Ride Day 46

I survived another night of thundershowers last night. I stayed at a campground in Easleyville Louisiana that had a carport that I was able to set my tent up under. That at least kept me dry. The wind blowing and all the thunder and lightning still made sleep difficult. I got a bit of sleep but not enough. Tonight I checked into a motel because there are even more heavier showers forecast for tonight and tomorrow. I left Easleyville early as usual and cruised easily for a few hours. The roads were not too busy with traffic but there were more and bigger hills as the day went on. I had no problem with that so I must be getting fitter as I ride. I rode 75 miles today through rolling hills all day and was not even tired when I stopped for the night at the Louisiana/Mississippi state line. I did have a lot of dogs on this section of the ride. I like farm dogs. Their job is to defend the farm and they do a good job of it for the most part. They bark at and then they chase bicyclists. That is their job. They very rarely would bite but they can be very intimidating to a lot of people. I grew up with farm dogs so they don't give me much problem. I play with them when they charge at me looking like they are going to tear me limb from limb. I laugh at them and talk friendly to them. I tell them they are good dogs. They usually look a bit confused when I do that. I am not afraid of them and they know that by my actions. That intimidates them. If they come into the road I tell them to get off the road and they almost always do just that. Then I slow down and encourage them to chase me while laughing and obviously playing with them. They seem to know right away that it has changed to a game and they play along. Sometimes I even stop my bike and get off and play with the dogs. On rare occasions one does not get it and they do really seem to want to attack and bite me. Bad idea on their part. When I was a young boy I was walking out in the woods at night and a werewolf attacked and bit me. A very old woman dressed all in black killed the werewolf and nursed me back to health in her cabin in the woods. She gave me potions that she said would keep me from turning into a werewolf unless I was threatened by another werewolf again. So the only time I turn into the junk yard dog from hell is if I think I might get bitten. Then I transform and scream my bike brakes to a skidding stop and jump off my bike and with a primordial loud roar and run right at the vicious dog that threatened to bite me. They take one look at the mad wolfman coming at them and they always turn tail and run away. Then I laugh and walk back to my bike and talk sweetly to the dog again if they come back into earshot of my voice. It works for me. The part about the werewolf biting me might have just been a nightmare I had but I am not sure about that anymore. My 75 mile ride to the state line went smoothly all day even with all the hills and dogs. Worse than the dogs were the bugs today. In Texas when I was done riding I always stopped and ate like a double cheeseburger with fries and a milkshake or something because I was so hungry after riding hard all day long. Here in Louisiana I am not hungry at all after my rides because I eat so many bugs while I ride. They bombard me all day long going into my mouth, eyes, ears and down my shirt. Today I had to stop at a car wash when I finished my ride to pressure wash the bugs out of my teeth and off of my clothes and my glasses. I felt like a radiator on a big Mack truck after a cross country haul. I am sitting here writing this with my mouth open so that the bugs that I inhaled today can fly back out of my lungs. Their buzzing around and bumping into the sides of my lungs bothers me just a tad. I will be happy when I get out of the buggy swamps. Bogalusa Louisiana is a great name for a town that has billions of bugs. Tomorrow I enter Mississippi. It is small state and I won't be riding in it for very long before I hit Alabama and then Florida finally. More later...

