Day 9 - The Finish

LaRose to Grand Isle

The night at the Apple Inn in LaRose was not much of a step above tenting out, except for the warm shower. When I got up the next morning there was no place close to eat so I fired up the stove and made coffee and oatmeal. I guess I should have stopped earlier or heeded the waring of a sign in the office window, the hurricane Gustav reopening certificate. When I was checking out of the motel there was another client who came to the office and wanted a beer, note that it was 8:40 in the morning but the man at the front desk opened the bar and got him a beer.

I didn't ride very far before passing the 12 Monkeys Internet Cafe and Coffee shop. I had planned on updating my blog and even at the $3 / 15 minute rate, I figured it would be worth getting something down in my blog. When I arrived I found out that the Internet was broken. A service call had been put in to the tech in Houma but no ETA. I offered to take a look at it, explaining that I had just retired and had some experience with computers and networking. The manager Susan agreed and I went to work with limited access. The three desktop computers could talk to the access point just fine but the access point was not passing the DNS information from the cable modem. After additional discussion and no login access to the access point, I felt it was with the cable provider since Susan had called them and they had no record of an Internet account. She figured the Internet was coming in some other method and thus put in the call for the tech. We spent almost an hour discussing land loss, oil companies, hurricanes, and the trucks on the road.

I was back to riding against a headwind. My progress was slow and things to break the wind were scares. I pushed on until I got to Cut Off where I passed a building right on the bayou which was a net shop. I had never seen a net shop before (or noticed this one since it had been here since 1948). After taking a photo or two I decided to go meet the two men who were in the shop making nets. I went and introduced myself and they invited me to step over the board at the door and come in. The board was to keep the dog off the highway. His name was BoBo and was a bull dog who appeared to spend most of his day sleeping on the nets. The owner to the net shop was Troy Terrebonne and he had taken over the shop from his father who had taken the shop over from his grandfather. Troy said he was the last of it since neither one of his boys was interested in taking over the shop from him. He said his son does better cutting grass than making nets. Troy said with the price of shrimp down due to cheap imports there are less fisherman than there once were.

I stopped at Mommie Jo's for lunch and had a shrimp salad. I wonder if the shrimp were local or imported? I wanted something light that I could ride with and the shrimp salad seemed to do the trick. The restaurant sat right on Bayou Lafourche and had a great view of the bayou. There was seating outside but I ate inside to get a chance to cool off.

The next town I peddled through was Golden Meadow, which is famous for it's speed traps. I never got a ticket in Golden Meadow but have heard the stories since I was a little boy going to vacation in Grand Isle with may family. I wasn't worried about this trip on my bike since the lowest limit was 25 MPH and that is really pushing it and I don't have a downhill to push it on. I guess the stories are true because not only did the have a sign about speed limit enforced by radar I saw an election bumper sticker for “Radar Dickie Cheramie – Port Commission”. The one thing I was interested is seeing in Golden Meadow was the Petit Caporal which was the first motorized vessel in the area powered by a 3 HP tractor motor which was installed in 1902. The vessel had been built in 1854 and had operated under sail. The vessel was in very poor shape. It was a real shame to see history rotten away.

Once you pass Golden Meadow you pass the levee and everything that matters is built on stilts. I was headed for Leaville and had no protection from the wind that was blowing off the gulf almost straight towards me. Now I know what biking in The Netherlands must be like. I got across the bridge Leaville by walking over the first half of it. Very little shoulder and lot of traffic, that with the headwind made me to slow a target for my confront. I only got 21 MPH on the downside of the bridge but with the headwind it felt like 40 or more. The headwind keep up until I made the turn at Port Fourchon. After the turn I lost most of the traffic also. Lot of road construction around Port Fourchon.

I made it to the bridge at Caminada Bay which leads to Grand Isle about 5 PM, and once across I stopped in at the Bridge Side Marine for a fishing license, some bait and a beer. I continued on down LA1 headed for the Grand Isle State Park, which I had heard it was closed and then heard it was open for day use only but when I got there I found the gates chained shut and no sign as to when it may open. There was a lot of work that needed to be done after the hurricane last year. On the way I ran into Mary and Susan from Minnesota. They flagged me down and ask where I was going. After explaining the ride and I was almost at the end they offered to come down and take my photograph. In conversation I learned that Mary had ridden an all ladies ride of the Mississippi River and then a sub-group rode on into Canada.

