riding the Mississioppi

[marni]

Ridng from Memphis to Covington TN brought a change of scenery- much more bucolic scenery, lots of twists and turns, trees and shade, packs of dogs- felt like a dog a mile but probably wasn't quite that bad, and some real Tennesse type hills of 10-12% who leap out at you from behind a curve in the road and yell surprise as you frantically downshift to get into the granny gear and then end up riding about half the hill standing, I want to know why after a 12% climb, there is only a 10% downhill. Seems like we should earn an equal amount of downhill. Lovely little country store with fresh baked brownies, many taxidermied turkeys and other wild animals, masses of snake skins including two anacondas- which were gifts and not from the local state forest like the other wildlife samples. We also had a hilarious discussion about conversations held and what you actually hear while riding. " where's Mary?" " she's folding her map" "what do you mean she's taking a nap?" and " the tv says John Edwards may get 30 years." "who has 30 gears?" and so on.