Biking from Nashville to Jackson, MS on the Natchez Trace, part 3
Have I mentioned no rain. We slept that night in a pollen-soaked campground, yellow dust coating the picnic tables, the ground, us in the morning. We ate, packed up, and unknown number 3: Sickness. A slight case of diarrhea of which I am prone when drinking all different kinds of water, a lingering symptom of another ride taken when just 16 through a bog area, where the trip guide said the water was safe to drink. I believe I picked something up that day that has resided in my intestines ever since. Don’t talk me out of this idea. I fall quickly in and out of tummy trouble, and this trip will be part of a very long list. But we ride on. On what turns out to be a perfect day, weather-wise. We ride into Tupelo to get a Starbucks coffee and more supplies at a Wal-mart. We continue riding, feeling as one should when the sun comes out: glorious, as if anything is possible. We only have 73 miles planned. But after 20 I am again, suffering. Sunburned, dehydrat...