Flat road, beautiful ride

   At about 1:00 am, the abandoned dog, obvious a mother of several pups, made a racket prying off the trash can lid and  foraging through the trash for food. At first I thought it was a coyote but Ed shined his light and assured me it was the dog. Wild pigs are in the area so I am glad Ed, as a retired police  detective, had his nine millimeter hand gun with him.  He let me look it over, a very compact little weapon.  Being down in Mississippi where dogs are not leashed and alligators, snakes and wild pigs are around, I am glad Ed is prepared.  Camping at the Natchez Trace campsites is surrounded by forest and isolated from the world.  The only thing missing are the bears.

     Twenty miles down the road with the Jackson reservoir on our left, Ed and I pulled off the Trace to buy food.  Getting into the city was a cinch but finding our way out was a struggle. The signage was terrible and the miserable gps was no help.  Finally back on the Trace, we made it down to road marker 78 where we turned off and rode three miles to Raymond. Where we thought there motels and hotels there was only a small town with nothing of the sort available.   So where were we going to stay for the night?  Brenda at City Hall came up with three airbnbs.  One of which was around the corner and had a room available. A National Register house which is classically southern with the high ceilings a large front porch. After speaking with the owner over the phone, we went around the corner where the house sat on a knoll.  The door was unlocked and Ed and I found our way to our second floor room. Quite the room with all the gentility necessary to impress any modesty refined woman.  Way above what I considered necessary but a luxury in a great while doesn’t hurt. The only problem was where to put all the pillows so we could actually sleep in the beds. Considering the elegance of our accommodations, Ed joked about how much the fare would be.  The amount was surprisingly reasonable which also included having our clothes washed with small extras like a/c, big screen television in our room, coffee, energy bars, bottled water and the whole house to ourselves.  The owners live in a quaint little cottage in the back.

      The owner after arriving home gave us the history of the place, how it had been painstakingly moved, restored and put on the National Register.  We all sat on the porch and imbibed two delicious IPAs from a brewery in Texas.  The couple who just purchased the house in September both have good jobs in Jackson. An interior decorator put place together in a no time and now the couple plans to buy the place next door.  Their plans including wedding venues and the like.  I can envision it, a sleepy little Mississippi town with up and coming charm just outside of Jackson. To add to all this, Laura and Jason are triathlon athletes! 

       As the sun set Ed snd I walked around the corner passed  the imposing classic water tower right on the small town roundabout and over to a Mexican restaurant where we had a feast of a meal.  

    Because Ed bonked (lost his energy) on the road in the early afternoon we settled for Raymond instead of fifteen miles further down to another campsite. We may have only covered fifty miles but the gods looked after us.  Eighty-two miles to Natchez, with the plan to cover a major portion of it tomorrow.