Day 43 - Simmesport to St. Francisville

I tried to take more pictures today.

We started off with a quick climb over the Atchafalaya River Bridge. That loosened up the legs. Most of the rest of the day was spent riding along the levees controlling the Atchafalaya and Mississippi Rivers. At one point we got off the bikes and walked up a levee road to look at the Mississippi. Should have ridden the Hunqapillar up that road, turned out we had to walk about a quarter mile to the river. We dipped our fingers in and walked back to the abandoned bikes.

In Morganza we took a break to grab a snack. I tried to get Jerry to order some cracklin, but he wasn't interested. Maybe the snouts turned him off. I wasn't that eager either.

After Morganza it should have been a short 18 miles to St. Francisville. That was when the ferry shuttled folks across the river. There's now the fancy new Audubon Bridge. Unfortunately the bridge is about 6 miles down river, that's an additional 12 miles we weren't counting on. Oh well.

St. Francisville is a neat town and was, for a brief 74 days in 1810, the capital of the West Florida Republic. I didn't even know the was a West Florida Republic. Did they teach me that in School? It was quickly annexed into the U.S.

Our lodging tonight is definitely a step up from yesterday, which was pretty sketchy. We're staying in the St. Francisville Inn, a B&B in one of the many old houses here (formerly the Wolf-Schlessenger House). Lots of cool old buildings here so we took a walking tour around town to check them out.

Freaky thing just happened, the floor lamp in my hotel room just turned itself on. Creepy! Hope this place isn't haunted........

With the old oak trees coveted in Spanish moss and the clouds passing over the moon this sure looks like the kind of place that would be haunted.

Day 42 - Ville Platte to Simmesport

I miss Texas. We've only been in Louisiana for a couple of days in my opinion, that the roads and drivers are more cycling friendly in Texas.

The roads here often have no shoulder at all and are poorly paved. I guess Texas has the money to maintain their roads and Louisiana has other priorities (hurricanes?) Must be all that oil money.

That said, today's route was very nice, but lots of rough pavement. Not that I took many pictures. The area around Thistlethwaite State Wildlife Management Area was really nice, but it reminded me of a country club, we rode around it, but couldn't see in. Too many trees.

For lunch we finally found what I was looking for, a hole in the wall where I could get some gumbo. And it was delicious. Jerry thought it might be his favorite meal of the trip.

Dinner, however was a different story. Convenience Store sandwiches. We originally went down to the Piggly Wiggly, but it closed a 5:00. It fact, everything was closed except the truck stop. Had a corn dog too.

Day 41 - DeRidder to Ville Platte

Not much to report today. More wind, bummer. Guess I should be used to it by now. Lots to see, but I seem to have lost my motivation to take pictures.

Wheat fields, rice fields and crayfish farms sure are scenic, well maybe not the crayfish farms, but they make lousy wind breaks. Where'd the trees go?

Stopped for a burger in Oberlin. We asked at the Shell Station where we could find a restaurant where we could sit down and eat. That was probably a bad idea because they served food. The folks at the Shell told us there was nowhere else in town.

Wait a minute. Didn't we just pass a restaurant? Sure enough, half a block back was a small restaurant. We ate there. Not bad. And we got great service from the woman behind the counter and her young granddaughter.

Before arriving in Ville Platte we briefly stopped to watch a crayfish farmer harvest the days catch. Interesting, I had an apple while we watched, tasty.

Once in Ville Platte we went the wrong way, adding a few miles to the day, but it let me find Floyd's Record Shop, specializing in Zydeco, Cajun & Swamp Pop. Too bad they were closed.

Dinner of crayfish étouffée and fried catfish. I'm not a big fan of catfish, but pretty good.

Lodging: Best Inn, Ville Platte. Michele was ready to pass on the place because of the yellow and punk paint scheme, but the rooms were okay so we stated.

Day 40 - Silsbee, TX to DeRidder, LA

Two items of note today: the route today was even flatter than yesterday, if that's possible; and we finally left Texas.

I can't even remember not being in Texas, we were there that long. Over three weeks. I liked Texas a lot, but I'm glad to leave it behind. Once again it feels like progress is being made.

We finally had a sustained tailwind. I stopped writing about the wind, but it's been a constant impediment to our progress. Recently we've had some protection from the trees, but today we ran north for the first 30 miles and had a 20-mph south wind the whole time. Those 30 miles flew by and we were at the Three Flags Cafe in Bon Weir for lunch in no time, 47 miles already behind us. J&M had fried catfish, I had breakfast: bacon and eggs with a monster biscuit. We also shared an order of boudin squares which are hard to describe, but delicious. Grant - note the table cloth on the table behind J&M in the lunch photo. get your guns up!

Bon Weir is only a couple of miles from the Sabine River, the Texas/Louisiana border, a couple if minutes after lunch we were in Louisiana. Yay!

We pushed on to DeRidder only stopping for the occasional photo. For dinner we had a couple of recommendations for the Cecil Cajun Cafe (fellow at the visitors information stop and guy at stop light), but it was a disappointment. I feel we continue to make bad choices for our meals.

Day 39 - Shepherd to Silsbee

Pan flat today, and lots of green. Passed through "The Big Thicket" before lunch. The thicket is a very densely forested region in East Texas. I think it would be pretty spooky at night. There's even a ghost road where the spirits of old conquistadors wander about looking for gold, or it could just be car headlights filtering through the trees, decide for yourself, I'm going with conquistadors.

Texans that lives in the Thicket during the civil war refused to fight for the confederacy and we're known as Jayhawkers (like the Kansas Jayhawkers). Although the Thicket Jayhawkers did not fight like the Kansas Jayhawkers. The Thicket Jayhawkers hid in the area around Honey Island because of the bee hives in the area. They would collect the honey and trade it with sympathizers for supplies. The Confederates unsuccessfully tried to burn them out.

Skipped breakfast this morning, but had a really good bacon cheese burger at the general store / restaurant in Honey Island and signed the log book the proprietor keeps for cyclists. I noticed that the three med students we met at the sand dunes in CA passed through here 10 days ago. We better pick up the pace, they're probably done by now.

The rest of the day was easy enough and uneventful. Stopped for a root beer float at another Dairy Queen and rode off to the Red Cloud RV park to camp. Dinner of supermarket roast chicken and broccoli.

During dinner Jerry pulled out his original itinerary, looks like we're about a day ahead of schedule. We made up the day we lost in San Diego and the extra rest day in Scottsdale. Looks like we're doing okay.

Not my favorite camping spot of the trip. The mosquitos are really bad so we retreated to our tents right after dinner. It's also pretty noisy (trains, which are okay, and nearby freeway traffic and music from a club down the street, which are not) and bright (lots of overhead lights). I got lucky when I set up my tent, none if the lights shine directly in my eyes. On the bright side, it gave me a chance to catch up with my blog entries.