Day 16, pedaling into Mississippi

After a night spent across the line in Mississippi, (that's where we could find a motel) we drove BACK to Tennessee for Russ to start the day near Graceland on Elvis Presley blvd. (also known as hwy 51)  Not many people hanging around Graceland at 6:30 in the morning on a Saturday, so we took advantage of the photo opportunity!

We had to get Flat Stanley in a shot, too!  I'm sure he's an Elvis fan!

 Russ got started pedaling south on highway 51 at 6:45 am under partly cloudy skies and a temperature of 78 degrees.  Not too far south, before we got out of the city, we ran across this porker!  It was beside a BBQ restaurant.

 I'm sorry to say we do not have a photo beside a "Welcome to Mississippi" sign, because there wasn't one!  The closest I could find was when we crossed "Stateline Rd."  Sorry, couldn't get Russ in the shot, too!

 As we headed south out of the Memphis area, the highway soon narrowed to two lanes with no shoulder.  The highway was BUSY and some people on this Saturday morning were calm, cool and relaxed and others were:

 We were passed by a hearse today, at first we thought it was a funeral procession, but then decided the hearse was just on route to pick up or deliver.  We had quite a line of cars following us now and then with the roller-coaster hills of northern Mississippi.  We had some happy and not so happy honks, we had some unhappy "get off the road!" shouts, but we also had a car pass with windows down shouting and waving happily and pointing upward.  In fact, about 10 minutes later, the same car came back from the south, slowed down once again & the lady shouted to Russ "Just remember Philippians 4:13!!!"
Gene & I were relieved when we finally got away from civilization, there was less traffic and where the roads flattened out some...Russ was probably thankful for the flattening out part!
We took a few stops today, this one was just north of Sardis on the roadside.  It stayed overcast until about 2 pm, so that made it much cooler today.  It was 84 degrees at lunchtime in Batesville's McDonald's.
 

 We had some encounters with dogs today.  Today there were several more dogs loose in yards that we passed.  Three pit bulls came running out but stopped at the edge of the road when I started yelling at them in the deepest, meanest voice I could muster.  I stopped another group from chasing Russ by honking at them, another dog ALMOST was run over by an oncoming vehicle but he stopped the chase and turned around in the nick of time! 
This is what most of the road looked like today in Mississippi.

 Gene and I have decided that farmers really should be required to put up signs by their fields to let passers-by (like us) know exactly what is growing in the fields we are passing.  We also think they ought to put signs on pieces of equipment that we do not recognize...maybe the equipment is for taking care of the crops we don't recognize!!!
Another piece of information we have speculated about (and we do have LOTS of time to speculate!) is how in the WORLD do places get their names?  Today we were in Yalobusha county...it made me wonder, were there a lot of yellow bushes there?  We didn't see any.  The other day we came across a city limit type sign that said "Future City", I'm sorry to say it did not look like it had much of a future, more of a past.  Enough speculation for the day!

 We are in Grenada, Mississippi tonight.  Russ rode 100 miles today, what a guy!  He really is doing great, says his legs feel fine.  The first few days of our trip he was rubbing his legs with "Active-on" quite regularly.  I asked him tonight why he hadn't been rubbing it on lately, thinking he'd run out of it.  He said his legs weren't hurting at all.  WOW, that's all I can say!  I'm sure you've noticed that I haven't been on the bike since...was it IOWA?  I'm perfectly happy to be following Russ, in fact, I'm fiercely protective.  Sometimes I feel like a bodyguard.  Today I was thinking through what I would do if my yelling and honking would not scare dogs away from him.  First I thought I'd get out and beat them with my umbrella, then I thought that would be too small.  Better idea: the folding chair we get out for breaks!

Enough of my rambling.  Tonight we're feeling good because tomorrow is Sunday, our day of rest.  We will find a place to worship in the morning and relax the rest of the day.  It's hard to believe, but we'll be home next Sunday!  We miss our church family!

We end the day with some crosses we saw today, always a great reminder to bring Glory to God! 

Thank you again for your encouragement, comments, messages and prayers - we could certainly feel them today!  Enjoy Sunday, may it be a blessing to you! 

Russ & Carol