We had a great time riding the Longleaf Trace. We decided we would ride the Tanglefoot trail in Northern Mississippi. Needless to say, it was in the middle of nowhere so we planned various places to stay (and there weren’t many) at the trail. Then came weather. The forecast called for rain for a couple of days so we decided to go to Oxford, Mississippi, home of Ole Miss. The truth of it is that Oxford is a wonderful town. You almost don’t know you are in Mississippi. What a difference from Hattiesburg where there was every crummy chain restaurant that exists. Oxford has so many good restaurants and places to see considering how small it is. We really had a good time.
Why on earth would we drive to Mississippi? We planned to ride another famous bike trail: the Longleaf Trace. It was an exciting to have the time to just go there.
The welcome sign is out as long as it isn’t a Sunday
As we found out, Sunday is definitely not the day to drive into Mississippi. Basically, it closes on that day. The entire state basically shuts down with nothing to do except find the hotel and see which McDonalds or Hooter’s is open so we could get something to eat. We did find every fast food or pseudo fast food restaurant that exists is in Hattiesburg. We also found a couple of local gems along the way.
We are finally getting to one of the famous rail to trail biking destinations: The Tammany Trace! We were so excited and hopeful it wouldn’t rain. It was cloudy but beautiful .
The Tammany Trace is located on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain. It is a beautiful trail going through five St. Tammany Parish (counties to us) communities. The trail is 27.5-miles with just beautiful views of woods and wetlands and runs through wonderful little towns like Covington, Abita Springs and Mandeville.
Somewhere along the way, we decided to have an extended stay in New Orleans and ride some of the trails around the city. We were so excited to really spend time in that city. I have been there many times for work but never had the opportunity to explore the different areas of this colorful city. We were always working and partying (after work, of course) in the French Quarter so who knew there was more? As it turns out there is lots more to the city than just the French Quarter (but I love it anyway).
Initial plan was to ride the bike trails in Austin and San Antonio. Unfortunately, we finally ran into rain. We haven’t seen rain in 14 years so it was a bit of a shock to our systems. We decided to bag those towns and drive directly to The Woodlands (just outside of Houston). We were so happy to visit Mike’s family (Kathy and Peter Adey) in their beautiful home. For the first time in a couple of days, we were back in civilization again. By this time, the car was in serious need of cleaning plus it needed an oil change. We were able to take care of those small things before going on the road again. Plus, after riding in the car for a couple of weeks, we needed a break.
In our original plan, we were going to visit some close friends in Taos, New Mexico, but winter reared its ugly head and it was snowing. We really weren’t prepared for snow so we decided to skip Taos and drive across Texas.
The good thing about this part of our trip was that it was only two hours away from Scottsdale, the not so good thing was we were on our way to Tucson. We weren’t in California anymore.
We had one of the best meals at a place called Industrial Eats in Buellton, California. If you didn’t look for it, you wouldn’t find it – and you would be missing probably the best restaurant in the Santa Barbara Wine Region (outside of Santa Barbara proper). It is an amazing, quirky little place with a unique vibe – like communal tables. It is in an industrial area. You would never expect a great restaurant to be there, but that is a big part of its charm.
This was the second time we ate at Brothers Restaurant at the Red Barn. We wanted to go to Mattei’s but found out it was closed for a while (It has since reopened with different owners). Brother’s restaurant is owned and operated by the same two guys (brothers Matt & Jeff, Nichols) that started Mattei’s, so we thought it was a good bet to be a nice place.
The first time we ate at Brothers Restaurant, we thought it was one of the best restaurants in the area. This time around, we thought the same thing again! The hostess seated us right away. The service was very good, but the food came out a bit slowly.
As we continued our journey across the US, we decided to go to Scottsdale, Arizona. First of all we have been to Scottsdale before and loved staying there. There were a couple of compelling reasons for us to go back:
There is a great bike trail called the Indian Bend Wash Trail
Mike loves Posh, an improvisational restaurant we discovered the last time we were in Scottsdale
