DAY 37 JULY 25, 2010

Home At Last, Thank God We're Home At Last! 3137 miles!!!! What a long strange trip it's been, to quote The Grateful Dead. We flew out to Portland, Oregon with hopes of having a tailwind to assist us in crossing the country west to east. It is a very common practice for those cyclists committed to a cross country bicycle trip to seek out the helpful tailwind. It was frustrating and bizarre to have only one day with tailwinds to assist in the pedaling of our bicycles across the USA. Thirty six out of 37 days we had a headwind or crosswind. It could have ruined our trip, but our time together as a couple was wonderful and a time of bonding with one another. The trip definitely brought us closer together as a couple and gave us "time alone" to re energize our relationship. We have devoted the last 15 years to our children and have done little for ourselves or our relationship during these years.

We met many wonderful people on this trip with too many to mention all their names. Thank you though, to all those people that made an impact on our trip and gave us memories that will last a lifetime. The world we live in seems to dwell on the negative and news seems to only report the bad. We experienced an America that is friendly, helpful, kind and compassionate. We are definitely in difficult times but people are still thankful for what they have and were willing to give and share even in these economically troubled times. God Bless America!

Thanks to all the people that followed our blog and adventures. We are both ready for school to start. Deb will be at Maude Saunders in DFS. I on the other hand will be working as an advocate for Exceptional Education Students (ESE). I will see to it that the district upholds the law and meets the goals and objectives of every student. Parents can contact me @ brandinshost@hotmail.com

DAY 36 JULY 24, 2010

We have been concerned about Tropical Storm Bonnie and where she is headed. We had soaking showers and rain this morning but it was a blessing to cool the temperatures from 100 to 77 degrees. It is inconceivable to us that we have had 1 full day of a tailwind to assist us on this trip. Frustrating? YES. On the outskirts of the charming little town of
Mentone, Alabama, the West Fork of the Little River plunges off a 100-foot Lookout Mountain cliff to create, what many people claim, one of the most beautiful waterfalls in the South.

DeSoto Falls - named for Spanish explorer
Hernando de Soto - is part of DeSoto State
Park and is one of the tallest and most
visited waterfalls in Alabama.

DAY 35 July 23, 2010

We have put on major miles in the past several days. We had survived our time in Mississippi and now we're heading into the homestretch. For those of you that have been reading this Blog, you know that I have not been short on words when writing, adding to the Blog. Yesterday, I was totally fed up and frustrated with Mississippi. We had belligerent store owners, disrespectful drivers, rude people and roads unsafe for cyclists(even the bicycle paths, like in the picture were unsafe. Often times ending with NO shoulder to ride on). Everyone was in a hurry and really not going anywhere. I decided to write very little yesterday and process what to say. I am not going to elaborate on DAY 33 at all. It is over but not forgotten.

The picture of the Black River is where U.S.Grant defeated the Confederate army to make his way to Vicksburg, MS and capture 9,000 Confederate soldiers after a siege of the city for 44days. The scenery remains agricultural into Alabama. We are avoiding all large cities to stay clear of major traffic areas.

The CDC ranks Alabama as the 2nd heaviest state with 30.3 % of the population having a BMI of over 30. The state has decided to give state employees a lose weight or pay ultimatum. The state employees (~40,000) have a year to lose weight or start paying $25 a month toward their usually free plan. The Alabama program will go by the body mass index chart — anyone with a BMI over 35 will be charged.

We are both anxious to get to Home Sweet Home vs. Sweet Home Alabama!

DAY 34 JULY 22, 2010

We have had two big ride days through Mississippi (over 100 miles for each of the days). The heat is relentless! We are both exhausted and are retiring early. I will update the Blog during the day on Friday.

DAY 33 July 21, 2010

Hot, Hot, Hot. The three H's. We began early this morning to beat the heat but it was 95 degrees by 10:30 in the morning. My bicycle thermometer and a bank thermometer both read 109 degrees. It is difficult to maintain an appetite when you consume so much liquid. Our only savior is that the landscape is very flat and there is little climbing to do. Along with cotton fields, we saw some pretty bayou areas with cypress trees growing out of the swampy water. Farm raised Catfish is big business. There were ponds all along the highway with grain silos for fish food. We had planned to ride into Jackson, MS today but the heat dictated our every move. We are in Yazoo City, MS. We had read a month ago that Mississippi was number 48 out of 50 states in being bicycle friendly. Let me just say, I do not want to cycle in #49 or #50!! We both had several close class with cars pushing us to the limit of the shoulder and a few forced us off the road. We did not have an incident with vehicles our first 2700miles and in two days we have had at least 15 close calls. It is very troubling and we looking for remote back roads to get us through the state in the quickest fashion. A couple other facts about Mississippi; Out of 50 states and the District of Columbia, Mississippi came in at No. 51. Yes, even the folks in Washington, thought to have the nation's worst public schools, ranked ahead of Mississippi. Mind you, D.C. came in at No. 50, an embarrassment that doesn't stop its residents from clamoring for statehood. Half of them probably can't even spell statehood. But back to our Mississippi friends and their passion for the Confederate battle flag.