I took what I though was LA1 to the Sand Dollar Marina and got my picture taken and checked my map to confirm I had completed the ride when I discovered that the dead end road I turned off of was LA1 and I still have a 100 yards to ride to finish so I road back out and make the last little bit. After another picture, I went and got a room at the marina. The only rooms they had left had 4 bunk beds but as long as the shower worked I was find with that.

After getting cleaned up I met Mr and Mrs Hollier for dinner. They are my sons grandparents and we had dinner at the Light House Restaurant. I had the grilled red snapper and baked sweet potato which was a good choice. The Holliers said that the Light House has the best steaks on the island. Besides the restaurant, they also have a meat distributor business that supplies the offshore business of Port Fourchon so a lot of meat goes through there hands.

Stats
54.41 miles total
21.8 max
- crossed 500 miles on the island

Day 8 (Earth Day)

Thibodaux to LaRose

Got up and packed and was able to roll out of the Deauville Motel about 9:00 AM and planned to seeing some of Thibodaux before heading south on LA1. Like Donaldsonville, Thibodaux sits on Bayou Lafourche and LA1 for the most part follows Bayou Lafourche from this point south.to Leeville where all the waterways and marsh run together. Thibodaux is a more lively town and like Natchitoches the may be because it has a university to help keep the town alive. I first went to the chamber of commencer and got information about Thibodaux and the route south.

After leaving I first went to Jean Lafitte National Historic Park. I had two chance meetings while there, the first was with Dave, a deputy with the Lafourche Parish Sheriff's office. We talked about riding and I found out his interest was driven by the fact that he trained bike cops in the area. He said they road about 40 miles a night but that was a lot tougher the the 50 to 70 I was riding a day with my load. He told me about them riding both down and up stairs, through the high crime areas and some of there experiences. He ask me about my experiences so far on the trip and told him how nice everyone had been. He was wearing a Grand Isle Tarpon Rodeo shirt and said he has some more at home and to help me 'fit in' in Grand Isle offered me one. He lived on LA1 and gave me his phone number so I told him I would drop by when I passed. The second chance meeting was when I met a photographer from the Thibodaux Daily Comet news paper, Abby Tabor who had come to take some photos of the trees that the library upstairs was giving away as part of Earth Day. He ask me come back by the news paper which was also right on LA1 to talk about my ride. When I got parked and inside Abby introduced me to Lloyd Nelson who sat down with me and we talked about the ride and why I decided to make it. You can find the article at: http://www.dailycomet.com/article/20090423/ARTICLES/904239939?Title=Baton-Rouge-man-bicycling-the-length-of-La-1.

After our discussion I was on my way this time to find a place for lunch. I had ask several people got different answers from each but settled on Fremin's which was on 3rd street in an old drug store. The building dated back to 1878. It was across from the court house and had a good lunch business. All the tables were full so I ate at the bar. I chose the daily special of Chicken Roulade which was s chicken breast stuffed with shrimp and baked and served with a cream sauce. It was very good and I would recommend Fremin's to anyone in the area. The waitress Rhonda was very helpful and even met me at the door after seeing me get my water bottles and start to walk back inside. She had been riding her bike to work until it was stolen several months earlier.

After lunch I headed out and made my way for LA1 South. It was getting late and if I didn't want to get caught on the road after dark I needed to make some miles. When I passed the landmark Dave, my sheriff friend had told me I gave him a call and he was waiting for me in his golf cart at by the road with two shirts and a hat. I only had room for one shirt and the hat and we talked about his house and the work he had done to restore it, it was over a hundred years old. I took me on a tour of it before I headed out. Dave even left me with his mobile phone number in case I needed help down the road. The good will of people amaze me.

My next stop was a planned stop in Lockport at Effective Solar Products. I had met Aaron at the ISA show the week before, during one of my off days. We had discussed solar charging of things like cell phones and how we could mount something on a bike to do this. My ride would be over before something like that could be purchased but for future rides it would be handy. He gave me a tour of the shop and we talked about solar for homes and field instrumentation. It happened to be Earth Day, and I didn't plan it that way but some many things on this trip just fell into place at just the right time I though that being at a business on LA1 that sold solar power products on Earth Day for just about perfect.

I rode on to LaRose and not finding a campground within 10 miles decided to stay in a motel for the night. I got a room at the Apple Inn.

From the motel I can see a sign, 44 miles to Grand Isle!