Ride Day 45

It rained pretty hard last night and kept me awake for most of the night. My tent started to float and there was a lot of real close lightning so I ended up going into the laundry room at the RV park to get out of the weather. I was kind of tired when I started my ride around 7 in the morning. I meandered down the road after packing my dripping wet tent. The weather was good, partly cloudy and not too hot yet. There was a nice big shoulder on the road so I was rolling up the miles easily. I went into the town of New Roads Louisiana to see what was there and I just rode through without stopping except when I saw the boat launch ramp on the Mississippi River. I stopped to watch the early morning show. Sure enough there was a rig that they could not pull out of the water because they did not have 4x4 drive and their tires just spun on the slippery ramp. They tried all different ways of going up the ramp but they slipped back down into the water every time. I suggested they try to put a line on the truck and tow it up the ramp as they pull it out and they talked that over before trying it. Their first attempt failed when the webbed strap they used came apart. They doubled it up and the next time they spun their tires again. I suggested that the truck with the boat on it just put a gentle touch on the pedal instead of flooring it. They tried that and sure enough they slowly pulled their rig up and out. I love the launching ramp shows, they very rarely fail to entertain. I hit the road again and headed for the new Audubon Bridge across the Mississippi River. It has been open about a year now. It was a good looking bridge but nothing spectacular. The river looked good from the crest of the bridge. I took a few pics and kept riding. The road was good so I was making good time. There were more and more hills as I went along today. At one point I was thinking Texas roller coaster but it was never that bad and it was cooler here than it was in Texas. I saw a beautiful large black snake on the road today. It was at least 6 feet long and fat. It was on the road so I tried to spin around on my bike and get my camera out but the snake was too quick for me. He almost jumped in the sky when he took off for the forest and he disappeared in a flash. I was disappointed that I was too slow to get a pic of this snake. I am not sure what type of snake it was. When I get internet again I will look up large black snake in Louisiana and see if I can find out what it was. I did look up the snake and I think it was a black pine snake.   I kept going until I hit 80 miles of riding then I stopped and put my tent up at Hyde Park in Easleyville Louisiana, not much around these parts. The road was hilly toward the end of my ride so I was happy to stop. About five minutes after I stopped the skies opened up and dumped for about 15 minutes. I timed that about right today. There is a covered area to put up my tent tonight so I should be alright even if it continues to rain. I have earplugs for the rain but the big boomers would still wake me up. I already stopped at a store and bought some food to cook for dinner so I am set for the night. More later…

Day of rest

I am staying in Morganza today and not riding. My body wanted some time off so I am sitting around at the RV park in Morganza Louisiana. There are no cafes or restaurants or hotels in town. Not much to do at all. I have been talking with the locals over at the corner store and here in the park. Last night I was invited over for dinner by a Father and Son team that is here fishing for a couple of days. The son cooked up a bunch of the catfish they caught and threw in some onion rings, deviled eggs, beans, potato salad and green salad for us to eat. It was a great meal and I enjoyed their company. They were soft spoken and polite as are most of the people around here. They were also generous and interested in my ride and adventures. We talked as we ate and then I had to go to sleep after my hundred mile ride yesterday. Thundershowers were moving in as I went to bed in my tent but other than some thunder and lightning there was not much to the storm except a few drops of rain. Some of my feedback has been that I am moving too fast and not doing enough tourist type things as I travel. Like how could I just go so close to Baton Rouge or New Orleans and not go into town for a visit. Well I am not very interested in tourist things and I have already visited most of the tourist things already in previous visits plus it costs a lot of money to do things in big cities. I prefer to hang out in the tiny burgs like here in Morganza. The people are real people. They tend to be friendly and helpful. They are curious about me and why I would want to hang out in the town that they find so boring but to me it is about meeting the people not seeing the things like bridges or famous buildings. I have seen plenty of famous things in my life and they no longer impress me much. We talked about Obama and politics, the local economy, what they do on a daily basis and things like that. There is no confrontational arguing about the politics whether I agree or not I still want to know their opinion and why they hold that position. I do not find it boring. I like people. All kinds of people as long as they are basically good people. I find most people are in that class. I have met very few jerks or bad people on this trip. That renews my faith in this country. The people I meet are all basically very good generous helpful people. There seems to be a gap between that image and what the government thinks and does. I don't really understand why the government is so different from the people I meet on the street. I guess it might be because the government does not really represent the people on the street but rather some type of "upper" class of people. But such is life... I have caught up on all my computer stuff, done my laundry and straightened up my belongings. I also tried to wash off the smell of piss that is on my tent from a dog pissing on it back in La Grange TX. It hasn't been too smelly until last night when it was pretty strong smelling. I think the heat and humidity here are contributing to the increased smell. I again washed the tent off with soap and rinsed it well and am letting it bake in the hot sun today to see if it smells better tonight. If it gets any more pissy smelling I might have to get a different tent. I hope not because I don't have the cash for a new tent. Tomorrow I am riding across the Mississippi River and over to the border of Mississippi State. I am not sure if I will sleep in Louisiana or Mississippi tomorrow. Depends on how I feel once I hit the road. I am riding right on past Baton Rouge and New Orleans though for some more small villages along my way. Enjoy life while you still are able.

