Taking a ride on the Tanglefoot Trail

After leaving the big city of Little Rock, we landed in the small, rural town of Houston, Mississippi for a couple of days of recharging -- and cycling of course!

We stayed at a small "mom and pop" motel that was highly ranked on Tripadvisor.  Not fancy but clean, and a good place to relax.  We liked that they'd kept their vintage sign even after adding a more modern one.  I think the "free wi-fi in rooms" was a later addition to the sign, don't you?

On our first full day in Houston, we rode the entire Tanglefoot Trail.  This paved trail is Mississippi's longest rail-trail, so that's what brought us to this area.  

The start of the trail was just a short 1.5 mile ride from the motel.  We finally had shorts weather again -- gotta love the south in October!

The trail took us through or near several small towns, including Pontotoc.

When we started seeing kudzu growing all over everywhere, we really knew we were back in the southeast!

Barry riding past boatloads of kudzu

The trail runs from Houston at its southern terminus to the small city of New Albany at its northern end for a total of 43.5 miles one way.  New Albany's downtown is absolutely charming.

New Albany, Mississippi

We'd read about this amazing bakery in New Albany called Sugaree's, and it wildly exceeded our high expectations.  We've been to a lot of bakeries over the past year, and this one certainly ranks up in the top couple we've had the pleasure of visiting.

The samples were absolutely DELICIOUS

Sugaree's amazing chalkboard menu

So many delicious choices -- and this is just in one of the cases!

In addition to standard cases, they also have a frozen case with cake, gelato, and the most amazing ice cream sandwiches.  Oh my!

Barry had to try an ice cream sandwich -- it was delicious!

It was incredibly hard to choose, but here are the other goodies we ended up with.

The rest of our haul: turtle brownie, turtle cheesecake, and peanut butter bar....

Sugaree's had the most beautiful outside decor.  There was a sign up proclaiming them the winner of the downtown beautification project.  We could certainly see why!

Also on the main street, I discovered this charming Italian eatery.  I love anything with a Boston Terrier logo!

Here's Barry at the final trail mile marker as we turned around to head back to Houston.  Half-way done!

Loved this fall decor with a bike theme in someone's yard.  Very creative!

Back at mile marker 1 in Houston!

At 90 miles total, this was my longest ride of the year.  It was a long but fun day.  Barry did some extra (of course) to get in his 11th century (100+ miles) this year.  Whatta guy!