25 December 2010

25 December:

“It would not be at all strange if history came to the conclusion that the perfection of the bicycle was the greatest incident of the nineteenth century” – Author unknown

Merry Christmas! We woke this morning at 7:45 and Miranda showed us a new card trick and after a few games of rummy and a breakfast of oatmeal we packed up the bike and were off.

It was a very cold morning when we set out and within a few hours it was snowing. Our first stop was McGlamery Stand where we saw a huge fire tower and a cemetery with lots and lots of flowers.

Next stop the Tennessee- Alabama State Line where we took of couple of pictures of Miranda standing in Tennessee while Stuart was standing in Alabama. Also our mascot hedgie, a stuffed hedgehog, was in Tennessee with Miranda at the time.

Another one of our fun stops was Rock Spring. At Rock Spring we saw lots of beaver dams and the beaver’s house. We took a little hike around the place and ate snacks on the way.

After that we crossed the Tennessee River on this huge bridge, the John Coffee Memorial Bridge which spans Pickwick Lake. It was exciting to see the seagulls around us. The river was very wide because it was dammed up in the 1930s. On the far side of the River in the cliff face we saw a large cave that Indians once lived in.

By now it had started snowing. The snow had settled on the trees and the hills and the sides of the road. It was beautiful. Even though we were in the South, we were having a white Christmas!

Our next stop was Bear Creek Mound, just over the Mississippi State Line. This was an Indian burial mound that looked like a huge hill. Indians had lived there since 8000 BC and the mound was built around 1300 AD.  It was especially beautiful because of the snow covering it. We also had a snowball throwing contest into a garbage can.

As we cycled further south, we stopped at Cave Spring, a couple of large caves where Indians once lived or animals once slept. We continued on to milepost 298, where we were met by Tom Stott, our host at Sachem B&B in Baldwyn, MS. He picked us up in a car with a trailer so the three-person bike could fit. We had Christmas dinner with Tom and Jeanne which was delicious and their hospitality was greatly appreciated. As they say in the South, we were much obliged!

We rode our bike 56 miles through three states in one day. And we learned a lot about how to keep warm on a cold day on a bike.