Saturday, April.30th

I have biked 283 miles on the Natchez Trace and am currently in Kosciusko, MS. Have been sick for the last 3 days and have lost a lot of steam. Even small hills take extreme effort. When I awoke this AM my throat was closed and I could not speak. I biked almost 22 miles today even with my body screaming to stop, so I did, my average is still a little over 40 mpd. Longest day was 64 miles, the first day of this chest, throat problem. Been downhill since, not downhill on the road, however. I have 160 miles to go to get to Natchez, hopefully the weather and my health will allow me to continue tomorrow. I have only been able to bike 6 1/2 days out of the 11 since leaving home. Not a very good record. Had a tornado hit within 5 blocks of where I was staying Belmont, MS. Did not even hear it tear down 3 buildings and uproot numerous trees. I hope to be able to post a lot more with pictures soon.

Wednesday, April 20th

Getting ready to drive to the beginning of my ride. Will spend the night in Fly, TN and then start riding the Natchez Trace. I am excited about it. Hope the storms move on out. Rain predicted for 8 of the next 10 days. Hope they are wrong. I loaded my bags and unloaded them 10 times and still have 70 lbs to load on the bike. I will probably find out I don't need some of the stuff, but right now it seems I really do. Hope to keep the blog up often.