Day 10: Greenville, MS to Tuscaloosa, MS

This morning we woke to the pitter patter of little tiny rain feet. Not what we wanted to hear, but what we expected from the forecast. The weather channel became our favorite program and helped us to formulate our travel plan. 

We went down to breakfast and met our new best friend, breakfast host Belvis. She didn't treat us any differently than the rest of the patrons, and yet she treated us like royalty. This took away some of the sting from the rain forecast.

We then retreated to the room and continue to watch the weather channel with hope and anticipation. The detour to Atlanta for G to work was already going to cost us 2 to 3 days and we not only had to be there by Monday but we could not afford extra days. And for G, not every day was Saturday like it is for T. Whoops, today IS Saturday – how about that! 

The weather channel was on but we were already planning the chess match of H2O versus S2O!! H2O was going toward Tuscaloosa just as we were, with a gap in the clouds and then another batch of storms. We planned our strategy to wait for the right opening and to try to go at the right pace to stay rain free. T, known for the patience of a killer bee, paced and busied himself with the extra time. G on the other hand had been up with the pain in his hands much of the night and therefore welcomed the extra time to rest.

At about 11 AM we decided it was time. Plus we were being kicked out of our hotel rooms because it was checkout time. The Rain King had used many of his pawns to keep us at bay until 11 AM. We knew that we had a very powerful adversary and had to play the game well. We took our opening and move the game forward. The rain King countered using his minions the Wind Rook and the Wind Bishop to come at us straight on, from the side and diagonally. For over 100 miles we were buffeted and pushed around the roads. We sacrificed a few pawns and we used our knight to go two spaces forward and one over, two to the left and one forward. We stopped and regrouped at Eupora, the site where we went over 2500 miles for the trip. It was there that we boldly, ambitiously took off our rain gear and  pushed forward through the opening that we perceived the rain king's strategy had left us. We passed large flocks of white egrets by local watering holes. We couldn't stop to take pictures because we were still engrossed in the match and there was no place we could safely stop in the stones in the shoulder of the road.

30 miles from Tuscaloosa we knew we had won the match. The sun came out in all it's glory. It was only matched by the wonderful, accepting dispositions of all of the Alabama football fans that were staying at our hotel. We felt like celebrities because everybody wanted to know more about and talk to the guys whose bikes were parked out front.

As a matter of fact, everyone that G spoke to had already spoken to T and knew our story. G has already coined a new name for T and it is BS Thomas. No it's not what you think. The BS stands for biker schmoozer! The Alabama fans really treated us well and gave us a wonderful feeling for this area.