Day 1 - May 11, 2023. Fulton, MS

Not much to report today.  Today was the official first day of the tour.  People have been arriving in Fulton MS the last few days via various modes of transportation.  I am surprised by how many people chose to drive - most using one-way rental cars.  One woman drove with her husband from Ottawa.  Oh well - my choice worked out well for me.  The two vans and trailer left Memphis this morning around 10.  We had 5 passengers in our van and the other van had a few as well.  It took a few hours to get to Fulton, and the start point of our tour.  

There are a few people on this trip who I've travelled with before.  Carol was our guide on my first ride - the Southern Tier in 2013.  She retired from guiding shortly after that and is here as a guest.  I met Tina in 2015 on the Atlantic Coast.  I won't say I "rode with" her since she rides waaay faster than I ever have.  Emily, our chef, was also on the Atlantic Coast trip (her first), and also cooked on the Sierra Cascades trip in 2016.  Our guide, Cindi, was a fellow guest on the Sierra Cascades trip.  I met Sharlene on TA1 and TA2 in 2018 & 2019.  MP was one of our SAG drivers on TA4 last year.  The rest are all new to me.  We have 25 riders and this is the first WT trip for only 3 of them.  Most of seem to keep coming back.  Looks like a good group, and a lot of very experienced riders.  

We went out for lunch shortly after arriving and then back to the hotel for our initial meeting which took about 2 hours.  It's been a pretty nice day, but as I sat down to type this I took a look out the window.


Moments later we were in the midst of a rip-roaring thunderstorm.  Oh well - I think it won't be our last.  At least we didn't get wet today............

Overall, a pretty relaxed day.  Got my bike ready to go for tomorrow and rearranged bags to suit the daily requirements.  We'll have a group dinner at 6:30 and an early-ish start tomorrow to get in about 80 miles.   

I'm going to try something new this trip and put a little blurb (usually from Wikipedia) in here about the town/city that we're staying in.  I'll see how long that lasts..............

First up:  Fulton, Mississippi

Population 4,542 (2020 census).  Fulton is named for Robert Fulton, inventor of the steamboat.  The town was incorporated in 1837.  It is bordered to the west by the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway, which is a 234-mile artificial waterway built in the 20th century from the Tennessee River to the junction of the Black Warrior-Tombigbee River system near Demopolis, Alabama.  It serves to link commercial navigation from the nation's midsection to the Gulf of Mexico.  There are 10 locks and dams on its course.  At a total cost of $2 billion, the Waterway was completed in 1984.  Vernon Presley, father of Elvis, is from here.  The median household income in 2000 was $29,449.    




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