Day 40 – Pine trees and logging

Miles Completed: 56.9

Cumulative miles: 2118.5

Miles to St Augustine: 952

Today we rode from Merryville to Oberlin, LA. It was a flat ride with good shoulders to ride on, which was good because there continued to be lots of logging trucks headed to the logging mill.

But first, let’s talk about the nice people in Merryville that hosted us. I didn’t mention what they served us last night. They started with 5 different homemade dips and chips, then we had a dinner of deep-fried shrimp, deep-fried alligator tail, and hush puppies, along with crawfish ettoufee over rice. For desert, they made bread pudding, cookies, and cakes. What a feast!

They also served us breakfast this morning of scrambled eggs, biscuits and gravy, and sausage, along with some homemade jams (mayhaw and muscadine were two I had never heard of).

After all that eating, we were off riding again at about 9:00 (another chilly morning at 40 degrees).

Several miles outside Merryville we came to a modern lumber mill. Nothing goes to waste anymore. The logs are cut into 2×4’s and other lumber sizes. The bark is used for mulch, the other parts are chipped to be used to make particleboard or paper, and the sawdust is collected to make wood pellets for fuel or for grilling (like my son Doug uses for his Traeger).

Now, the native pine trees were long needle pines (called long leaf pines by the locals). But those trees were decimated by the loggers in the early 1900’s. Now the prevalent trees are short needle pines (or short leaf pines). However, the state and local people are trying to bring back the long needle pines with new plantings.

We exited No Man’s Land when we crossed the Calcasieu River near Oberlin. We are staying inside the Oberlin VFW post tonight.

Finally, I want to wish my brother Jim a happy birthday today! He tells me he is reading the blog daily.