NATCHEZ &8212; Watching a child learn to ride a bicycle can be frustrating and comical. Watching members of the Natchez Bicycle Club glide down the Natchez Trace Parkway, ending their 444-mile trip, was like watching a skillful work of art.

Monday, 21 local cyclists started a trip in Nashville, Tenn., that would cover the length of the Natchez Trace.

Saturday the group rode down the end of the Trace, finishing their journey in Natchez. After passing around a stomach virus, words of encouragement and observing the beauty of the Natchez Trace, the bikers made it home.

&8220;The first two days had lots of climbing and were really tough,&8221; Natchez Bicycle Club President Tommy Smith said. &8220;If the last few days would have been like the first two we probably wouldn&8217;t have had everybody finish.&8221;

The cyclists traveled, for the most part, in three different groups and held an average speed around 15 miles per hour, Smith said. Stopping around five times a day, biking roughly 80 miles a day and stopping to rest in hotels at night for sleep, consumed the week&8217;s schedule.

&8220;I&8217;ve got some sore muscles and a sore butt, but the fellowship and enjoying being outside was fantastic,&8221; cyclist Buddy Farris said. Sixty-one year old Farris had bilateral knee replacement surgery six months ago, which he called a &8220;total knee replacement of both knees,&8221; but said the new knees were never an issue.

A race car trailer, owned by trip coordinators Kenneth and Dianne Jordan, was converted to a bike trailer dedicated to carrying food, spare parts and housing the bikes at night and was also a huge help, Smith said.

During the week the bikers consumed 370 can drinks, 72 gallons of water, 12 pounds of ham and turkey, five gallons of peanut butter and used 90 bags of ice. One half pound of jelly, 90 bananas, 30 apples, 15 loaves of bread and used an undisclosed amount of &8220;butt cream&8221; while on their journey.

Weather, Smith said, was never an issue and only a few days of rain got the bikers

a little wet. Traffic was not a problem either, except for around the Jackson and Tupelo areas where exits on and off the road are frequent Smith said.

&8220;I have never done anything like this before,&8221; cyclist Laurie Williams said after fighting the stomach virus and finishing the trek. &8220;It&8217;s the kind of thing that once you do it once, you want to do it again. It&8217;s a sickness, I think.&8221;

The idea for the trip originated, Jordan said, from a group of cyclists in their 60s that traveled through Natchez coming in contact with her mother. Her mother is involved in tourism at Rosalie and told her the news of a group that visited the home that was bicycling the trace.

&8220;I&8217;ve always wanted to ride the Trace and once my mother told me about them, I said if they can do it, we can do it.&8221;

The bicycle club looks for new challenges and events continuously, but doesn&8217;t have another trip planned at this time, Smith said.

&8220;I had to totally zone out and coordinate my legs and lungs and just turn my thinking to getting through it,&8221; rider Cara Moody said. &8220;We all pulled through and are a big wonderful family. It was just a great adventure.&8221;