Day 42... Crossing the mighty Mississippi

Saturday April 19.  Morganza to (almost) Jackson, LA 32 miles.

Happy 21st birthday to my youngest daughter Aspen. Love you all the #'s plus one.

Today was a much anticipated day. Not only do we get to cross the Mississippi River, but...it is also a short day so that we can get in the van and head off to New Orleans for 2 rest days. Also, meeting my other daughter Jenny and her husband Garrett in NO.  Rest and family, hard to beat that combination. Tina had to work and Aspen had to celebrate! Missed them both.

We did manage to find a great bridge across the river, if you saw my previous blog entry of the "bridge out". Only opened in 2011 I was told, it has a great shoulder all the way across making biking a treat. We had crossed a causeway bridge going to Morganza with no shoulder, putting us in very fast traffic, for what seemed forever, but maybe a mile or so. (Interesting, the causeway helped define a huge, miles long and wide type huge, basin that during times of flooding would be used to divert water and ease pressure on the levy system. When full, it would have to be an incredible sight.

It was however an incredible day for riding. Crisp blue skies, just right temperature, a great day to make this day's journey that we for do long and so much looked forward to. I will let the pictures tell the fuller

story.

We ended up at someone's house in what is called a "warm shower" location. These are places in a network, that I was unaware of, that hosts bikers throughout the world. A place to camp, shower, stay with folks that loved cycling. Nice.

WHAT??? This isn't the Bridge for crossing the Mississippi?

Maybe we do need a "stinking" map after all!

Day 41. Mississippi River Country.

Friday April 18. Chi it State Park to Morganza. 81 miles.

Before describing the day, just a quick word on how friendly the folks here in Louisiana have been. Quickly noting that folks have been so friendly everywhere, but on those days of infrequent towns and services that we have spent so much time enjoying and riding through,,  there simply isn't as mucho opportunity for ''people' contact as we have had in recent days. People are around more often, simply just more people contact times. If you have a map out, people ask where are you going?  Need any help?  So much interest in our ride. One lady simply shouted as we rode past, 'can I do anything for you ', another 'God be with you', it has been really nice and has added so much to the trip. Thanks to all, especially Louisiana.

Now Friday's ride. It was one of the best. It was Good Friday, but still fairly busy. Many small towns. Interesting names. ( Mamu, Blinky, Cottonsport, etc.,).  The terrain was still gravity neutral, (flat), but the crayfish/rice cultivation had given way to the more traditional cultivated agriculture of wheat and so many cattle. Of interest, at those places where the tractors were tilling the soil, you would see dozens of egrets on the recently turned soil evidentially eating something to their heart's delight.

It was one of those days of just riding, ease on down the road riding. There were some of the largest, most beautiful live oaks that I have ever seen. Many were in yards so beautifully manicured, getting ready for Easter maybe. But these trees were so singularly awesome, and in that respect you might expect pictures? Sorry, simply didn't get one. Yet. Will be on the lookout.

It was a longer day, 81 miles, lots of twists and turns, missed a couple of roads but recovered quickly. It was a don't look at the cycle computer day. The air felt good although we had one serious rumble of thunder, a smattering of rain and a greater threat of rain to our west that didn't materialize.

We were working our way down to the Mississippi River as we actually were alongside the levy system for many beautiful miles of very rural, occasionally really rough roads.  There were places where I think they covered cobblestones with a bad asphalt layering. Places with so many lumps and humps of asphalt (?), hard to tell what they really meant to do. But who cared?  So beautiful. The levies were grass covered, trees, occasional horses and cattle. So peaceful.

We finally succumbed to curiosity, climbed a levy and saw the Mississippi. Quite a site.

While repairing a friend's flat tire, we got a visit from a chocolate lab named Country, that so much looks like our Bailey back home. Country managed to test the water proofing of Gabe's rain jacket as it was on the ground. I think Gabe wanted a good rain afterwards! Good Country!

Another note. In Morganza we camped at the Maxi Comfort RV park. I thought that based on the camp's name that we were surely headed to a Senior Center and given our average age of 60, maybe that would have been appropriate.

Even though our map had been compromised the previous night, we were not followed by the raccoons to Maxi Comfort.

The ride coming out of the state park was short but stunning. Pictures if the lake and trees.

They came by night....

Chicot State Park.

We went to our tents expecting a good night in a beautiful state park. Little did we know at that time

we were being watched and later we would be attacked.

It was a complex, multi-pronged attack, synchronized at different camp sites but flawlessly co-ordinated none the less. A plan worthy of study at military institutes.  They wore masks and showed no fear when confronted by the one bicyclist that rose to challenge the marauders.

They were raccoons.

If you had food outside of the tent, they got it. Amazing.

The little varmints opened packs, unrolled panniers, turned over bikes to get to pouches. I was not affected, not by cleanliness or thoughts of preparation to anticipate this, I had simply cleared the extra snacks out of my pack earlier that evening because I was hungry. (It seems that I had left my extra supply of chocolate chip cookies at the second doughnut stop of the day, so I had to raid my emergency supply of junk food out of the bike pack. Thus, I was saved.)

It was amazing as to how thorough they hit us and we were spread out over 4 sites. They didn't chew holes or tear anything up, they just manipulated whatever they had to in order to get to what they wanted, food.

The little buggars were confronted by John Beaver, our retired fireman/paramedic from CA, he threw  rocks but they just waited him out. John retired back to his tent.

They got all of this energy food, no telling what else these amped up creatures went on to do after they finished with us, bug what worried us the most?  They had pulled out one of our maps!  They knew where we were going next!

Pictures are

of one of the campsites and the general peaceful nature of dinner before the nigt's activity began. Somehow I managed to sleep through it all.

