Author: tomdlouhy

Miles Completed: 59.1

Cumulative miles: 2617.9

Miles to St Augustine: 481

Today we rode from Dauphin Island, AL to Pensacola, FL. Florida is the eighth and final state of this journey. But we still have almost 500 miles to ride in Florida to reach St Augustine.

Let’s go back to this morning. Our plan to get off Dauphin Island was to take the ferry across Mobile Bay to Fort Morgan. Our campground was very close to the ferry, so we rode over and caught the 9:30 ferry ride. The ferry was about 5 miles and took about 40 minutes. It was a lot of fun and an interesting change of pace. Once across Mobile Bay, our bike ride for the day started.

We rode on the barrier islands of Alabama and worked our way back to the mainland. We had good roads and lots of bike paths, especially through Gulf Shores. Gulf Shores had a lot of nice communities, homes, and golf courses. After Gulf Shores came Orange City, AL and that’s where all the high rise condos and resorts started and continued into Florida. The locals call it “the wall” because there are so many tall buildings along the coast.

At the Florida-Alabama border, we stopped at a bar called Flora-Bama. It was right on the state line. It was huge and had multiple rooms and outside decks. There were two live shows going on and it was Thursday afternoon! The main bar room had an Alabama-based duo playing called Sugarcane Jane with husband and wife team Anthony Crawford and Savana Lee. Crawford was an amazing guitar player and he had toured with Neil Young, Steve Winwood, and Dwight Yoakam. He is a prolific songwriter with over 400 songs to his credit and several recorded by major artists.

We watched Sugarcane Jane for over an hour but missed their last two songs because we got “kicked out” of the bar because of fire code regulations. So back to our bikes to finish the ride to Pensacola.

We are staying in a church hall tonight, had Mellow Mushroom pizza for dinner, and finished the night at the Odd Colony brewery which was next door to the church. Another fun day.

Miles Completed: 52.5

Cumulative miles: 2558.8

Miles to St Augustine: 541

Today we rode from Gautier, MS to Dauphin Island, AL. Alabama is the 7th state we entered, and we only have one more state after Alabama. Today’s ride seemed much easier than yesterday’s ride. The weather was better and it was a shorter ride. I felt energized riding today.

Today, along with the last couple of days, we rode at sea level most of the time. The only “hills” we had were the bridges over the large bodies of water.

The highlight of the day was the 8 miles riding out to Dauphin Island. We crossed a lot of water and rode over a steep bridge. Once at Dauphin Island, Dana, Felix, and I went slightly off course to check out Pirates Bar and Grill. It was a good choice with great views of the island and the Gulf.

If you don’t know where Dauphin Island is, look at your Google maps or Apple maps. It’s due south of Mobile and out into the Gulf.

Miles Completed: 58.8

Cumulative miles: 2506.3

Miles to St Augustine: 590

Today we rode from Bay St Louis to Gautier, MS. Much of our ride today was along the Gulf coast (Gulf of Mexico?…Gulf of America?…I’ll just call it the Gulf). Highway 90 travels literally right next to the Gulf. There is a sidewalk/boardwalk next to the highway and then the beach. It was very scenic being next to the Gulf for much of today’s ride.

We also rode over two large bays on long bridges, the St Louis Bay and the Biloxi Bay.

But let’s get back to the weather. Last night was the coldest day of the trip yet. The temperature got down to 30 degrees and there was frost on the grass. Although we slept in a partially enclosed patio, there was no heat and it was a cold night. But with lots of clothes and my sleeping pad and sleeping bag, it was okay. I actually had a good night’s sleep. We waited until 10:00 to start riding and the temperature was 46. However, the temperature only got up to 55 during the day and with a brisk wind in our face, it was the coldest day for riding too. But temperatures are expected to rise soon. Yay!

With the late start, an unexpected strong headwind, and the cold day, the ride was harder than we all expected. I rolled into camp after 3:30 and didn’t have a lot of time to pitch the tent and get camp ready by sunset at 5:00. Several others came in after me.

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.

I spent this day with a combination of doing errands and sightseeing around the French Quarter.

On the errands side, I got a haircut, did some laundry, and charged my electronics. Not too exciting.

But I had plenty of time to walk around the French Quarter. New Orleans is still a city like no other. The weather cooperated and the high got to 70 and sunny.

I also did my share of touristy New Orleans eating today. I had the Beignets at Cafe Du Monde. Then I had my favorite sandwich, the Muffuletta, at Central Grocery and Deli. That’s where the Muffuletta was created in the early 1900’s. Of interest, Central Grocery was destroyed during Hurricane Ida 3-4 years ago. They had to rebuild the store and reopened less than a year ago. Finally, we went to Deanie’s Seafood for dinner. I had the crawfish quartet with crawfish bisque, crawfish ettoufee, fried crawfish, and crawfish balls (which were kind of like crab cakes). I’ve had my fill of New Orleans cuisine.