Stats
43.48 total miles
23.9 max (coming down a bridge)
7.5 hours on the road, lots of visiting along the way...

Day 7

Plaquemine to Thibodaux

After getting all the kids off to school (JoAnn flew out to Freeport earlier that morning), and some of the other errons I had to get done, I set out for my old employee's visitor parking lot. I knew my truck should be safe with the security presents. By the time I got there and loaded up it was a little later than I had hoped but all works out for the best. I called my old riding buddy Chris and he met me at one of the favorite lunch spots in Plaquemine, Fat Daddy’s Poboy shop. Fat Daddy’s is mostly known for serving root beer in frozen mugs so that is what I had with my shrimp poboy and fries. I knew that may not be a good lunch to ride on but I had no idea how bad a choice I had made. The food was great as usually but I tasted that poboy for the next five hours…

After lunch I rode back over to the Plaquemine Locks State Historical Site. It had been years since my last visit. There were a large group of school child visiting the locks on a field trip. There were stations setup to discuss the function of the locks, firetruck demo, and net making. The old Cajun teaching net making ask one of the kids what grade they were in and made a joke that 1st grade was the best 3 years of his school life. None of the kids laughed, maybe they didn’t do the math. Inside the locks building I met the ranger Stan Richardson who even offered to let me go upstairs to the old radio room which is not the rangers office. This offered a nice look at the river and locks. The locks opened this month in 1909 and they had a celebration earlier in the month and even broke a bottle of champagne like they did when the locks opened.

I left Plaquemine and head for White Castle. The headwind was a killer so I took a detour at Bayou Goula to revisit the worlds smallest church which was built in 1903 after a poor Italian sugar farmer’s son recovered for a life threating sickness. Anthono Gullo had prayed that if his son recovered he would build a church. He and the community pitched in to fulfill his pledge. Someone donated the land and others the lumber and this church is the result. I met two of the five retired men who keep the church up. They were there to hang a candle holder they had repainted. What was funny was I got there they were just arriving also and went to a small box on the front of the church and got the key to the door out and opened the door. When I got closer I noticed that the box was labeled ‘Key’. Where else would the keep the key to the front door in a labeled box on that attached to front of the church.

After leaving the church, I headed south on river road and arrived at Nottaway plantation. Nottaway is my favorite plantation, looking like something out of a southern fairy tale. If you are going to see only one southern plantation then Nottaway is the plantation to see. It faces the river and is a great view to see approaching from river road.

The next town I came to was Donaldsonville which if history serves me right was temporally the capital of Louisiana. It was also the about the northern most point of the pirate Lafitte’s empire. I took a few minutes to drive through the old part of town and while driving around Paul Marchand stopped me and we talked about biking. He has a Thursday group that rides at 5 from his rental properties. He said some Thursdays he rides alone but still enjoys every outing.
After leaving Donaldsonville I headed to Napoleonville where I planned to find a place to spend the night. I did find the Episcopal church that seem to church I remember standing in Bob Brennecki’s wedding at. The thing I remember the most about the wedding was the drive down with TC Taylor. I laughed at TC until I was in tears. I started looking for a place to stay and the search for camping turned up nothing. A search on hotel turned up one hit but after a call I figured out that not only does the place not have a business center it is not a place I should ride in on a bike. The room comes with dinner and breakfast for two. Even with the discount for one person and no meals the price was still twice what I was willing to pay so I continued on to Thibodaux. It was almost dark when I arrived in Thibodaux, and I was ready for a shower so camping was not on my search list. I stopped at the very first mom and pop motel I saw and got a room. The only available room happened to be on the second floor. I packed my bike fully loaded up the stairs which was not a good idea. Nothing happened but took more effort that if I had made several trips. A shower sure felt good.

Stats
65.43 miles total
21.6 max
started about noon and finished at 8:00

Weekend Off

Taking the weekend off, I know I just had a break… The weather is calling for thunderstorms for the weekend (even though at the writing of this entry Sunday the weather is beautiful), and tonight I have a concert to go to that my son is performing in with his high school band, “Moonlight and Jazz” at White Oak Plantation. I have to judge the State Science Fair on Monday so no reason to push farther away from home.

I plan to start out again on Tuesday, with the last 150 miles to go. JoAnn will pick me up in Grand Isle on the weekend and I plan to fish until she gets there.

