Day 39: Tuesday 04/12/16, St. Francisville, LA to Franklinton, LA

Today's 87 mile ride was full of small hills; however, those small hills totaled over 2600 feet of climbing.

Day 39 distance: 87 miles

Total miles:  2104 miles

Elevation gain: 2629 feet

Map of today's ride:

Let's close the subject of my flu. The day off yesterday helped tremendously. I am getting most of my appetite back and felt I was at 80% strength during today's ride. Beth, the SAG member who had taken care of me when I was ill, came down with a severe case of it a couple days ago. She is recovering slowly after being given a shot by a doctor and an IV for fluids. It is a nasty flu that a total of six coasters have contacted.

We woke up to lightening, thunder, and rain showers early this morning. More rain was forecast so almost everyone left camp prepared for rain that did not come, at least during the ride. It still is dark and cloudy late this afternoon, and I expect there will be more rain coming.

The roads were good today but the route was filled with many small hills that totaled over 2600 feet of climbing. I took a total of three pictures today as the scenery continues to be very similar ever since we crossed to the east side of the Mississippi River.

The flowers have not been very abundant in Louisiana compared to Texas, but this pasture was filled with a small yellow daisy.

Another river crossing.

At every location we arrive for a night's stay, the Wolf Pack has a whiteboard sign prepared with information we coasters would ask if not available on the whiteboard. The above information was waiting for us today. Note the final asterisk: "*Tentfield is swampy and has fire ant hills, watch your step!"  Hmm. We are staying in the gym of Hillcrest Baptist Church tonight in Franklinton, Louisiana. Whenever we stay in a gym where tents can be set up, coasters are given an option of tenting if they desire. There is a core of coasters who usually take the tent option. I'm not sure how they are going to feel about their choice tonight, knowing it is probably going to rain, along with the potential of being flooded, and then devoured by fire ants!

Tonight's menu. I think I am up to trying everything on it tonight!

Day 38: Monday 04/11/16. St. Francisville Tour Loop, LA

Day 38 distance: 0 miles 

Total miles:  2017 miles

Elevation gain: 376 feet

Map of today's ride:

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I am taking the rest of today off as a rest day after getting the last two days of blogs caught up. My stomach nausea is much better today and I was actually able to eat some items at breakfast this morning. I am still tired and not up to snuff, so I think an afternoon nap is waiting for me! 

Day 37: Sunday 04/10/16, Opelousas, LA to St. Francisville, LA

A scene outside Opelousas on our way to St. Francisville, Louisiana.

 

 

Day 37 distance: 67 miles

Total miles:  2017 miles

Elevation gain: 975 feet

Map of today's ride:

Today's 67 mile ride from Opelousas to St, Francisville, Louisiana, was one of the best of the tour! We rode for part of the time on an old road through a swamp in the Atchafalaya National Heritage Area. It was beautiful! Then we rode about ten miles along False River, which was once the main channel of the Mississippi River, about 35 miles Northwest of Baton Rouge. With about 15 miles left before the end of the ride, we crossed a monster bridge spanning the Mississippi River.

We rode on what at one time was the primary highway that crossed a swamp in the Atchafalaya National Heritage Area. We were riding on the road the day of the opening of the Louisiana wild turkey season, and had been warned to not go off the road or we could be shot by a hunter. Yes, I thought, a Louisiana turkey hunter might consider a grown old man wearing lycra riding shorts and neon green clothing to be some kind of turkey! Actually, as it turned out, I was more concerned about being attacked by an alligator or snake if I had walked off the road, as you would have been standing in swamp water only a few steps off the road.

Here was my first alligator spotting.

Can you find the alligator in this photo?

Parts of small old buildings were spotted thru the trees on occasion. Right before this stop, I had stopped and was looking at the swamp for alligators when I heard several dogs barking in the background, along with an occasional voice or two. When I thought I started to hear some dueling banjos playing, I hopped on my bike and skedaddled!

I wonder how long before this turtle is going to be in someone's dinner pot? And BTW, if you have never tried turtle, don't knock it!. The couple times I sampled turtle, I thought it tasted a lot like chicken!

I don't know what kind of snake this is, but it was interesting to watch as when it slithered along, it held its head above the grass to see where it was going as shown in this picture.

Can you spot the snake? It actually was quite long.

Final picture just as we were leaving the old swamp road.

We quickly rode into higher and drier ground. This is a very large oil pump that must be pumping a lot of oil.

This is False River, an inactive oxbow lake formed in the early 1700's by the Mississippi River when flooding resulted in a new permanent shorter water flow route. The lake has an average depth of 21 feet and is 65 deep in its deepest part. It is a trophy fishing lake for stripers. This picture was taken toward the south end of the lake. As we rode along the lake to its northern end, the homes became very large compared to the ones at the southern end.

Two riders ahead of me pedaling up and across the Mississippi River. This bridge is an amazing engineering structure!

