Natchez Trace Day Three

 Saturday October 23 - Freedom Hills Overlook to Pharr Mounds

After another hearty breakfast we started out day at "The Wall", a 30 year project of the descendent of a native American healer who was on the Trail of Tears to Oklahoma but returned to Tennessee on her own.  In her honor the wall was laid one stone at a time and is now an immense memorial.



Philip advanced us to the Freedom Hills to start our ride down hill rather than a big up.  We walked up to the viewpoint and then mounted our bikes.  We ended a 30 mile leg at Pharr Mounds, a Chickasaw burial grounds.  Along the way we crossed the Alabama-Mississippi state line and crossed over the Tenn-Tom Canal which connects the Tennessee and Tombigbee Rivers.  We had lunch at the mounds and Bennie flew the drone (illegally, we think).  





The road resurfacing project is now at Tupelo so Phil drove us to the visitor center where we watched the Natchez Trace National Park video and bought matching bike shirts. The next stop of the Bodock Bed and Breakfast in Pontotoc, MS.  Jane Winston, our hostess, gave us a tour of our accommodations.  The B&B is the childhood home of her ,husband, Toby.  We had the run of the whole house and made use of the laundry.  Our dinner reservation was at the Ravine in Oxford Mississippi, home of Ol' Miss.  They had won their football game against LSU where the other patrons were happy Rebel fans.  The meal was delicious and my goal to lose weight on the trip was abandoned again.

Day 3 30.2 Miles +966 ft -1,362 ft; Cumulative 133.0 Miles +6,441 ft -7,102 ft






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