Day 41 – Crawfish Farms

Miles Completed: 81.5

Cumulative miles: 2200.0

Miles to St Augustine: 872

Today we rode from Oberlin to a campground near Krotz Springs, LA. We rode over 80 miles today but it was very flat and no significant wind.

Right after leaving Oberlin, we rode past several miles of Crawfish Farms. They grow a rice crop in water from March to July and harvest it in August. They seed crawfish in the rice field in June. Then they re-flood the old rice field and it becomes a crawfish pond in September/October. Harvest the crawfish from November to July. It doesn’t look like much when riding by, but it’s interesting.

Along the route today, we rode through the cities of Mamou, Ville Platte, and Washington. Mamou was about 25 miles into the ride and I saw some of our riders stopped at a coffee shop and others at a donut shop. I didn’t stop long since I wanted to keep moving today on the longer ride. In Ville Platte, I got my first close up view of an above ground cemetery. The elevation in this area is 50 – 100 feet above sea level, so the necessity of the above ground cemeteries. Finally, the city of Washington was settled in the 1720’s. It boomed when the steamboat came through.

We’re on a really nice campsite along the Atchafalaya River. But the treat of the night was having dinner cooked by tour-leader Tammy’s Aunt Judy. She made rice, potato salad, and gumbo. I learned some new ways to eat this. The gumbo is meant to be eaten as a soup, so you have to put in a lot of the broth when you serve yourself. Also, in northern Louisiana, they put the gumbo broth on top of the potato salad. I had to try it and it was good. Tammy’s Uncle Larry made a carrot cake. Everyone calls Larry’s version “the best cake” and I have to agree.