Day 40. Crawfish and Rice Country

Thursday April 17. Oberlin to Chicot State Park. 47 miles

Today was a different day. We had short mileage, frequently changed directions, no real curves still, just 90 degree directional turns. Sometimes going to a new road, sometimes just a 90 degree turn. It did give variety and confused the wind making device so that we weren't always facing the wind.

Also visited Two doughnut shops. Pretty good for a short day!

Gravity, as I mentioned, is no longer part of the day. This area is soooo flat. We had some minor rolling terrain thru yesterday, but that simply disappeared this morning. Just miles and miles of open fields, some cultivated, most in some stage of rice and/or crawfish (also spelled crayfish, I checked) production.

These fields were many and flooded. We had noticed several boat like vehicles moving about and finally found Juan as he prepared to take his "boat" out. Juan showed us that he is taking fish heads and pellets, putting them in cages, and taking them to places in the water as food for the crawfish. The vehicle Juan used was amphibious, with a paddle wheel type device that goes down to the ground to offer propulsion. Very interesting.

Another person told us that the fields will be flooded for rice, the rice harvested and the crawfish brought in afterwards. Thus a combination use of the land. Sounds logical, I don't know, but this guy also felt it was too dangerous to be out biking with all the crack heads out there across the land. Hope he knows more about rice and crawfish than crack head danger.

I was reminded of the WW1 veteran returning home and telling great stories of what he had seen.  Boats that would hold more people than lived in the whole town, (name of area withheld), eating snails in France and crawfish (lobsters really) bigger than your arm. One old man in the crowd turned to another and said of the vet's report, "don't you just hate a liar!"

Lots of pictures to show the process.

Camping in Chicot State Park tonight. The campground is filling up quickly with Easter approaching. Beautiful wooded area.

Days 38 and 39 Out of Texas

Day 38. Tuesday April 15  Kouentze, TX to Merryville, LA. 65 miles
Day 39  Wednesday April 16 Merryville to Oberlin, LA 54 miles.

Grand Total 2,096 miles.

Getting out of Texas wasn't easy. After 19 days and 1,000 miles, Mother Nature decided a parting headwind would be nice. Plus one of the coldest nights, if not the coldest, was our last night in Kountze. Got down to 38, so combine that with a strong, gusting headwind, our ride Tuesday morning was all consuming. All forward motion is from pedaling, no coasting, no other assistance. It took full effort and patience.

Also the road was arrow straight for miles, very busy and loud, directly pointed towards the wind and very cool. Maybe cold. I am convinced that when given a straight road for as far as you can see, heading into a strong wind, then the wind will actually bend your sight line upwards, (can't go down as that would hit the ground).  Thus the stronger the wind, the longer the straight road, then your vision will tell you, as a result of the optical bending of your sight lines, that you are going to have to go straight up eventually. Thus I never looked straight ahead. Too depressing.

A turn in a town called Kirbyville saved the day. We changed direction, the openness of the road become more of a forested area, providing some relief from the wind, and there were actually some curves in the road. Also there was the inspiration of Louisiana waiting down the road.

When we finally said goodbye to Texas, our two leaders surprised us with candy and drink at the state line sign. We have the best of leaders.

We camped in Merryville and were hosted for dinner and breakfast by the Historical Society of Merryville. Potato salad and gumbo. Oh my, so good. We also were entertained, (attacked?), by cowboy, western reenactment folks. Quite an entrance. These guys really knew their history and helped separate some cowboy myths from facts. This part of LA used to be claimed by both Spain and the US, the result being no law and order for years. No Man's Land, the name claimed by these folks as their "gang's" name.

Off this morning into the wind but not as bad. We are meeting such great people. Those folks in Merryville were beyond gracious.  Talked to a guy in a service station this morning. He belongs to the Christian Motorcycle Assoc, and he said the nicest, most sincere prayer for our safety and good travels. He also noted that the prayer could only go so far and if we did anything stupid, we were on our own.

The countryside reminds me do much of home.  The fields, pine and hardwood forests, log trucks, it is beautiful. A good ride today.

Day 37. "The rough stuff hasn't set in yet"...,. Caddy Shack.

Monday, April 14. Coldspring to Kountze, TX 65 miles

Our last full day in Texas and we're getting a Texas sized weather send off. The weather played a little with us yesterday, was supposed to have hit last night and this morning, but it turned out that none of that forecast was right. The correct forecast was the one that called for big boomers in the early afternoon, when we were about 10 miles from Kountze.

It actually sounds like other parts of Texas are getting hit harder, hail and some twisters, but here in the First United Methodist church of Kountze, TX, where we are spending the night, it is dry. And warm. For now.  It is supposed to drop to 38 degrees tonight.

We were actually in a store in Honey Island when the owner showed us the radar and told us we had 20 minutes to get to town. While he might really just have wanted us to leave, his heart did seem to be in the right place and certainly his radar wasn't  lying, the problem was that we were about 30 minutes from town.

So we put on our rain gear, headed down a great road and welcomed the rain. We crossed the city limit when the first thunder rumbled and were rolling into the church yard when the heavy stuff hit. We were supposed to camp here on the 'outside', but were invited in by the kind folks here at the UMC. 


I am settled in to the nursery. A fine toy collection so the night should not be boring.

An interesting feature in this part of the world that at one time was 1 million acres, 100 miles by 50 miles and was called The Big Thicket. There is still a lot of it left but was virtually impenetrenable. Some game trails but animals were smart enough to avoid it. Outlaws, those wanting to avoid the Civil War, etc went in but not many others. It is not a swamp, good solid soil, just so overgrown as to be The Big Thicket. Interesting.

Tonight is the last night in TX. Crossing into Louisiana tomorrow.  I don't think there will be any tears in our eyes upon leaving. It was fun, but time for a new state.