The Last Leg

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Day 6

After a day off to attend a work related event my wife drove me out to Camile’s in Erwinville to start the day. The road east of Erwinville is good by has ‘wake up’ bumps molded into the concrete across the entire shoulder which I though would be a bit of a problem. It turned out that there was enough gap at the outside of the shoulder to ride and the bumps are not as bad as the ones cut into the asphalt which will rattle your eye teeth.

The pipeline that is under construction is coming along well. I looked to be a 20 inch or bigger carbon steel pipeline with 6 inches of insulation. When I made my test ride from Erwinville to New Roads during Mardi Gras the pipeline was being laid out and welding was starting, it is mostly buried now and finishing work is being done in this section east of Erwinville.

Against a building headwind I made it to Port Allen and the old hot spot before the Mississippi Bridge referred to as the Gold Coast. Many years ago this was the hot nightspot for the late night partiers coming from Baton Rouge. A quick ride across the bridge and into another parish with different rules for nightclubs supported the Gold Coast for years. By the time I came of age it was dieing. It not is a mixture of low rate strip joints, massage parlor, and a church that is in the building of an old nightclub. What a mixture.

After turning south at the bridge where Hwy 190 and LA1 split, I headed south to Port Allen. I stopped by the parish museum to find them open but preparing for a large group of women who are the wives of the area fire chief’s. I decided to delay my tour of the facilities to another day.

I road down some of the back streets of Port Allen to the old ferry landing to get a river view of Baton Rouge. After a few minute break I headed back out to make my crossing of the Intracoastal Bridge. The smell in this section of LA1 is especially good. Community Coffee (my favorite) has a processing plant at the foot of the New Mississippi River Bridge (I10) and when they are roasting coffee the smell is so good. I could just sit there and enjoy. I knew this would be tough since there were no shoulder and with the wind pushing on me from the east, hitting me broadside. I watched for a break in the traffic and headed out. Going up was slow and the wind was hitting me from my left side was getting stronger since I was on the bridge above anything to disrupt it. The traffic was generous and I made it to the top of the bridge and started shifting gears. I dropped into the tallest gear for my middle front sprocket and was going 30 mph at the bottom with the wind hitting me in puffs of 30+ blowing me towards the right side of the bridge. What a ride but I never felt out of control.

I met my wife and some of our friends from the plant for lunch at DC’s Grill. I had the Caribbean Salad, which is my favorite thing they make. It is a green salad with fruit and nuts, with a red tangy dressing they make topped with blue cheese and chicken.

After lunch the rest of the group went back to work and I went back to peddling in the headwind. This is the section of LA1 that is the most familiar to me. I have been driving it daily for more than 30 years. I made a stop at Cinclare’s sugar mill, which is now closed but processed sugar from the surrounding fields up until several years ago. I stopped and looked at the sugar trains that have been out front by the American flag for some years now. They are small diesel powered engines used in the mill at some point.

I headed out in the headwind again and peddled past Dow Chemical’s Louisiana Operations where I had just retired. I do miss the people but not getting up every morning and making that 25-mile drive into work.

I made it to Plaquemine and stopped at Zeto’s snowball shop for a snowball while I waited for my wife to pick me up. With the rain and wind predicted for the weekend and my son having a concert on Sunday I am taking the weekend off and will start back on my trek on Tuesday. I have to judge the State Science fair on Monday. I plan to park at Dow and ride from there down to the coast and fish until JoAnn can come pick me up at the end of the week.

Stats
30.69 miles
30.3 max

Break

Not to disappoint all my readers but I am taking a down day, not that my body doesn’t need it but it does, but because there is an ISA function in town and I need to keep up to speed in my field so I keep my edge and will be in a better position to find employment after the ride.

Day 5

Riding Marksville to Erwinville on Tax Day (and I filed an extension ;-)

After a restful but short night at Paragon Casino and Resort, I got up at 5:30, wide awake and started getting ready. I moved the bike around and started loading it up, and yes I ask about valet parking the bike (for other Jeff) and was told they had never been ask but since they were not allowed to valet motorcycles they felt they would not be able to valet my bike either. That settled I headed for breakfast at the buffet. Breakfast was nice and I tried to eat healthier than I had done last night, more fruits and balanced that two steaks.

I got on the road a little after 8:00 headed for New Roads or beyond with the goal of getting far enough that my wife could meet me for a night at home in my own bed!
After a very helpful stop at the Avoyelles parish visitor center and LSU ag center I got back on the road.