A view looking down the amazing Mississippi River from the center of the bridge.

On the east side of the Mississippi River we were on higher ground, and, once again, it looked very Midwestern to me. (Minus the snow currently in the Midwest! :) )

Day 36: Saturday 04/09/16, DeRidder, LA to Opelousas. LA

In Louisiana as well as eastern Texas, every little pond has a dock on it, I assume for fishing catfish. Some of the docked ponds are so small that the dock goes right to the center of the pond. This larger pond had two docks and two homes on it. The amount of exterior lawns maintained and mowed are amazing, in even the humblest of residences.

 

Day 36 distance: 91 miles

Total miles:  1950 miles

Elevation gain: 826 feet

Map of today's ride:

Today was a slow ride for me. Since I got the flu 4 days ago, the worst symptoms are almost over, but I am still in the phase where my stomach and digestion system are out of balance. I am supposed to eat only bland foods, which is difficult when one cook is serving around 50 people, so I either pick and chose, or do as last night when a SAG member bought a can of chicken noodle soup for my dinner. Regardless, I knew my body was not ready for my normal style of riding so I slowed down significantly today, hoping I could stretch the fuel in my tank throughout the 91 mile ride. It worked, in either that I had, or created sufficient energy to complete the slow ride, but my digestive system didn't like the long ride and gave me other issues. Enough about health. Tomorrow is a new day and with another night of rest, I hope to be ready to ride the 67 miles scheduled.

When we left DeRidder this morning, our scenery was more trees for about the first 35 miles. Then we started seeing bigger streams and rivers which led into what I would call more of a wetland setting mixed with agricultural activities (not yet a "swamp."). In the wetlands, it took a while for me to figure out what I was observing, but it turned out to be one crayfish farm after another.  Interestingly, the crayfish were being raised in rice beds. I did not know growing crayfish and rice were two activities that closely intertwined. Overall, it was a very interesting day of riding.

This was typical of the roads we rode on for about the first half of the day's ride. Nice shoulders for the most part, but, in Louisiana, there is more trash laying on the road's shoulder than any other place I have ridden, so one needed to be watchful at all time. Due to the forest products industry activity in the area, the largest amount of debris was related to wood materials such as sticks, wood chips, and hog fuel.

OK, perhaps this amount of trash in one spot was not normal, but finding it on the roadside was not surprising. It was interesting in that this picture was taken at a County boundary, and on the other side of the road was a sign entering a new county that stated littering  was a violation of county law and was punishable by fines up to $3000. Obviously, the dumper must have thought it was OK to dispose of trash along the roadway in the next county!

According to a sign, this picture was taken as I was crossing the Quiska Chitto River. Seeing the canoes on the bank, it appeared canoeing must be a big recreational activity in this area. 

A half mile down the road from the Quiska Chitto River, I saw the first commercial canoe outfitting business. I liked how "Clean Restrooms" had been added to the sign. Apparently this businessman found out that clean restrooms are important to his customers.

This was a larger river a few miles further down the road. Note the man walking on the sand bar with his fishing equipment. I didn't see any canoes, but this looked like a prime canoeing river.

A short distance past the river, there was a very large canoeing business. School buses were leaving with canoes and people, and returning empty. I counted the canoes I could see and there still were slightly more than 200 canoes available for rent. If all the canoes were in the same river at the same time, that would make for some crowded water!

Next down the road was some agricultural activity; in this instance a field of corn had been planted.

Further on we entered the "wetlands."This picture is of a smaller crayfish/ rice field. The objects in the water are crawfish traps. If interested in finding out more about how crayfish are grown, see below for more detailed information, or skip it and go to the next photo.

Crayfish Farming: 

Louisiana usually accounts for 90%-95% of the total U.S. production of crayfish from year to year, either from wild waters of the state, or on farms. The crayfish are considered large if an average of 18 of them weigh a pound. A detailed description of how crayfish are grown can be found at: https://www.cajuncrawfish.com/how-we-grow-crawfish.htm  

The following is a short version of the cycle of raising rice and crayfish:

1. Grow a rice crop in a field of water from March to July.
2. Seed crawfish in the rice field in June.
3. Drain water and harvest the rice in late July/August.
4. Re-flood the old rice field and it becomes a crayfish pond in September/October.
5. Harvest the crawfish from November to July.
6. Drain, plow, and level the field to repeat the process in July to March.

