Heading East
After traipsing around Texas for the past three months, we are making our way to Louisiana and beyond. We’ve managed a pretty good tour of most of the various regions of this state, and can honestly say that we have loved our experiences here. We plan to put up a big wrap-up on our Texas adventures, so stay tuned.
In the meantime, we wanted to share our ideas about where we are headed from here. If we’re headed toward you or if you know of something near our route, please drop us an email and let us know!
Our rough plan (so far) is this… We’ll be crossing into Louisiana way up north and rolling into Shreveport for a couple days. From Shreveport, we’ll head east to Jackson, Mississippi. At Jackson, we’ll be able to hop on the Natchez Trace and ride that all the way up to Nashville, Tennessee.
We debated long and hard about all that we would be cutting out by taking this route. I have wanted to visit New Orleans for a long time, so it wasn’t easy to choose to skip it. But, at the base of it all is the realization that it’s mid-May and already 90 degrees and extremely humid. If we don’t hightail it in a northerly direction, we’ll find ourselves smack dab in more of this weather than we can tolerate. (The silver lining to missing a good chunk of the US that we actually want to see is that we’ll have a reason to plan another trip out this way at some point in the future.)
The more we look at where this route will take us, the more excited we get. Neither of us has ever stepped foot in the states of Louisiana, Mississippi or Tennessee, so we are extremely curious about what we will find, what it will look like, and where the best fried chicken will be. We’ll be rolling through the land that gave rise to the Blues and we’ll be exploring communities with a deep craft tradition. No doubt, the next few weeks and months will be full of new experiences, and we are excited. Again, if you have any tips for us, please send them our way.
Thanks everyone!
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When I cycled coast to coast in ’08, my group took the southern route and were riding through the deep south states during July and early August. You are very wise to skip the heat, humidity and gnats, although northern Alabama and Georgia are very beautiful.
The Natchez Trace will be worth it. We were only on it for a day, and it was one of the most enjoyable riding experiences of our 11-state tour.
I have been to Shreveport several times for work and personally despise it for the smell of gas and oil, the lack of interesting things to do and the huge emphasis on gambling. I am yearning for a more positive perspective and look forward to seeing what you find.
Safe travels!
Glad to hear you enjoyed Texas; sorry I didn’t get to meet you while you were at Ashley & Frank’s. I can see you wanting to head north pretty quickly. Kentucky has some lovely landscape, not to mention whiskey. Good luck and happy travels.
Check out The Blue Ridge Parkway. It begins in The “Great Somkey Mountains” at the Tenn/NC boarder and ends at the Skyline Drive in Virginia. Southern part has more elevation than the northern part (as do the mountains!). It is a road dedicated to taking the slower, more scenic route. Taking the entier way would be more isolating than you want, but check out a section.
I think you guys are awesome, regardless of the route you take. I will be moving to Fort Walton Beach, Florida in September, and thought it would be cool to meet up with you down there. I was assuming you would continue through the south. I agree about getting out of the heat. We are going to be in for a world of hurt when we move down there. It will be getting cool up here in Wichita, and still warm/hot in Florida. If you are planning on hitting up Tennessee, have you thought about heading to North Carolina. I was stationed there for 5 years, such a beautiful state. Regardless of where you guys head, I will be on the edge of my seat, keeping tabs. Can’t wait to hear more. Be safe, and Tight Lines, Russ!!
Hey! What you have in store sounds like so much fun. Sounds like some awesome experiences coming up. I’ve not been to that area so I don’t know what to recommend, but I am sure you will continue to find tons of generous people to share stories with and lots of good food and fun!
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Go North on the Natchez Trace, that will take you very close to Nashville, then head to the Smokies, and onto the Blue Ridge Parkway. At its’ northern terminus your only a short distance from D.C. The heat in the East is a humid heat and kicks the shit out of the best of us, so moving gradually in a northerly direction is a good idea.
From there you can head West or go up into beautiful PA, NY state, MA, VT, NH and finally Maine.
At that point take the train back home-you’ve earned it!!!