Ride Day 44

I left my hotel in Ville Platte with the same misty fog hanging in the air as I had yesterday. I enjoy the misty look it gives Louisiana. It seems to fit the image I have in my head for swampy southern Louisiana. I saw some great old oak trees today on my ride but I could not get any good pics of them because the traffic was too heavy and I did not want to sit around and wait for a break in traffic to take a pic. I rode hard today on the flat roads that only have a few small hills on them, riding about 15-18mph. I enjoyed the first 20 miles which was through the area near Chicot State Park.   The park is a mixed wet and dry forested swampy area with a couple of lakes. There was almost no traffic on the roads. I saw lots of wildlife on my ride today, deer, fox, opossum, turkeys, squirrels, birds and livestock. I like seeing all the beautiful horses grazing in the misty fields. I have tried to get a pic of the cattle with cattle egrets sitting on them but the damn birds are too flighty to get close enough for a good pic. Such is life. There were fields of corn and beans instead of rice and crawfish ponds. I still saw some crawfish traps in the swamps and ponds though. I took a wrong turn today while I was spacing out enjoying the world roll by as I rode. I did not mind the error as I enjoyed the extra miles. I stopped to ask a local farmer where I was and how do I get back to my route. He pointed right to where I thought I was on my map and then offered to drive me back to my route. I accepted his offer and we had a nice chat while he drove me the 8 miles or so back to the main route. He raises cattle and farms feed for them and also to sell. He was a very nice friendly guy and I enjoyed his company, He seemed pleased to meet me and hear a bit about my ride also. I gave him my web name and he said he would look me up and read more. After I was back on the route I ate a half pound burger and fries before riding on. I have a hard time eating sufficient calories to keep up with my daily caloric burn. I am also really trying to eat healthy but I need to eat the high calorie foods too. I drink a lot of fluids including water, juices, V8, and I eat apples and oranges almost every single day. I also munch carrots while I ride. Sometimes I share them with the horses which the horses go nuts over. The only negative for me today was I had to ride through smoke because they were burning off the fields before they plow them and the smoke started to give me some asthma problems. I was able to shake it off without needing to use an inhaler but I did not like the sudden breathing problems. I am camping in an RV park tonight and might not ride tomorrow. Sunday almost everything around here closes so I don't have as many options to buy cold drinks and food as I ride plus my tired old body could use the rest I think. I have tried to take days off before but I just get too bored and get on my bike and go. So I may or may not ride tomorrow. Next week has some thundershowers in the forecast but as long as it does not say tornadoes I will ride. The rain might feel good as long as there is not too much lightning striking close to me.