This is the contraption used to get to the crab pots to harvest the crawfish.
Here is a larger pond of rice with no crab pots set out. Not sure if it was a straight rice farmer or if he was out of sync with the crawfish growing season. A lunch stop was scheduled in the town of Mamou, Louisiana. Next door to our stop was Fred's Lounge, the source of a weekly broadcast of Cajun music called Ajun Musk. We happened to be passing through Mamou when the broadcast was being made. The town was hopping with people who were there for this weekly event!  (Those of you who know Chandler, one of our bicycle mechanics, is sleeping in the chair. He must not have been too impressed with the music or else he was just tired!) On my ride out of Mamou I stopped at this house and asked this gentleman what smelled so good. He opened his grill and showed me baby back ribs and chicken on the grill. His wife (I assume) was just throwing some burgers on with the rest of the meat. She graciously offered me a piece of already cooked meat from the green container on the grill. I was very tempted, but with my stomach in its flu recovery condition, I had to decline. There would be nothing worse than accepting the offer with the chance they would see it reappear before I could leave! I love watching Ag aircraft doing their thing. This plane made about a half dozen passes over me while I took a "break" on the ride today. It always dropped below some trees after it went over me so could not determine if it was spraying or just scaring birds away. This is a dangerous occupation!

Blog Note between Day 35 and Day 36 Blogs

I just finished today's 91 mile ride. It was a very slow ride day for me and required many unplanned quick stops along the road and a run for the bushes. I am beat tonight, so will not be doing today's blog until I am better, hopefully soon. Tomorrow's ride is shorter at 67 miles and I hope with a good night's sleep, the day will be easier with more energy.

I might add that as I rode further into Louisiana, I saw what to me were some interesting things. Stay tuned!

Day 35: Friday 04/08/16, Silsbee, TX to DeRidder, LA

 

I started riding at this point today, about 3 miles from the Texas and Louisiana border.

Day 35 distance: 27 miles

Total miles:  1859 miles

Elevation gain: 865 feet

Map of today's ride:

The worst of the flu may be behind me, but I am still very weak and tired. Today I rode in a SAG wagon until about 3.5 miles from the Louisiana border, and then rode the rest of the way to DeRidder, Louisiana, for a total ride of only 27.1 miles. I was completely exhausted by the time I reached tonight's motel. I showered and took a nap when I arrived. Tomorrow is a 92 mile day which, the way I am feeling right now, I will not be able to finish. I think I will start riding in the morning with everyone else and just go as far as I can. Part of my issue right now is that I lost everything that was in my stomach on Tuesday night, and since then, the doctor only recommended a bland diet. There really isn't such a thing as a bland diet here so in the last two days I have only had about a dozen saltine crackers and four Gatorade. Tonight I asked a SAG staff member to go to a grocery store and buy  some chicken noodle or rice soup. I am anxious for them to return to get the soup  into my system, to see if it helps me recover quicker and get some strength back. On the regular menu tonight was pizza, which I know my stomach would not tolerate.

I have always heard how there are a lot of mean dogs in Louisiana. Well, today, I was only about 4 miles into the State when I had a set of dogs chase me. Fortunately, they didn't bite, or knock my bicycle over, but dogs are a real concern and get your heart rate pumped up in a hurry!

The Sabine River defines the Texas and Louisiana border at the point we entered Louisiana.

Not a clean looking river, but I don't know if it looks like this all the time.

Selfie Stick picture 3, Any better than the first two Selfies I took?

This was the only "vista" picture I observed today as everything along the road is a forest. The yellow plant looked like mustard, but I don't really know what it is. I smelled a paper mill in the area, and if you look closely, you can see a plume of steam rising above the trees to the right of the house that I would assume is coming from a paper mill. Many years ago I visited a paper mill in DeRidder to look at some pulping equipment they were using at the time.

Day 34: Thursday 04/07/16, Shepard, TX to Silsbee, TX

Day 34 distance:  0 miles

Total miles:  1832 miles

Elevation gain: 745 feet

Map of today's ride:

Today was a major disappointment for me. I lost my EFI (Every Fabulous Inch!) status due to being unable to ride today's ride. About 7:00 PM last night, I had the urge to throw up. I wasn't feeling bad so thought it must have been something I ate. However, that was just the start, with being up at least every hour throughout the night vomiting along with diarhea. Not too convenient of a situation when sleeping in a tent! By 4:00 am, I had also lost enough electrolytes that I had both calf's cramping and both upper thigh's cramping at the same time.Not a pretty sight when you need to get up off an air matress to go to the bathroom!

I wasn't any better at 6:00 am when it was time to get up, so I called Coach, our mechanic, to bring a chair to my tent so I could prop myself up on it to take some weight off my cramped legs, so I could work on the cramps. I then showered and SAG member Beth Thomasen took me to an Urgent Care Center about 20 miles away. The doctor did a saliva test and confirmed I had gastroentitis, or a good old viral stomach flu. I was given a shot and a prescription to combat nausea. It seemed to help, but I did throw up again one more time this afternoon. I am the fifth coaster to have gone through this illness.

When I arrived at Silsbee, Texas, this afternoon with Beth,, I found that someone in the SAG group had gone to a laundry and washed all my bedding. Talk about being Pampered!

I am not sure what tomorrow will bring. At the very least, i want to ride across the Texas and Louisiana state line. We will see, but it will be a couple days after I regain my appetite to get my body replenished for consistent daily riding.