I added pictures, google earth, and corrections to day 19. Check it out.

Enjoy.

I updated and added photos for days 16, 17 and 18 on the MRT journal. I also added the google earth links as well.

Pest Alert! Check it out!

I updated and added a few more photos for days 10-13 on the MRT journal. I also corrected some errors, fixed some city names, added a bit of detail, and added the google earth files.

I added photos and details to days 8 and 9. I will try and update the missing days eventually. There are more than I remembered.

This page is under development......

Best Drivers: Iowa
Worst Drivers: Missouri (Louisiana is a close 2nd)
Best Roads: Mississippi
Worst Roads: Louisiana (Iowa was a close 2nd)
Nicest Staff: Rivals Bar (Odie) in Greenville
State with the Nicest People: Iowa
Best Camping location: Cascade Iowa, City Park
Worst Camping location: ????? Dirty bathrooms, kinda pricey, hot sticky night, shelby something
Best Sandwhich: ??? Grinder in Fruitland
Second Best Sandwhich: ???? Pig out Pork BBQ
Best Hotel: Drury Inn in Arnold Mo or Hampton in Greenville MS or Cabins?
Worst Hotel: Country Something?????
Best Sign: Unattended Children will be given a Cappuccino and a Kitten at ????
Nicest person overall: Tie (Marsha at The Supper Club), ???? guy who gave us soda

I updated day 6 and 7 of the MRT trip. Pictures and GPS files are now included.

I want to thank everyone who supported and followed along with us on our trip. It was great hearing from you.

I also want to thank all of the great people we met along the trip.

Several people have asked me to post a final post which has some final statistics and summarized our highest and lowest points in the trip. I will do that soon.

I am also adding pictures to the days that we were missing, and adding the google earth links.

Also, Chuck is working on making a google earth file of the entire trip.

Thanks!

We Made It!!!!

Pictures to be added later.

We left the hotel after the best hotel breakfast yet! Everything was fresh and great! Thanks Best Western. Our rooms were already booked in New Orleans, though they were a bit difficult to find. Apparently there are 38k Lutheran youth in town for a community volunteer cleanup.

For the first dozen miles or so, we rode along the river in medium traffic. There were a lot of chemical factories and shipping businesses, but we left late so we could miss the morning rush........thus we were biking at lunch time. Whoops.

A road called Spillway Road was nice and quiet. The road was the smoothest surface we have seen in Louisiana, so the state had a construction crew on it to add pot holes.

We woke up (slowly) and started to head south on highway 15. This was a streatch of nearly 50 miles of nothingness. A levee along the road was all we saw, even though a beautiful and huge nature preserve was on the other side. Too bad the road wasn't on top of the levee. The road was in horrible shape, and the headwind was really dragging us down. We slowly dodged potholes at 8mph. I can't say it looked like anyone was having much fun.

The roads here in Louisianna are horrid. Many of their paved roads are far harder to ride on than gravel. I simply cannot understand how the area expects to attract any employers with such a terrible transportation infrastructure.

We woke up excited for our first B&B that actually included both B's. We were all very disappointed to discover that breakfast consisted of cold cereal. What a ripoff. I cannot recommend the Bernheimer house, considering their pricing methods and lack of breakfast. Super 8 had far nicer breakfasts.

Jumping on the Natchez Trace Parkway, we covered our first 20 miles quickly. The Trace is sure a nice smooth ride. The hills are long but not very steep so the mile markers flew past. The temps were in the 70s, which is amazing for this time of year. Awesome!

At our first break, we all quickly took to our normal duties. Roger stood around smiling while the rest of us veg'ed.