Monday Slept great last night at my almost proper little trailhead campsite. The one storm that produced light rain in the evening is all that disturbed a very quiet spot. As I broke camp I was absolutely eaten up by mosquitoes. I was sluggish about getting going so it took a bit longer than usual. I was thrilled to head down the first hill and get away from the bugs. As per usual in Mississippi the gravel roads I was on were full of loose smooth stones. I think they have to put so much on because the soil is impassable when muddy. So after a few miles of this I decided to do a little section of the Noxubee hills trail that roughly paralleled my route. I enjoyed it even though I was going fairly slow and decided since I felt good to keep going north and join up with my route a bit further down. I rode the trail around Choctaw lake and other than one fisherman I had the place to myself. I had a lot of fun here in the beginning on the trails and it was a nice change of pace, but it took up a good portion of the morning. So I tried as best I could to get a move on while also not putting in too much effort. It took awhile but eventually I reached the first town and almost stopped at the little grocery store but saw that I would go by another DG a few miles more in the next town so I decided to wait till that one. I actually rode a little past it and ended up riding a big loop through the town of Maben. Nice little town. There were lots more very loose gravel roads but I've gotten a bit used to them by now and mostly they were pretty flat so not too big a problem. Stopped again at another DG near the tiny town of Woodland. I was a bit pooped and hot. I actually ate a whole bag of chips here in the little grassy shade beside the building. That DG was having serious problems. The alarm out back near the dumpster was going off, the produce coolers had nothing inside, there was a lot of boxes all around and the only worker there had a very needy customer to deal with. I felt bad about it but she was nice and checked me out in the middle of helping him. I felt a bit better and pushed on to Houston for my last stop of the day. There was a nice trailhead for the Tanglefoot trail, a 40 mile rail trail. I filled up water as I was assaulted with noise by the aggressive lawn equipment noisily mowing the grass around me. So I didn't stick around. Had to leave the trail for a bit to get to a store and somehow rode by the grocery store probably thinking I was looking for a DG. It was really busy and I had to wait a bit for someone who's card wouldn't work in the reader. I felt bad. I glanced at the total of 105$ and briefly fantasized about just tapping my card to the reader to pay pretty much just so I could save a few awkward minutes of standing. I didn't do this and the manager eventually helped her get it to read. I got back to the trail again but I couldn't continue very far as I had to make my way northeast towards the Tombigbee national forest. I went really slow these final 10 or so miles even though it wasn't hard at all. I was really just ready to rest for the day. I kept spying for perfect stealth sites in the NF all along the last few miles but ultimately didn't see perfection so I rolled into the official FS Davis lake campground. I figured it would be dead as it is Monday and kids are still in school plus it's hot out. And yet there were lots of RV campers around. There were a few spots that weren't too bad. But they were exposed. And at the fee kiosk there was a handwritten note saying to not register and pay for 2/3rds of the sites without checking first with the campground host. I really didn't want to bother and considered just registering anyway without say anything. But I also balked at the price, 20$. So I decided to explore my options. There was a little gated road that led up a hill across from the day use bathroom. I went down that and found a large glade with the ruins of what was probably a lodge. Perhaps there was a fire? There were several large trees growing from beside the chimneys. Several picnic tables. Even a working faucet. So I decided to stealth camp here. It's really close to the bathroom and has water so it's basically like officially camping but I am totally away from everyone else. Perfect.