Day 46- Gautier MS

It was a perfect day for an 80 mile ride.

We got up really early, planning to get on the road quickly since it was going to be dark by five and we had so far to go. This was no mean feet for me as sleep was hard to come by last night. My bladder woke me at one and four, at which time I was treated to Matt singing the song of his people. And I didn’t need my alarm because the water dripping from the condensation On my tent onto my face was hard to sleep through.

Kelly and Adam were on the road by 615. We followed far behind, rolling out an hour later. The roads were awesome right from the beginning. Great pavement and low traffic throughout.

Mississippi offered up some treats and some oddities. The first was as we headed into McHenry. On a one and a half mile stretch of road, I counted eight old fire hydrants. And hardly any houses. This roused my curiosity.

I passed a man walking a dog and asked him about it. He looked exactly like I expected a rural Mississippian to look, except the dog was a husky and not a pitbull. He was very friendly and while he wanted to answer my question, he admitted he had absolutely no idea, even though he had lived in the area all his life.

We stopped at the McHenry Avenue nutrition store for some nutritional coffee. I’m not sure what that means because it was a white chocolate mocha and that doesn’t really scream healthy to me. The ladies that made them were very friendly but also didn’t know about the fire hydrants.

From the coffee store we headed out into the De Soto national forest. The landscape was changing from thick forest to more open spruces and sand. There is more and more water all the time.

The Bethel Fire Station appeared seemingly out of nowhere and I scooted in. I had to go fairly far into the building to find signs of life and finally connected with the young man in charge. He also didn’t know about the fire hydrants and I began to think maybe I was on a Quixotic quest. Or that maybe I was getting just a little obsessed. 

He offered the Chiefs number. “What the hell,” I thought. I took it. When I stopped for lunch I called the chief. He answered with the usual mumble but as soon as I introduce myself and asked the question that was plaguing me, I could almost see him beighten as he proceeded to teach me everything I could ever want to know about fire hydrants. The short answer to my question was this: The hydrants were  most probably a requirement for a development that went under before any building was done. I did not get the short answer but enjoyed my chat with him anyway, and it sent me up for a great afternoon.

Mississippi’s roads are nice and clean and this is accomplished by using prison inmates on the work release program. I saw several groups out this afternoon. I was surprised by the striped pants each inmate had to wear rather than a DOC jumpsuit.It seemed as if I had traveled back in time.

Vancleave is the town before our last stop and it’s a town with a sense of humor. I saw this sign outside a gas station called the Honey Pot.

Now we’re in Gautier (pronounced Go-SHAY) at Shepherd state park. We have a pretty site with a swing by the stream. And it’s chilly so hopefully the sleeping will be better.

Things I learned today:

• Fire hydrants do not belong to the fire department. They are the responsibility of the developers, who often say those are not fire hydrants but devices to flush their systems. This avoids liability if the hydrant fails in the case of a fire.
• I know all I need to know about fire hydrants.