Day 12

Hope all is as well for you as it was for us today. What a beautiful day for a bike ride! We left out of Starkville, MS near 0800hrs this morning for Fayette, AL via Columbus, MS. The weather was perfect starting out around 65 with 37% humidity. It was calm & clear most of the day with a WNW wind picking up as the day got warmer. It never did get really warm as I managed to catch a chill on some of the bigger descents after having worked up a sweat climbing up the other side. We had good roads and light traffic with near every driver being courteous and careful while going around us. Except for a couple of miles on MS82 East of Columbus we were on two lane with no shoulder. Between Columbus and the Alabama border the traffic was pretty heavy and then like magic it just dried up to only a couple vehicles every 10 or 15 minutes, except around the little towns along the way. We got waves and thumbs up and smiles by the mile.

At Columbus we met Ben Wiford, a young Air Force officer who is near the tail end of his flight training at Columbus Air Force Base. Later on we met some fellas at the local convenient stop in, Rhetts Food Mart in Millport, AL and enjoyed visiting about our trip and the jobs and economy in Milport; the steel and lumber mills are the 2 main employers in Millport. Somewhere between Millport and Fayette the hills managed to sneak back in and though they were further apart, they made up for it in gradient. We slowed down quite a bit along this stretch of AL96 and after 6hrs 53mins and 2041' of climbing we pedaled into the park in Fayette, AL. The City of Fayette Police Department, Fire Department and Parks & Recreation gave us special permission to camp at the park for the evening. Thanks a bunch Fayette! We certainly appreciate your wonderful hospitality. The park is awesome! It has multiple ball fields, a walking path, restrooms, lights & electricity at multiple pavilions and a pretty little pond surrounded by globe lights on 10' pedestals. The light from the globes reflects on the water and is very pretty and peaceful. I like Houston but it sure is nice to get out here and actually see some stars without all the light pollution from the big city.

As is usual Chuck came into Fayette to reconnoiter the area, find the park and get us set up. While doing so a gentleman approached him and they talked about the mission and Wounded Warrior Project. The gentleman left only to return shortly thereafter to inform Chuck that he had secured us a free meal at the local Mexican restaurant! I'll be, Chuck! No Mexican food for 10 days and now it's every night! Chuck did not get the gentleman's information but, we want him to know that we genuinely appreciate his support and hospitality.

On another note, while pedalling along today I couldn't help but notice the little ribbon magnets on all the cars professing one's support for the Troops. There were yellow ones, cammo ones, red, white & blue ones. Don't get me wrong, I really like to see that but I couldn't help but think "aside from the little magnet, how does one actually support the Troops?" The magnet itself is made in China and sold to vendors by the millions for pennies on the dollar. The vendors then turn around and sell them to the public for around three bucks a copy and the money goes right into their till. Where is the support in that? If everybody who wanted to profess their support for the Troops took those three bucks and sent them to Wounded Warrior Project or Soldiers' Angels or whatever organization they prefer, now, then we'd have something! All that money would go directly to benefitting the Troops whether in the field on deployment, in the hospital, in transition or back at home trying their level best to get back into civilian life. Think about it.

Tomorrow we are going to head out at 0800hrs again and pedal towards Jasper, Al. It will be a short day at 46 miles ending at Sleepy Holler Campground. The hills East of Fayette seem a little more vertically relaxed so we should be able to make good time getting there early so we can enjoy some time to square away equipment and catch up with all of you. The weatherman seems to think that we should have more of the same tomorrow and I'm looking forward to seeing the countryside and meeting some new and interesting folks. Let us see what tomorrow brings...

Enjoy the Ride!