Ride Day 43

I started early from DeRidder this morning. My night camping at an RV park there was nice and quiet so I got a good night of rest since I did not have any major pain problems. The morning was so foggy that a light mist was dripping out of the air. My tent was soaking wet when I took it down. I started my ride off slowly because there is no shoulder on the road near DeRidder. I was being very careful of how I rode and there was a lot of traffic for 5:30 in the morning including those big fast logging trucks. I safely navigated my way out onto quieter roads within an hour. I enjoyed riding in the misty fog even though it had me sweating profusely. I used my lights to help make me more visible to cars and especially the big logging trucks. I had no close calls though because all the drivers were very good about giving me enough room. The shoulder widened out for a while and the surface was smooth so I was making good time. I had fifty miles in before ten in the morning even though I was not pushing the pace. I stopped for drinks a lot and talked to the locals each time. Today's big topic seemed to be the child labor dispute over kids working on farms. Since this is farming country everybody is opposed to new regulations concerning their kids working on their farms. I pointed out that China started this dispute after the U.S. attacked them over children working in factories in China. China pointed out that just as many children work on farms in the U.S. so what is the difference. Good point China. These new regulations were basically just an attempt to save face with China. Now the U.S. can't bitch about kids working in factories in China because kids are working on farms here. I enjoyed watching them harvest the crawfish out of the rice fields and ponds today. The workers are very fast at emptying out the full trap and replacing the baited empty trap in the water. They were getting a lot of crawfish. This is a holiday weekend so sales will be up they told me. There were lots of road kills along the road. Plenty of snakes, armadillos, coons, frogs, turtles, deer, possum, skunks and more. I checked out some of the freshly killed snakes just to see what kind they were. Most of them were harmless snakes but there were a few rattlers. I did not see any copperheads or cottonmouths or any of the other dangerous snakes even though they are fairly common in these parts. I checked into a hotel after about 75 miles of riding. There are very few camping places around here. When I asked about why the answer was quick, too many snakes around so nobody wants to camp. I can't afford all these hotels in my cheap ass budget so I need to get out of these parts quickly. I am going to skip Baton Rouge and New Orleans because I have been before and I just can't afford them this time around. I could ride into Mississippi tomorrow as it is in range now but we shall see tomorrow. It is a holiday weekend so there might be heavy traffic on the roads. If so I will stop and wait it out. More later...

Ride Day 42

I started my day off slowly today. I repacked all my clean clothes and things in a nice organized way before I loaded my bags on my bike and left the hotel. I went straight to the coffee shop across the road and had my morning cup with a couple of sausage rolls. I took my time with the coffee and rolls then slowly got on my bike and meandered down the road in an Easternly direction. The road I needed to ride to the state line had no shoulders at all and was heavily traveled by cars and logging trucks. All the cars and trucks were very considerate of my bike so I had no issues even thought there was no room for me to ride safely. I stopped at every little store and gas station between my start today and my finish in DeRidder Louisiana. I only did about 50 miles or so today and that I took very slowly and easily. I just did not have the drive today to push myself. I stopped at the state line and took pics of Texas in my rear view mirror and of the Welcome to Louisiana sign. There was a snake on the side of the road. At first I thought it was a coral snake but saw it was a king snake it was red on black not red on yellow which kills a fellow. I had some pleasant conversations with people in the stores and stations I stopped at. Everyone was very friendly. I stopped at a Dairy Queen in DeRidder and a couple of guys came over to my table and we talked for about a half hour about the economy of the area and about the weird way logging trucks full of logs go in both directions here. There are two mills and they use different trees for their products so trees are hauled in both directions. They make lumber at one and plywood at the other then there is a chip producer also. I enjoyed talking to them. I do not get into my own version of politics but I love listening to these people tell me theirs. I still was sweating heavily today despite the slow pace. I was sweating so hard I got swimmers ear now. I hope I don’t need to go to a doctor for it in a couple of days. When he or she asks me where I was swimming I would have to say in my own sweat. I did like the showers here at the RV park when I arrived. I am all cleaned up now and am going to relax for the rest of the day. I am even thinking about taking tomorrow off or at least another very easy day. I find when I take time off my legs get worse than if I just keep riding every day. Also when I first start out riding after a rest, my legs start out with a burning weak sense in my muscles. After about 5 or 10 minutes the feeling goes away and I can then pedal all day without a problem. I don’t know why this happens but I would like to talk to other riders or athletes about this weakness at the start of my day. After I catch up on my wifi I am going to wander around town for a bit. Might even eat some cajun food for lunch/dinner. Some blackened catfish and crawfish sound good to me right now. I am not used to stopping my ride so early like this. I need to learn to slow my pace down so I can fit in with the locals better. I just went into town to see the museum and look around town a bit. I found a church dinner for all you can eat catfish and crawfish with all the sides for only $7.75. I pigged out to say the least. More later…PURAVIDA

