Day 42 - Easleyville to Poplarville, MS

Last night we experienced two more night-time sounds. One was the intermittent braying of a donkey or mule just down the road. The other was six loud splashes around 2 am in the six-foot wide stream winding by our campsite. Catfish? Someone chucking rocks? We aren't sure.
The Hyde Park private campground where we stayed last night shot right up to the top of my "worst campground of the ride" list. The basketball backboard and support pole leaning at 45 degrees symbolized the total incompetence of the manager, who was having fun riding his mower tractor yesterday instead of stocking toilet paper, which we had to supply.
Today we rode 85 miles, and crossed from Louisiana to Mississippi. We were all eating breakfast by 6:30, since we had a long day with hills. We started out wearing jackets and long-fingered gloves. After five miles we shed jackets and stayed stripped down. Blue skies all day, and a light to moderate headwind off and on.
Carol, Jerry, Bob Plant and I stopped in Franklinton to eat our lunches after 37 miles. See photo of us seated on the steps of the former Farmers and Merchants Bank. This is typical of how we eat on the run.
It's Sunday and we're in the Bible Belt, so churches were packed. This meant a fair amount of car traffic and almost no truck traffic (especially no logging trucks). Also lots of cars parked by restaurants for the post-church crowd. Mitch rode by one church where the sermon was broadcast in loudspeakers. Real fire-and-brimstone. We asked Mitch if he was sure about the loudspeakers - maybe he was getting a direct message from above?
Louisiana is shaped like an L. We have been riding the "foot" west to east, just south of the Mississippi state line. After passing through Bogalusa, we crossed the Pearl River and entered Mississippi.
The Adventure Cycling route folks sent us on a roundabout route the last 25 miles, instead of riding state route 26 straight into Poplarville. We found the roads the Texas DOT chip seal guy practiced on. We also had to watch our splits (distances on the map) closely, because several turns were onto unsigned roads. But we made it to the campground (actually a nice RV park) with no missed turns.
Dinner tonight was cooked by our RV park hosts. See photo of Mitch with a plate of roast beef, mashed potatoes, broccoli/ cheese soufflé, potato salad and a brownie. Our host Brad is in back. Seated at the picnic tables on the deck are (left to right) Rhodri, Jerry, Ken, Julianne, Flynn, Bob Plant, Linda, Mitch, Terry, Bob Pedersen, Carol and Andre. (Bob G was out of the photo.)
Everyone is in a good mood - we finished a long ride, no one had to cook, we can sleep in, and then a night on New Orleans tomorrow. A last taste of Louisiana!
Bruce