Not Raining ... Now

You ever get those nights when you wake up repeatedly and look out the window to see if the ground is wet? Welcome to sleeping before a long ride that you have no choice but to take ... regardless of the weather.

Finally you give up and go get some coffee and write a blog entry. Then, in the lobby of the hotel, the fellow behind the desk tells you to be careful out there, and you get to talking about how fast and crazy people drive on the Trace here. He tells you there's a story in the day's Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, over on the table, and you go read "Man, 58, indicted in death of cyclist."

The guy who allegedly ran over Dutch journalist Ester Hageman, Wendell G. Blount of Calhoun City, was reportedly driving under the influence of morphine. He's in jail on federal charges, as the Natchez Trace is federal property.

We will be riding past mile marker 241 today. I plan to leave an empty Gu pack as a memorial.