Day 7 - False River

This was posted on day 8.

Got off to a late start today because I couldn't sleep well last night. Funny thing how resting an entire day makes it hard to sleep at night :)

Still got in 78 miles today. 284 overall.

Decided to shortcut the MRT this morning and took route 1 instead of following the the levees around the ox bows of the river. And it was a great choice! With a wide, smooth berm and a strong tail wind I cruised close to or over 20mph for a couple of hours. I'm not deluding myself that I'm a fast bicyclist, because I barely passed a butterfly during that time. Still it was nice to make so many mile in so little time.

Saw a sign for Bayou Goula and laughed cause I thought it sounded like a fog horn: "ba-YOU-gou-la". I included the pic to show the weather I've had for the last week. Gorgeous.

Also saw my second MRT sign on route 1 - which was funny since I wasn't on the MRT at the time. The pic, though, shows on of the later ones. I passed 5 yesterday so they're getting better. Since with today's 5, that make a grand total of 6 signs so far.

Second part of the day was along 77, a curvey road with little or no berm, but beautiful scenery and hardley any traffic. It was really nice.

Like the last bike day, I had another detour, but this was minor in terms of distance, but again had to cross bridges (2 draw bridges, this time) that were closed to bikes - I'm just not sure how closed to bikes they were as one the bridge operators waved to me as I biked across.

I saw my first cemetery where the people where buried under ground - until now it's been in above ground crypts. 

And then a milestone: I crossed I-10! Woo hoo!

Continuing north I came to route 190 and north of 190 the road got narrow and traffic got heavy. Combined with a consistent head wind and just general tiredness by this time in the day, this area was kind of scary. Most trucks stop behind me when they can't pass due to on-coming traffic. Then you can hear their diesel engines kick in as they're finally able to go around me. One truck's driver shouted something at me as he drove by then pulled into the convient store at the end of the street. I could see him get out of the truck and wait for me as I approached.

"Let me buy you a drink" he offered as I approached. (whew, I wasn't in the mood for a fight). Turned out he was real nice. Kieth, was his name. Used to bike all over the area and was out delivering a little west of his usual area. Nice guy.

But the sun was starting to set and didn't want to be biking in the dark again. So I headed out - and on to a much nicer road (thanks, Kieth, for the heads up).

This area is known as False River, a section of the Mississippi (I think) that is now a lake. Reminds me of Chautauqua. That's the last pic.

As I biked, now only 10 miles from my destination I noticed the rear tire was really low. So I pumped it up. And it was really low again in about 5 minutes. So, with the sun going down, I was faced with changing the tire and biking in the dark or pumping it up three or four times and arriving during twilight. I choose the later.

Made it safely to Jim's Campground, which is really an RV park that allows tent camping. Met some nice folks there and was able to shower. Forgot to get a picture there or get the GPS coordinates. So I'll include the fantastic seafood restaurant I'm having lunch at now: 

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&q=30.682754516601562,-91.46340250968933

They've got great cat fish!

Only planning on about 45 miles today, but primative camping tonight, so I'll probably post very little tonight to save battery.

-Chris (from his Palm Pre)