When I entered into Simmesport I ran into some of the Southern Tier riders I had been hearing about. At the dinner Joel and Nate, two college age young men were patching a tube. The Southern Tier ride is a ride from San Diego to Florida, about 4000 miles in total. I ran into three Southern Tier riders the month before at Avondale (our local Boy Scout camp). They had tented out at the Scout reservation and we fed them dinner and breakfast the next day. One of the riders Tony was from the UK and raising money to purchase a special bike for a handicap kid in England. You can track his progress at www.bike4gus.com. Anyway, Joel got his tube fixed and we all three crossed the Atchafalaya bridge together (safety in numbers). There route took them off of LA1 at the foot of the bride but I had made arrangements with them to meet them back in St Francisville that night with some new tubes.

You see a lot of thing on the side of the road while riding your bike. Some things discarded, some things dead, some things lost. Road kill is an interesting think (except for the smell). You can tell a lot about the area from the road kill. In the country you see a lot of wild animals, and the farm lands you see more birds, in the city you see domestic animals, but now that I am in the Atchafalaya basin I saw a flattened bull frog. This was no normal frog for those who have not seen one of these frogs. The things are big and served for dinner in Cajun country. If you laid this frog on a 13” dinner plate he would hang off both sides!

Not far down the road while stopped at a filling station for some water and a bathroom, another one of the Southern Tier riders showed but. His name was Dave and he was riding a recumbent bike. A recumbent bike is a bike with a chair and you sit like you are sitting in a sports car seat and the peddles are in front of you. He had a wind shield on the front and then a bike sock that completely covered him and extended to the back of the bike with only his head sticking out. The sock was in the design of an American flag. What a wild looking setup. We road together for a few miles until his route took him onto a rural road and I stayed on LA1.

We met up again after crossing the Morganza spillway. When I got ready to cross the spillway I looked at the two lane road without a shoulder to ride on and said a little prayer, asking God to help me get across this thing safely. There was some traffic on this road this morning but most were going fast. Most people will give you plenty of room but if another car is coming in the opposite direction, some will cut you close rather than slow down and pass when it is safe. Well I got started on this one mile plus bridge and was passed by a few cars and trucks when an SUV came up behind me. There were some cars in the opposite lane and was thankful they were waiting for an opportunity to pass me. After they passed I got over as far as I could and the SUV did pass. I soon relived that they were riding behind me for the rest of the bridge at 13 mph as a blocker. When I ask for safe passage, I wasn’t asking for a defender but that is what God send me! Once over the bridge they passed and we waved. I took a short break to take some pictures when Dave showed up on his recumbent. I later found out that the two Canadians I had met earlier called him Captain America. Our routes parted again and we said good bye again and I headed on down LA1 towards New Roads.

Back to the things you find along the road, I have seen some things that you wouldn’t expect, things that folks lost and wish they hadn’t. I found a set of keys above Natchitoches and gave them to Scott at the visitor center. Then there was the wallet I found near Shreveport that only had a faded receipt in it and I through away at my next stop, but just below New Roads I found a Motorola cell phone. It was in remarkable condition considering the spill in much have taken. It was still on but there was no signal for there carrier. I keep riding expecting it to ring any time, which would have been fun. I had decided how to answer it when it did ring, something about ‘hello, I a lost phone…’, but I passed a Parish Sheriff issuing a traffic violation and gave it to him, so much for my fun with answering the lost phone.

I made it to Erwinville where my JoAnn meet me and we had dinner at Camile’s dinner. This is a local restaurant that has been here every since I can remember but I had never eaten there. I had heard it was good and wanted to but the one time we had made the drive from Baton Rouge to have dinner on my birthday, they were closed (Monday). So we went into this old style dinner and I had a seafood stuffed potato with crabmeat top. Quite good but more than I could eat even after riding 60+ miles.

After dinner we went home where I took a long soaking bath and got dressed to head to St. Franciville to meet the Southern Tier riders who were camped just outside of town at Green Acers Campground. We picked up some Abita beer and headed up LA 61. JoAnn’s mobile bike parts and repair delivered Joel’s order for some new tubes and patch kits, and the use of a floor pump to the other riders. We visited for a while and traded email addresses. What a crew they made and the amazing thing is they just meet up on the route. There was the two collage age Canadians, Joel and Nate, Dave and Mark from California (but didn’t start together), and Carl from Alaska. Dave, Mark and Carl are retired. I guess who can take off this sort of time but retired or collage age folk. For more information on the Southern Tier ride or other tours see http://www.adventurecycling.org/.

