Ride Day 47

I left my hotel in Bogalusa Louisiana early hoping to get a good long ride in today to try to get out ahead of the coming storms. Five minutes on the road and I had a major blowout. I hit a broken beer bottle that I could not swerve to avoid because a big logging truck was passing by me. I thought my kevlar tires would save me but no the glass went right through the kevlar. I took the tire off and cleaned out all the glass and put a new tube in. I was worried about riding on the tire because it had a long slash in it from the glass. I pumped it up and it held air so I took off riding but I was very careful not to hit any bumps or run over any rocks with my rear tire. It held up all day through 106 miles of riding in rolling hills on back country roads of Mississippi. There were very few people in sight all day long and almost no traffic which is a good thing because there was no shoulder on the roads. I had fun messing with the farm dogs again. There were a lot of them today. I think the dogs enjoy the encounters as much as I do. Too bad that it scares the crap out of a lot of bike riders. I heard a lot of horror stories from other bikers that rode through Louisiana and Mississippi. I always asked if they got bit and none of them did so I think they just do not understand dogs and especially farm dogs. Most of the dogs that chased me today were also wagging there tails as they did it. They were just having some fun. The country was mostly forested swamps and plain old dry forests with a lot of pines. Most of the roads were pretty new looking and were very smooth but they did not have shoulders so I had to be careful with all the drinking and driving that goes on. I had no real problems like that today. The last 10 miles of the ride were a bit harder because by then I was getting a sore butt and the road had expansion bumps every 8-10 feet. I just stood up and did a lot of pedal then glide to save myself from sitting on the seat any more. When I got to 75 miles earlier in the day I passed a state park with a campground and I almost stopped. For that last 10 miles I was thinking how stupid I was for not stopping. But now that I am in camp at Vancleave I am glad that I kept going. Now I am in range to get to Florida in only one more day if the weather holds out on me. Thundershowers are in the forecast for Friday night through early next week. I might need to hole up somewhere and wait them out. When I got to the campground in Vancleave I sat down to talk to the family running the camp and while we were talking they found a water moccasin in camp. They immediately went on a search and destroy mission. I got a couple pics of the snake before they got to it. I don't like killing snakes but they have campers to worry about and water moccasins obviously are not endangered. I am seeing water moccasins or cottonmouths as they are also called almost everyday now.   I am sitting waiting for a bike shop to deliver me a new tire and tubes for my bike. After I change it, I am going to take a shower, eat some dinner and go to bed. More later...