After visiting Elvis’s birthplace, I headed back into town because I’d seen a sign for $8 all you can eat home cooked buffet! I couldn’t turn that down.
So I went inside and grabbed a heaping plate of food and was invited to sit down by a gentleman. We ended up chatting about Tupelo, New Orleans, work, bicycle touring, the economy, and so on. His friend joined up and we kept up the conversation. As we were getting up to leave, one of the men offered to pay for lunch and we chatted some more.
I pedaled out of town on Main street towards the Natchez Trace and was met with cars driving right behind me and then holding on their horn as they passed and drove away.
Getting out on the Natchez Trace parkway provided some relief to the volume of cars and the honking, but lacked the generally decent road etiquette I had become accustomed to thus far on the trip.
I had started to get hangry at cars late in the afternoon that were passing too closely for my comfort. I can see them coming up behind me and not moving over an inch as the buzz by at or above the posted 50mph speed limit. A woman actually passed cars and cyclists and drove right towards me in my lane! I have that footage captured on my GoPro. Around 4pm a white Oldsmobile was coming up to me quickly and made no signs of giving way, something inside of me turned angry and I spit to my left as the car passed. The car seemed to slow down, but kept going. “If I can spit and hit your car you’re passing way too damn close to me,” was what I’d had prepared in my mind to yell at the driver.
I caught myself. What the hell was I doing?? My behavior is totally inappropriate. These drivers are malicious, they’re just oblivious. I was tired, hungry, and really burnt out after another four hours of people driving cars past me close enough to blow the hat off my head.
I was almost to my stop for the night, Witch Dance.
I made camp as the sun set at this bicycle camping only rest stop along the Natchez Trace national park road.
Along my way during the day, I would stop and pick upaluminium cans that’s I thought I could make into a working alcohol stove.
Cooking up two packets of Mac and cheese (because one looked like not enough…) And throwing in some cheese slices for extra cheesiness, I ate all but the last few bites and went to bed.
Yum yum yum!