Stats
64.88 total miles
26.9 mph max
* crossed 300 total miles in New Roads

Day 4

Today’s trip was from North of Alexandria to Marksville.

Woke up at Cotile Lake and pulled the kitchen out and started boiling water for coffee and oatmeal. After some bike maintenance and packing I got back on the road. It was 6.92 miles back to LA1 but once I was back to LA1 I had my tailwind back again.

I made the Louisiana Welcome Center that is north of Alexandria on I49 by 10:30 where I was greater by Ternice. They had fresh coffee and I was sitting down studying my map when another traveler came in Ternice welcomed him and ask ‘how are you doing?’. Pretty standard greeting but this gentleman said ‘terrible’, while fixing him self a cup of coffee. I took this as a personal challenge to discover the root of his misery or cheer him up. We batted comments back and forth finding out he was from New York, now retired and living in Las Vegas and on vacation with his wife heading for Florida. By the time he left, he was all smiles and talking about what a friendly state Louisiana was. Success!

I crossed 200 total miles at the rest stop.

I made it to Alexandria for lunch and missing the place Ternice had recommended, but found a place with my nose, Mama’s on 3rd street. This is an old gas station that has been converted into a restaurant. They had been open less than a week and the blue FEMA tarp was still on the roof. I got a plate lunch of red beans and rice and sat outside and visited with Leon who was cooking port chops. He said his sisters had started this restaurant along with his brother-in-law who had retired from Coke. I had an enjoyable lunch.

As I was riding I saw some men setting set nets on the side of the road so I stopped to take a picture. I ask them if they were doing any good (catching anything) and Mr. Alford Martin came over and we visited. He is retired from the Army where he was in the infantry and a drill sergeant . He was out crawfishing with his grandson and great grandsons. They had a half of a 5-gallon bucket so far and were planning on using the small crawfish for catfish lines tonight.

I saw two wrecks on the last leg of today ride and with all the traffic I stayed on the side of the road most of the time. This is a busy section without much to see other than closed businesses.

I made it into Marksville and decided no trip to Marksville is complete without a stay at the Paragon Casino and Resort so I booked a room and parked the bike outside. After a warm shower, some street clothes it was off to find something to eat. I ended up at the buffet since it was steak night. I made up for that fruitcake dinner last night to stay the least!

Stats
58.66 total miles
25.6 max speed
* crossed 200 miles at the Alex Visitor Center

Day 3

Day 3

Today’s trip was from Natchitoches to Alexandria (which I didn’t quite make)

Started the day off with breakfast at the Church Street Inn, after which I took a walking tour of the historic part of Natchitoches. Following my trusty tourist map I got at the hotel I made my way to Fort St. Jean Baptist, which got high marks from all the tour books I had reviewed before the trip. I arrived before it opened and took a walking tour of NLU campus to burn some time. I arrived back just at 9 when the state historic site opened, paid my $2 and reviewed the exhibits inside before heading to the fort. I wasn’t expecting much but though it strange there was smoke coming from what appeared to be inside the fort. When I got to the gate an interpretive ranger in late 1700 French attire greeted me. Mr. Tommy Akins took me on a personal tour of the French frontier fort and all the history behind it. Well worth the hour I spent there and would encourage anyone in the Natchitoches area to check it out.

After I checked out of the hotel I met one of JoAnn’s friends, Kim for lunch. We met at Mama’s Oyster Bar where we visited and she made other recommendations regarding Natchitoches and the days trek to Alexandria.

After Kim left for work I made my way to the visitor center where I met Scott, in fact he came out to meet me. He was a cyclist and a biker (the motorized version) and has made the LA1 trek on his motorcycle several times. He made some route recommendations and gave me a Biking Louisiana map which I had no idea existed… He also told of his ‘stealth camping’ asking if that was my plan, I said maybe.

I left on Natchitoches on LA1 and happened by the State Fish Hatchery where Bob’s friend from collage is the director. I had heard stories of Karen’s work with the Peace Corp in Africa and stopped by to meet the friend Bob spoke so highly of. Karen was really nice and took time to sit and chat with me about fish, Bob and work, Georgia Tech, Africa, and retirement. I really enjoyed our conversation but she had fish to tend and I had road to ride.