Ride Days 39 - 41

I spent the night at Independence after day 38. There was a store there in town and the owners were very bike friendly and helpful. I told him about my bad day with flats and he offered to let me stay in their yard for the night. So I did and got a good night of sleep. The next morning I had high hope of getting almost all the way across Texas but my bike had other ideas. I got another flat tire near New Waverly and I had no more patches or new tubes. The ACA map said there was a bike store 12 miles off route up in Huntsville. I called the shop and they told me I had an hour and a half to get there before they closed. SO I pumped up my flat and took off at a fast pace to make it 12 miles in that time frame. The road sucked. TX75 North and there were no shoulders, heavy traffic in both directions, lots of hills oh and don't forget the giant logging trucks. I had a terrifying ride but I made it the 12 miles to Huntsville only to find that it was another 5 or 6 miles to his shop on the other side of town. I got to the shop right at 4pm. He was a nice retired music teacher that ran a bike shop for a hobby. He had tubes and helped me change my tire. We talked about riding and he clearly did a lot of riding in the past but now was having health issues that kept him from riding. I enjoyed his sense of humor and his good nature. I left the shop and right away noticed that I forgot something in his shop. I turned around and went back but he was already gone. I found a place to camp in an RV park in town and had a good talk with the owner of the RV park. He enjoyed hearing about my ride. In the morning I went over to the bike shop only to find out that he did not open until 12 noon. I had to kill three hours in Huntsville. I rode around Sam Houston University and went to the Sam Houston museum. They were ok but I just was not into it. At noon I was back at the shop and he opened right on time. There was another couple waiting for him to open also and we talked for a bit. They used to offer warm showers to bikers but had a few bad experiences so they no longer do it. They have young kids in the house and it just did not work out. They still wanted to help out though. They offered me a ride back to New Waverly in their truck. I accepted the ride because the road was so dangerous. They dropped me off in New Waverly about 1:30 in the afternoon and I started to ride. My ride did not go well. I started to have more flats. This time I very carefully checked the tire for goat heads or nails or whatever was causing all the flats but I found nothing. I was frustrated and tired. I got up and running again with a patch which within 10 miles was again flat. This time I examined the tire with a flashlight and cleaned my glasses well before I started. First I marked where the flat was very precisely on the tire. I saw nothing there. SO I bent the tire backwards and folded it. I saw a little glint of light. I dug down with my needlenose pliers where I saw the slight glint of reflection and I found a very thin small wire embedded into the tire. I pulled it out and then went over the entire tire like that and found two more wires. I put the tube back in and started to inflate the tire and my pump blew up. I was swearing just a tad when that happened. I was four or five miles from the nearest source of air and my tire only had thirty pounds in it. I took the chance and rode very carefully until I came to a small general store about 5 miles away. They had a pump for sale. It was a piece of junk. My bike tires inflate to 95 pounds and once past thirty this pump just could not get the job done. I asked a bunch of people where I could find a tire shop or an auto mechanic and someone told me there was a motorcycle shop about a mile down the road. I went down there and they pumped me up to a full pressure. I hit the road again. It was getting late by now. Close to 7:30 I stopped at Dolen and asked a church if I could sleep in their yard. They were happy to help me out. They were very nice and we talked a bit. I was very tired from the long ride and the problems. I put up my tent and went straight to sleep. In the morning I left before it was light. My tires were holding for me. I rode and rode and rode on straight flat roads in conditions that were misty, foggy, and with high humidity. I was sweating profusely again but I was making about 17 mph which is very good. By 9:30 I was fifty miles up the route. I met a couple out on a fifty mile loop ride at a store and we talked for a while. They were nice and friendly people. Then we all hit the road again. I made it 95 miles today before I stopped and checked into a hotel for the night. Texas ends in 10 more miles. I considered going across the state line but there is no place to stay over there and it is all swamp land for the first part of the route. The hotel in Texas just sounded better to me. Did my laundry and am relaxing now all clean and in an air conditioned room. Time to catch up on my sleep soon after I finish my wifi stuff. Tomorrow is Texas in my rearview mirror and hello to Louisiana.