April 19, Saturday, day 44: a free lunch

67 miles today from Wiggins to Pascagoula Mississippi. It was a sunny, comfortable, cloudless sky kind of day.  I was especially grateful after the last two days of cloudy sprinkling raw weather.  Rode through parts of the De Soto national Forest, and passed the Mississippi Sandhill Crane wildlife preserve.  Very pretty countryside.  Chased by only 4 dogs.

Here is Nancy, today's SAG driver, checking us off as we arrive for snacks and water. She saved her mask from last night. Quite official.

Karen and I stopped for lunch at a gas station/restaurant and found these bags of crawfish for sale.  We chatted with a fellow named Charlie about crawfish for a few minutes and then return to our seats to wait for our lunches.  When we went to pay, we found out that Charlie had treated us to lunch!  He, of course, was nowhere to be seen. 

This is the scene from the bridge coming into Pascagoula. Ingalls shipbuilding is on the right.

The days now have a rhythm to them.  Get up, breakfast, make snacks, ride all day, shower, cocktails, dinner, blogs, phone calls home, sleep. Next day: do it all again. However, after six weeks on the road, we are all looking forward to the end of the trip.  The biggest challenge may then be recalibrating exercise and caloric intake as we readjust to normal life.

The tour hotel tonight is a Super 8.  It got poor reviews on TripAdvisor so I booked myself into a brand-new Hilton Garden Inn a couple miles away.  Ahhhh.  Good decision.  

Tomorrow we cross the state line into Alabama.  Happy Easter!