We made it!
Wahoo! So we finally made it into Pensacola yesterday–so weird that the first leg of the trip is over. We ended up having to spend three days in Vicksburg, MS to wait out Hurricane Rita. Not a lot of fun. It could’ve been fun because Vicksburg is supposed to be such a cool city with all of these Civil War battlefields and stuff, but we didn’t get to see any of the good stuff. We came in on Friday, and every single hotel in the city was booked with Katrina evacuees and people running away from Rita. Luckily, or so we thought, the lady at the welcome center had found one hotel in town that had space, so she called for us. The woman at the hotel–the Hillcrest Inn–said her credit card machine was broken, but took our name down to hold a room. We even told her we were on bikes so that she knew it would take us a little longer to get there. Anyway, we show up, it is the biggest trashiest hotel I’ve ever seen in my life, and of course, she had given our room away. She tried some BS line about thinking another couple was us, but it was total bullshit–she had just told the woman at the visitor center that she had tons of space so she would send everyone to her hotel, and so that she could fill up all the empty rooms. I mean, at that point, people in Vicksburg were desperate for a place to stay so her plan worked. Long story short, we ended up getting a room from another family who had paid, looked at the room, and was like “No way, not staying here, let’s keep driving.” If we had another transportation besides bikes, we definitely would’ve done the same, but as it was, every hotel in Mississippi and Louisiana was full, so we didnt have any options. Anyway, room was awful, had to sleep in our sleeping bags so we didn’t touch the sheets, wore shoes at all times, including the shower, and never EVER let anything touch the floor! Our ceiling leaked in the bathroom so we had a little pond in their once the hurricane rains started. We stayed there for 2 1/2 days, living off food from the gas station and dollar store, so we were pretty psyched to get moving again on Monday.
We managed to get through Mississippi in two days–I was so proud of myself cause I did two 100 mile days in a row!! Wahoo for me!
Got into Mobile, AL yesterday, and it turns out that there aren’t really any roads to get over to Pensacola across the bay, just interstates. Steve’s panier rack had entirely snapped off earlier in the day and was now supported completely with duct tape, so we just called Guy to come and get us. Went out last night with him, his roommate, and some of his friends to this bar called Seville. It was definitely one of the biggest bars I’ve ever been in with like 5 or 6 separate bars/rooms. Nice to be outin real clothes and not spandex for a change!
Anyway, taking a break for a little bit now. Steve has to fly back to Colorado for a wedding, but we should get moving once that is all over with. See ya later!
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