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