Rene's Site

I’ll be the first to admit, I was nervous about today. My legs feel like lead, and yesterday’s bonk had me concerned. The good news is my worry was all for naught – everything worked out just fine. I loaded up on carbs last night (2 takeout orders), and this morning I left Tupelo with 6 bottles of liquids, about a dozen energy bars, and a plan to eat once or twice an hour after the first 90 minutes. It’s funny what happens when you stick to a solid plan. There was only one place to refuel today (about 50 miles into the ride), and I also stopped there to top off liquids.

The other good news about today was there was lots of “excitement” along the way. First, today was the lumpiest day by far with over 3,600’ of elevation gain. Garmin calculates “climbs” along the route – I think the last two days combined had 2 or 3 total – today had 14! Ok, most are a quarter to a half mile long at roughly 3%, but there was one today which was about a mile at 6%. Again, nothing like climbing in CO, but you definitely feel 6% on a loaded touring bike. So all the “climbing” made things a little more exciting (although, this did not help my average speed).

Second, today was full of milestones – I crossed the 300 mile mark Northbound, crossed into two new states (Alabama, then Tennessee), and I crossed both the Tennessee River and this cool river called the Tennessee Tombigbee Waterway where a tugboat was actively shepherding barges down the river.

I’m staying at a very cool Airbnb tonight adjacent to what used to be a movie rental place (I’m the white door in between the two potted plants), right on Broadway. Inside has all sorts of music and movie themed stuff. The WiFi password starts with “bekindrewind.” 🤣