It's fitting that Mississippians chose to keep the emblem. A symbol representing a country, the Confederate States of America, that felt a certain pride in keeping its population ignorant should be on the flag of the country's most ignorant state.

This intrigued me so much, I needed to look at he rest of the Confederate States to see if there was a correlation. The states that formed the old Confederacy did not do much better. None of those 10 states finished in the top 35. The highest was Texas at 35, Florida at 38, North Carolina at 40, Arkansas at 42 and then Nos. 45 through 49 were Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and Louisiana, respectively. "The more education a person receives, the more they realize that they did not know very much"! (Brandin C. Shost)

O.K. That is off my chest! Here are some less controversial facts

Mississippi was the 20th state in the USA; it became a state on December 10, 1817 .
State Abbreviation - MS
State Capital - Jackson
Largest City - Jackson
Area - 48,434 square miles [Mississippi is the 32nd biggest state in the USA]
Population - 2,844,658 (as of 2010) [Mississippi is the 31st most populous state in the USA]
Name for Residents - Mississippians
Major Industries - farming (cotton, corn, soybeans, rice), oil, textiles, electronic equipment, transprtation equipment, fishing

Major Rivers - Mississippi River, Big Black River, Pearl River, Yazoo River
Highest Point - Woodall Mountain - 806 feet (245 m) above sea level

DAY 32 July 20, 2010

We were up early to beat the heat. It was 82 degrees at 7 a.m. We headed toward the Mississippi River and the new bridge spanning the Mississippi River. We were able to ride our bicycles over the 2 mile bridge before anyone else has had the opportunity to ride on it (opening to cars August 15th). We planned to stop at the casino on the bank of the Mississippi River in Mississippi. We pedaled 22 miles and decided to visit the casino to cool off. I was able to win 30 dollars in just a few minutes and we were cooled down and ready to go when we met Charlotte. She is the casino director and was curious about our bicycles. We told her about our bicycle adventure and she asked us to stay for lunch on her eating from an enormous buffet. It was an amazing meal with a savings of 21 dollars per person. We road away with extra money and a full belly! It was 12:00 when we pedaled away so we were riding during the hottest part of the day. 103 degrees! We only road for 4 more hours and stopped in Indianola, MS.

DAY 31 JULY 19, 2010

We had hoped to get out of Arkansas today but a strong headwind kept up from getting big miles. We made it to Lake Village from Pine Bluff, some 82 hard earned miles. It was very hot, near 100 degrees again. Tomorrow will be hotter. We are 20 miles from Mississippi. There is not a lot to see on this side of Arkansas except soy bean and cotton fields. The combine showed in the picture costs 255,000 dollars. You need to harvest 15,333 acres to pay for itself! We needed to stop several times today to go inside convenience and grocery stores to cool off. One of the grocery store managers asked about our trip and when we explained our undertaking he told us to help ourselves to whatever we wanted to drink, on the house! We did not want to take advantage of his offer so we settled for a gallon of chocolate milk and proceeded to drink it right there on the spot. We went out to dinner tonight and met Calvin and Mary at the restaurant and we talked the entire time we were there. Great people and they boosted our egos to continue riding for one more day. I had difficulties loading pictures tonight. Click on each image to view clearly.

Arkansas possesses a wide variety of minerals, with annual production valued in excess of $1,000,000,000. Petroleum, natural gas, and bromine, in that order, are the top three minerals produced. Arkansas leads the nation in production of bauxite, providing over 80% of this valuable ore from which aluminum is made. There are 2.4 million people in Arkansas and 600,000 acres of lakes with 6 national parks. It ranks 24th in overall size. Elevation varies from 2700 ft in the Western Ozarks to 55 feet at the Mississippi River. Arkansas has the only diamond mine in the world that is open to the public!