First Day Done

Got off to a great start today! Alan, Jen and I ditched the less-than-tasty-looking continental breakfast provided by our hotel for a real breakfast across the street. We traded stories about the previous night, which I won't recount here. Let's just say they included an inflatable grenade, 3-for-1 happy hour, platform shoes and a stripper named Lara.

After breakfast we ditched our condesending desk clerk, checked out and headed south. About two hours later the land had shrunk to about 20 feet wide and we were at the Southernmost Point in Louisiana.
And that's when things started going down hill. As we reassembled the bike, it became obvious that the tires that Eddy's Bike sold me (after looking at my bike) didn't fit. They wouldn't turn because they actually didn't fit through the fork in the front and rubbed against the center post in the back. Fortunately we had my old tires with us so we made a quickish swap, adjusted and installed the rack added a water bottle cage and was ready to go. Of course all this could have been avoided if I'd assembled the bike in Ohio. Oh, well.

By then it was nearly 2 o'clock, so Jen, Alan and I posed for a few pictures, hugged, and headed our separate ways - actually the same way - the road only goes north. Still, we weren't together anymore.

The scenery was beautiful Cypuss trees and glades that eventually gave way to an industrial area that focused on charters, cargo or helipads to service the oil rigs. Then became flower covered levees that the horses and cows really liked.

The head winds were pretty nasty outside the levee and I could only maintain about 10 mph, but once inside I was able to cruise along at 16.

At the 12 mile mark I took a break and adjusted some of the gear. I felt really good after taking the break and was shocked when after resuming I had only gone from 12.1 to 12.4 miles even though I had been on my bike for at least 15 minutes! Then, 15 minutes later, I had only gotten to 12.7! If I felt this good and had only gone 3/4 of a mile in half an hour, I was screwed for the next couple months! I wasn't going to get anywhere.

Then I realized I'd inadvertently changed the bike computer to display average speed instead of total miles.

Since I had been peddling around 16 mph, my average was slowly creeping up: from 12.1 to 12.4 to 12.7. When I changed the computer to display distance, I found that instead of 0.75 miles I'd actually biked an additional 11 miles! Now that's more like it!

During this self-induced panic, I realized I must have damaged my rear derailleur while forcing in those oversized tires because it wouldn't hold high gears, instead it just kept shifting up and down. I'll have to look at it tomorrow morning.

So, all-in-all it went pretty well for the first day of riding in months, a bad derailleur and a late start: 45 miles today. Feel pretty good, too, but no campgrounds in sight. Instead I'm at the Woodland Plantation Bed & Breakfast (and apparently dinner, too), woodlandplantation.com. I'll post pics tomorrow, but have included the dining hall. This place is amazing and has no keys for the rooms (but you can lock them from the inside). The staff is excellent and the grounds are gorgeous. Like I said, pics tomorrow.

The owner stopped by while I was having dinner and we got to talking. It turns out another cyclist is doing the MRT in a few days (south to north, like me). The owner's never heard of anyone doing it at all and now he's got two in less than a week! The cyclist is trying to figure out how to get from the airport to the ocean. If only he had as kind and loving (choke) sister as I did.

Maybe he'll catch up while I'm getting in shape, then I'll have some to bike with!  

-Chris (from his Palm Pre)