Weekend in the Broiler

Well, it was a very long and hot weekend up in Jackson. The wedding went off nicely (and quickly!) up Mississippi College chapel. After the 2 pm wedding, which was all wrapped up by about 2:30, we headed over to the train depot in downtown Jackson for a little reception. Since both the bride and groom were heavily into the whole Mississippi College thing, there was neither dancing nor alcohol at this reception, which left most of the New Orleans folks wandering aimlessly about with rather confused looks on their faces like a bunch of Cajuns at tea time. Of course the bride and groom were very happy, as was my sister who'd had the foresight to sneak in a little flask with which she'd brightened up her lemonade. So anyway, it was nice to have the whole family together for a while.

I was able to get away for some nice rides both Saturday and Sunday mornings, and despite the triple digit mid-day temperatures, I was happy to find it relatively cool and comfortable in the mornings. Both days I rode through town and up the old main highway for about ten miles where it intersects the Natchez Trace. Gary Gray had told me that the North part of the trace was nicer than the south, and he was right. Much of this section of the trace runs alongside the big reservoir, so there's a lot of nice scenery. Saturday there were quite a few cyclists on the road, although I guess I was a little earlier than most so I was usually going the opposite direction. The Natchez Trace is carefully graded, which makes for a nice smooth, if unchallenging, ride, and I was able to put in a good fifty miles each day before family obligations intervened.

We finally headed back home around noon on Sunday, of course making the obligatory stop at Middendorf's for fried catfish and a Barqs root beer. Even at 2:20 pm the place was packed.

Now I'm back in the office with a very serious backlog, an office temperature of nearly 90F (one of the building's chillers broke down this morning), and more work hitting my email about every five minutes, so the cycling related stuff is going to have to take a back seat for the rest of the day.