I had a wonderful tailwind and sunny weather. Quit the opposite of yesterday. After I got away from town the road improved from old concrete to flawless asphalt. Plenty of pecan orchards and wildflowers, this is the prettiest part of LA1 I have seen. The Cane River Heritage Trail joined LA1 heading south in this area.
It was getting to be 5:00 and my knees were giving out, even with the tail wind I had gone about as far as I could. In Zimmerman I did a quick search for camping. I had been seriously thinking about stealth camping. The iPhone said Cotile Lake Recreational Area, 8.1 miles, 6 of which was off of LA1 but I decided this was it.

I got there and tented for the night. After a warm shower and some fruitcake for supper it was bed time.

Stats
51.24 total miles
26.6 max speed

Day 2

Day 2

Today's trip was Shreveport to Natchitoches.

Left the hotel at 8:30 with the smell of rain in the air. When I got to LA1 I hit a head wind that was really bad. The apparent wind was pushing 30 (mph) and the cyclometer was showing 7 to 8. I can walk the bike 3+ so to say the least the wind was a real problem.

It was Easter morning and I was looking for a church. I had spotted a billboard for Gateway Church earlier but the service was at 10 and it wasn’t quite 9 when the church was in sight, when a van pulled up beside me and invited me to Gateway church. I thanked the lady and but explained I was trying to make Natchitoches today and needed to make some miles. God would direct me to the church he had for me (hope this wasn’t it). They did offer coffee… I wish more churches including mine was this inviting.

The weather was getting worse, a light rain but about 10:30 lighting started. I had notice a road running parallel to the LA1 on the other side of the railroad tracks. It was smaller road and offered more places to string up a tarp it the weather got nasty so I dragged my bike over the tracks. Within a few hundred feet I found a new construction home with a nice front porch. I parked the bike under the eve and sat down for an early lunch. I wasn’t there long before Mr. Couples; the owner came through the front door and introduced himself. We talked and he gave me a tour of his new home build the same style as his current home next door, which was built by his grandfather in 1915. He said if the weather got bad feel free to go inside and he went back home.

The rain slacked off and I headed down Harts Island road, which was LA1 before they built the new four-lane road. Mr. Couples said they get a lot of bikers on the road, part of some loop he explained. The road was great but ended about three miles down and I was back on LA1 in the drizzle. I road until about noon when I saw the sign for a church, Galilee Baptist Church, and when I looked over the rail road tracks I saw cars parked around an old white wooden church building. I crossed the ditch on some railroad ties and towed my bike over the tracks again and parked it outside this little church. One of the deacons came out to see what I was doing and I ask if I could join them for church. He warmly invited me and so after I had the bike covered with my tarp I changed into my one set of off bike clothes and went in.

Service had started at 11:30 but I expect they had started late since after a few members greeted me they read the announcements. After the announcements the introduced some guest and then welcomed me and ask if I would like to say something. I thanked them for inviting me and told them I was biking LA1 and was happy God had found me a church service. This was an old church with 20 people total and 1/3 of them were either sitting up front or in the choir. After a lot of singing of old black spirituals, which everyone but me knew (there were no song books) the guest speaker preached on Naomi. After which the preacher gave some closing comments in a more traditional Baptist style with a lot of Amends. They invited me for lunch but since the rain had stopped and I had already eaten lunch on Mr. Couples front porch I thanked them but explained I had a lot of road to put behind me today.

The rain had passed leaving a nice 15+ tail wind. I made some good time and pulled into Natchitoches near dark. I got a room at the Church Street Inn one block from Front Street in the heart of old Natchitoches.
After a warm shower I walked over to The Landing for dinner.

Stats
70.07 miles total
26.0 miles max
* Crossed 100 miles at Grand Bayou, LA.

Happy Easter

The Easter bunny found me and left me some Gold Brick Eggs. I plan to find a church on route to attend Easter Services. I feel a little guilty about not being at my home church today but the timing just wouldn’t work any other way.
It is windy today but the rain is not scheduled to hit until about 3 so I am going to put as much road behind me as I can.

Next Leg

The next leg little over 60 miles and will end up in Natchitoches.