I’ll let the pictures tell the story of a few things I saw while sightseeing today.

Miles Completed: 66.6

Cumulative miles: 2393.7

Miles to St Augustine: 699

Today we rode from Convent to New Orleans. It was a great ride into New Orleans. The majority of the ride was again next to the Mississippi River on the paved levee trail. When we got into the New Orleans area, we took a side trip through Audubon Park and then rode through Tulane and Loyola Universities. A bike path took us almost the entire way to our hostel on Canal Street.

Brent, Chris, Dana, Felix, and I rode together for most of today’s ride.

Today was the 11th straight day of riding since we left Austin. It is the longest stretch without a rest day on this entire trip. We now get a day off in New Orleans which we are all looking forward to.

We have an 8-person room at the hostel with 4 sets of bunk beds. It sounds terrible, but this hostel is really nice. It has a large entry area plus a large kitchen area with lots of seating. For once, I’m enjoying staying at a hostel and we are just blocks from the French Quarter.

Felix, Dana, and I walked down to Bourbon Street (others in the group had already headed out to restaurants). We ate at the Hideout and had New Orleans cuisine while listening to live music, had a hurricane at Pat O’Brian’s while listening to dueling pianos (they weren’t that good…both the hurricane and the piano players), and then went to Fritzel’s which had a 5-piece jazz band that was awesome. Fun times in NOLA.

Miles Completed: 60.7

Cumulative miles: 2327.1

Miles to St Augustine: 761

Today we rode from Baton Rouge to Convent, LA. The entire ride was along the Mississippi River, either on a levee trail or on the river road. I enjoyed the ride as we were on trails or on the river road with light traffic.

The first 15 miles I was able to ride in top of the levee because it was paved, and I had good views of the Mississippi. After that, the levee trail was gravel so I rode on the river road most of the way. The river road was nice but I no longer had a view of the Mississippi River because the tall levee blocked my view

The highlight of the trip today was the Houmas House which was adjacent to the Great River Road Museum. The Houmas House is a restored plantation home. I didn’t have time for a tour of the inside which would have been interesting, but I walked the grounds and saw the house and gardens.

It was another cooking day for me and I was teamed up with Brent. We decided to make chili. I had Margaret send me her Aunt’s chili recipe as a starting point, but we kind of winged it until it tasted good. I called it a “build you own chili” because we cooked the meat separately (for the vegetarians) and we cooked some macaroni noodles and rice separately (for the gluten free people). So our basic chili with beans could be “built” by adding chili meat, noodles, rice, shredded cheese, sour cream, oyster crackers, or Fritos. Everyone made their own combination and they said they liked it! We also had a lettuce salad. And for dessert, a caramel cheesecake pie we bought from Elsie’s the night before. Gotta plan ahead!!!

Miles completed: 66.4

Cumulative miles: 2266.4

Miles to St Augustine: 821

Today we rode from Krotz Springs to Baton Rouge, LA. We passed over the Atchafalaya River as we left Krotz Springs. It is the 5th largest river in North America and I had never heard of it.

We then rode on a 5 mile long bridge over the Morganza Spillway. The spillway is used for flood control of the Mississippi River. I did not enjoy that bridge. There was no shoulder and we were relying on the vehicles to move into the left lane as they passed us. Which they all did, thankfully.

As we approached Baton Rouge, our tour leaders organized a police escort across the Mississippi River and another bridge that were dangerous for cyclists. When we approached the first bridge, the officer stopped both lanes of traffic and for about a half mile, we were the only people on the bridge. We “owned that bridge”. He then let cars slowly pass us in the left lane while we rode in the right lane for about 4 miles including crossing the Mississippi River bridge. It was a pretty cool experience for us, but maybe not for the cars behind us that were delayed.

After that, we arrived in Baton Rouge. I took a 10 mile detour to get to a bike shop. I had broken a valve stem on my front tire when I was pumping my tires 6 days ago. Although I could have fixed it myself, I decided to wait to get to a bike shop and let them do it. The mechanic checked my tires and bike in general, and there were no other issues. I felt the detour was well worth it.

I got back to downtown Baton Rouge to get some pictures and then rode the last 5 miles to camp in plenty of time to pitch my tent and get ready for dinner.

Speaking of dinner, the group decided to eat out in Baton Rouge. We chose Elsie’s Plates and Pies. They had a full menu, but their specialties were their savory pies. I had the Louisiana Seafood pie with crawfish, shrimp, and crab. It was awesome.

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.

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.