Day 46 – Riding on closed roads over condemned bridges!

Miles Completed: 53.8

Cumulative miles: 2447.5

Miles to St Augustine: 646

We left New Orleans today and rode to a campground near Bay St Louis, Mississippi. We’ve now entered the 6th state on this cross-country adventure.

We waited until about 9:45 before leaving New Orleans because of the cold weather. The good news was it got up to 50 degrees before we left, but there was a 15 mph wind that made it quite cold on the bike. I bundled up accordingly.

As we left New Orleans, we were riding through some industrial areas with very rough roads and lots of railroad tracks. Unfortunately, Mark and Togan hit one of those railroad tracks and crashed down. Neither was seriously hurt, but Mark’s rear derailleur got knocked off and he had to call the van to take him to a bike shop. Luckily, they could fix it and Mark was able to ride part of the end of the route. Togan got banged up some and her ribs hurt, but she rode the entire route. Hoping it is nothing more serious.

During our ride today we took some ramps and roads that were closed to traffic because of condemned bridges over waterways. Technically bikes were not allowed on these roads, but we were told many cyclists go on it and we did too.

Our ride was through a lot of bayou country in Louisiana and then the landscape changed to more pine trees in Mississippi.

We are expecting a very cold night tonight. We are sleeping in the enclosed patio at the campground. It’s unheated but the tarps will at least block the wind.

The laundry room was heated, so I sat in the laundry room while I listened to the Packers game. Unfortunately, they couldn’t beat “the birds” as Simona calls them.

I’ll report in tomorrow to let you know how cold it gets.