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Day 1

Day 1

Got on the road at 10:30. This was a little later than I had hoped but JoAnn and I got up and went to Waffle House for breakfast. What a zoo. First a guy started playing dance music on the jute box. Jo thought he was still drunk, I just though he was a little old for that foolishness. Heck he was going bald, maybe early thirties. So he was in the booth with his buddy and he was singing a dancing. If that wasn’t enough, then a cat fight broke out between a waitress and either then shift manager or a cook about her sausage wasn’t being pulled. That’s when I noticed that the other waitresses were lined but behind her in what appeared to be an ordering queue. None of them were paying her any attention, maybe this in normal.
After we got out of there we went back to our room and packed up and checked out, and headed to LA1 north to the Texas – Arkansas – Louisiana border. The ride was hilly but the road was good. We got to the boarder and as unusually I expected more. There as a Welcome to Louisiana sign and an old Texas sign made out of stones (the nice readable sign was about a hundred years north. No sign of Arkansas except for the bar that was on the side of the road and has all three state flags flying. I can picture a brass medallion in the dance floor marking ‘The Spot’. Sort of like the medallion at Four Corners. I though that would be really cool but when we got there not much, a few vendors, some flags and a medallion. Oh and don’t forget he tourist taking pictures (and yes we took our pictures to).
We go the bike loaded and Jo and I said a prayer and I was off. Hills were ok; in fact on one of the down hill runs I got a max speed of 30.2 mph. Needless to say that didn’t last long.
Stopped and bought an ice cream in Vivian. I remember going there as a child to visit my dads old aunts. Went through Oil City and made a detour to see the State Oil and Gas Museum, which was closed for the holiday (Easter is tomorrow). This side trip didn’t take long. I was amazed to see all the oil wells in Oil City. In peoples front yards in some cases, and the size was smaller than I had remembered at my grandparents home in Mississippi. Some were about the size of my bike! Some were bigger.
The next thing I passed was Caddo Lake which claim to fame is the world’s first offshore oil well was drilled there in 1911. The lake is still dotted with small oil platforms.
A little after 3:00 I made it to the outskirts of Shreveport and decided I would cross into Bossier and make my way to the 8th Air Force museum. I make it to Barksdale AFB at 3:58 and the museum closed at 4:00 so I was turned around by security. Just my luck, we were running 100% on museums and this side trip was about 15 miles. I made my way back to the next bridge across the Red River and found the planned route blocked. I stopped and ask the police officer for directions and he, after some debate (with himself) sent me down the blocked road to the next bridge. Seems he felt the other bridge south of us (Jimmy Davis Bridge) was too dangerous to cross on a bike. I got back across the Red River and back to LA1 South. At this point I started looking for a hotel. Using my iPhone and Google Maps I located several hotels that were close to my route. I went and checked in and took a long warm shower.
After my shower I ask the clerk at the front desk for restaurant recommendations and he suggested Southfield Grill. I took a short unloaded bike ride back north for dinner. The restaurant looked like a dinner out of the 50’s. Food was country cooking and was good.
Stats:
Total miles: 66.35
Max speed: 30.2
Total time: 7 hrs (including stops)

Luctor Et Emergo

The ride begins today. The title is Latin and the motto of Zeeland which is in the southern part of The Netherlands. A rough translation is ‘I struggle but I’ll survive’. The motto is on a hat that my close friend Ryan gave me at my retirement party. After seeing the Delta Works in Zeeland and hearing the story of the great North Sea flood that killed thousands and what the Dutch did to keep that from ever happening again, I can find refuge in that motto when the road seems long and my bones are tired.

My wife and I drove up to Shreveport yesterday. We drove part of LA1 between Natchitoches and Shreveport and although the road is good there is not much to stop at. I may be knocking on doors to refill my water bottles…

Today’s ride is from the TX-AK-LA boarder to Shreveport. Should be a easy but good first day of under 50 miles.


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Pre-trip prep

Getting the bike ready, changed the tires last night and am mounting the front rack today. After a day of shopping for supplies the plan is to drive to Shreveport with my wife JoAnn and then north on LA1 to the TX-ARK-LA boarder where it all starts.

A Time To Ride

Not sure where the idea for this ride came from, but I wanted to do something that I would remember between my retirement from Dow Chemical, where I was a Process Control Specilist in R&D. With the downturn, Banholzer (R&D VP) used this to off the sites he has been wanting to eliminate and I got caught…

I selected Hwy. LA1 since I would be going alone (who else has this sort of time), and would need small towns to stop and resupply (eat and sleep). The Natchez Trace has always interested me but felt it was to hard without support. LA1 has been called the “longest street” in Louisiana and noting how it traverses the state I though it would be a good tour of the diverse culture of my state.