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