We spend most evenings playing a game or two of cards and reviewing maps to make a plan for the next day. Seeing that today's weather projected to be below 40 degrees until about mid-morning we decided to go to Leland MS to have breakfast and see the Birthplace of Kermit the Frog museum before heading out to bike. Our lone breakfast option was a small cafe which said was open but was vacant when Dale walked in. But he was quickly greeted by the owner who hesitated momentarily when we asked if they served breakfast. There were no breakfast items on the menu board but he offered and proceeded to give us options of scramble eggs, toast, bacon, sausage and grits. (Dale really liked the grits). We were the only customers and when I asked for the bill, the owner told us that since it was our first visit to Leland that we should enjoy our day and maybe we'd come back some time and "that's the only cost". Nice southern hospitality. As an aside while talking to our host we mentioned Jim Henson and he told us Jim continued returning to Leland to perform puppet shows for the local schools and that he himself had been an audience member as a child. We left a big tip and had some time before the museum opened. Marie had been craving donuts so we went to a donut shop in the next town. It was hopping at 9:30am on a Wednesday am which was a good sign. We were going to order three donuts but the young woman serving us soon had us buying half a dozen donuts and three other pastries! I only ate one but I am not sure about Dale and Marie! We were greeted by two friendly men having their coffee and donuts. They said they usually know everyone in the donut shop and wanted to know where we were from and what we were doing in town. We listened to a couple of their stories before we left. One of the gentlemen was from a family of 16 children that today range from 55 to 85 years old. It was a fun conversation. Then we headed back to the Kermit the Frog Museum. Jim Henson was born in Greenville MS and and went to elementary and middle school in Leland. After he died at the young age of 53, they set up this museum in his honor. His wife donated one of his original Kermit the Frog puppets and they a nice display of other puppets, photographs, scrap books and other muppet memorabilia. Kermit was named after a friend of his growing up, Dr. Kermit Scott. It was a fun tour of the museum and background music of Kermit singing the rainbow connection song about "The lovers, the dreamers and me" is still going through my head.

Back to the business of riding across the country. We went back to Hollandale and jumped on our bikes. We quickly found ourselves in trouble on a paved road which turned into gravel, which, due to the rain, had turned into mud. We couldn't continue on so we had to re-route. The road was too slick and narrow to even turn the truck around so we had to back it up several hundred yards and our shoes and bike tires were caked with fertile delta mud by the time we got back to pavement. We backtracked and finally found some wonderful country roads to ride and Dale and I could again ride side-by-side. There were a couple of dog interactions but we slowed down and they stopped running at us and all was peaceful. We had to stop at 3pm EST so I could take a call. Marie had pulled up to side of the road and we caught up with her and put the bikes down. I went to make my call and Dale and Marie had lunch. There was a sign next to where we stopped that said "No Littering - fine of $500" with a large pile of litter in front of it. Three individuals stopped while we were there to point out the sign and tell us that we could not leave our litter there. Dale and Marie explained that it was already there when we stopped. They were interesting interactions. We then headed off for the last bit of biking for the day. We had gone about two miles when Marie doubled back to tell us we had to re-route again. She had driven ahead and one of the roads abruptly crossed a cattleguard (We don't have them in the NE so you might have to look it up to learn what it is...) and ended in a cow pasture. We found another route and safely made it to our hotel which is a casino abutting the Mississippi river and the border of Arkansas. We will go over the bridge tomorrow and be in our 5th state - hard to believe. We tried our luck a little tonight at the slot machines but, alas, we're now down $15.