Heifer Rice- Day 2 Bay Minnette to Jackson, AL

With severe thunderstorms, high winds and possible tornado's predicted, today's ride had an iffy chance of starting, continuing, or finishing. As it turn out, as we stumbled out to breakfast at 6:00 AM, the brunt of the storm had passed to the north and although it was still very warm and humid with the overcast, the roads were dry and the conditions were good to ride.

A lot of us had slept poorly, both through dread/anticipation of the long day, and waking to listen for the rain and wind. In spite of the early morning daze, we all got ourselves fueled, our bikes pumped and lubed, water bottles and camelbaks filled and headed out in small groups. Personally I find it more difficult to ride before the sun is up and because of that and the overcast the first 10 miles felt very dreary. Fortunately this part of the ride was relatively flat so I was able to cruise along and warm up. I think if I had hit hills at this point I might have hung it up at the first SAG stop. Fortunately by the time I hit the first SAG stop at 20 miles, I was warmed up, the sun was out, the overcast was beginning to break up.

Just after the 20 mile spot, the hills started. They were mostly 200-400 foot gradual rollers with enough run out at the bottom to get a start on the next slope. The area we were riding through is mostly pine forest, clear cut in places so you can see the land beneath, but for the most part the road was surrounded by trees and the only line of vision was forward to the next hill. Fortunately since it was early morning on a Sunday, and Mother's Day as well, there were no lumber trucks. With rough press and seal pavement and narrow to non existent shoulders it could have been a nasty ride. Every now and then the continual hills were broken up with an area of flat where it was possible to hit a cruising pace and gear, but for the most part it was just one hill after another, with slightly curving roads and an increasingly stiff head wind.

At roughly 32 miles we crossed over the Endicott Line at 31 degrees north latitude. This line, surveyed in 1793, started at the Mississippi River and ran east to the Chattahoochee River and then on to the Atlantic. It marked the southernmost boundary of the United States and Spanish Florida.

The Endicott Line

At about 40 miles there was the distraction of a couple of rowdy dogs, who backed off rapidly when I roared at them , followed by a badly marked turn off that several people had missed so I had the benefit of seeing the group head off on a short cut instead of continuing blindly on oblivious as I had the day before. Because of the short cut, I ended up near the front third of the strung out pack and was able to keep someone is sight ahead of me or behind me as we leap- frogged each other up the increasingly short and progressively steeper hills with continually decreasing run outs. The head winds continued, and the sun felt pretty fierce when the gusts died out. At one point I passed a spring with a parking spot and plaque so I crossed over, took a break, dipped my bandanna in the water and had a refreshing face splash and cool cloth to the back of the neck that felt wonderful.

Red Hill Spring

The dedication reads"Dedicated to the wayfarers who, for unknown generations, have passed by this way and refreshed themselves with a drink from this spring, and to those yet to follow."

I don't have hills to ride in Houston, there are none more challenging than highway overpasses and train gradings and so I am on a steep learning and conditioning curve on gear shifting and muscle burn on these hills. It didn't help that for some reason my bottom three granny gears were not working well. I will have to have Laurie "the chief guide/mechanic/everything but cook", look at them tomorrow on our rest day. I started bonking until I reminded myself that that is why I carry extra water and food, so I started stopping every couple of hills for a rest/hydration/nutrition break. I pressed on and managed to ride all of the hills, although if I had hit yet a 4th 11% grade before lunch I would have just gotten off and walked the rest of the way. Just as I was thinking this, and deciding that I was about ready to hang it up for the day, I looked to the right and saw gravestones, and a bit further on the van and bikers gathered for food.

lunchtime in the graveyard

It says a lot about how the group is bonding and about how women bike in general, that as soon as I pulled in, several people came over to say hi and make sure I was alright to get off my bike. As I stood there panting, gulping water and trying to muster the strength and balance to swing my leg over the bar, I gave myself a pat on the back for a " good try", another for "you'll do better next time", and decided to call it a day. There are several more long days including at least one more century, so hopefully by the time that hits, I will be better coordinated on the gears shifting, and in better shape for hills.

The SAG wagon and the van were doing alternate duty shuttling the trailing riders up to lunch, along with the various injuries. These included some road scrapes, a broken derailleur cable and Gloria, the founder of the Woman Tours group, who was planning to do the whole ride on her recumbent bike. She had mentioned that she had had some knee problems before the ride, but that her Doctor had labeled her good to go. By lunch, she had shooting pains in both directions up and down her leg and some numb spots so she had decided to go back to Arizona. She made the announcement at lunch. As it turns out, we are really only about 30 miles from Mobile but have arrived by a back road route. Depressing to realize but fortunate that we are close enough to Mobile that the SAG vehicle can take her back tomorrow with no problem.

Cemetery Sign

While I ate, I wandered through McConnico cemetery. There were primarily large formal family plots with matching headstones and room for more. These plots had birth dates from the early 1800's through the late 1950's with death dates from the 1850's through to the late 1980's. There were also quite a few scattered older gravestones primarily ranging to the end of the civil war or into the antebellum period. The saddest two were located away back in the corner, slowly being encroached upon by tree roots and vines. These were the graves of two infants.

grave infant boy Jacob D. Lamb, aged 18 days

Grave infant girl Lamb aged 10 days

As soon as they had eaten, the ladies planning to complete the mileage headed off while the seven of us who had given up helped with clean up, repacking the van, hoisting the bikes to the roof and helping Gloria dismantle her recumbent so that it too could go up on the rack.

As we drove on to Jackson, I kept looking at the hills and thinking I might have been able to do more, but then the van would sway from the wind and I was grateful to not be out in it. We picked up two more riders who had flagged at 80 miles, one of whom is a novice biker who had done the last three hills with her crank on the largest gear without realizing it and feeling pretty discouraged about the whole expedition. It was only after we had gotten to the motel and were relaxing around the pool that she realized that several of us also were having trouble with the gearing, and that although some of us knew each from previous tours, we were not all fast next door neighbor type friends. She was obviously feeling a bit left out as well, but we will all take her under our wings and look out for her and each other as well.

I am so looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow although I have no doubt that I will wake up or at least rouse in time for the non existent 6:00 AM breakfast.