashville and finish in New Orleans meeting up good friends.

As always, if you want to not see the emails you can filter them out (BSNT in each subject line ) and just look at the blog. Of course you can and should ask me to remove you from the list if you are worn out from these Sacking Adventures.

http://boogkb.wordpress.org

For those who are interested in seeing some of the earlier trips see

http://www.boogs.net and click on the link that says Blog.

15 October. Hot, too hot, very sunny.

Final AA walk of the adventure. Rochester and an advertised Pickwick Papers, Dickens walk. Some, but little of Dickens. Anti-climatic.

Nice castle, small cathedral, and a good bridge.

Missed the Soweto concert in Canterbury, no seats to be had even at the door.

Through Wash and Mudflats,
Dales and Moors,
Fells and Fens
These walks have ends

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