A personal best of 96.5 miles today!

And I pedaled on and on and on...

Today we left Lafayette LA to reach St. Francisville  and because I and some others were in a B&B and not in the Francisville Inn, we had another 3 miles or so, which my friend Flo went and added her four miles up and down the road outside to hit a century. For me, 96.5 miles was quite long enough and it's 21.5 miles more than my age, and close enough to 100 to feel it was a Fricking Long Ride

    I began from the Ramada Inn and pedaled to the first Sag Stop at 20, and then wen on to the big event of the day at 45.3. There is a 3.5 miles Morganza Spillway bridge with no shoulder, on the main highway and very busy. In order not to lose riders to passing 80 mph trucks or vans or even cars, Linda and Carol organized us all to meet and cross the bridge over the Atchafalaya River beforehand, and then arranged us in formation, two by two, with the van in back, so we could pedal across together with an escort. Three men who were doing the same trip organized a police escort, which would have been fun, but with at least 20 of us out there, the van was excellent protection as we took over the right hand lane by the concrete wall, and pedaled at a steady 6 to 8 mph behind each other in pairs, while the trucks zoomed by in the lefthand lane and then swung over into our lane in front of us. Three and a half miles can feel like a long time in that situation but we all got over safely, and then rode to the right and the shoulder that the road designers had kindly provided. You'd think they might have wondered what would happen to the cyclists on the causeway before the built the thing - but no. I have learned that many cars, trucks and other road users dislike cyclists, shout rude things as they zoom past, and are not as kind and friendly as I feel they ought to be to us Amazon Women riding across country. So Crossing the Causeway Together was a big event.

    The next place was the Morganza Lunch stop at "Not Yo Mama's Café" where I had my first - and maybe my last - Poboy, and water and decided whether to go on. After an hour in air conditioning, I decided better to ride than sit, and this time I rode off with a group so that we wouldn't get lost in the maze of turns and twists that the Cue Sheet promised, including a change of road at mile 76.5 That was so confusing that we all grouped at the corner, and the local sheriff, a large friendly man in a big van, came by to ask what we were doing, and directed us on to the Second Stop light, not the first one so we could turn right into New Roads, a local name that lacks a certain romance I felt.

    From the distance, we could see tall spires which I was assured was the new Mississippi River bridge which I wanted to cross, so I pedaled on. They turned out to be electricity pylons but the bridge did appear and we took photos before we pedaled up the long approach. There was no water at first, only the tops of tall trees. But at the very top, the river suddenly appeared below, its brown murky waters stretching from side to side. I read that the river is at an all-time low, and though it was large, it was not Hugely Wide. I've walked across the George Washington Bridge from New Jersey to New York, and the Hudson is a pretty good wide river too. Though I won't say that out loud to any Louisianian. There's a long descent from the bridge, which was fun to ride, and then another twenty miles or so to get to St. Francisville. The town looked charming - antiques and cafes and small streets - but Flo and I had to struggle on along the road to Highway 61 (no shoulder) and pedal our 3 extra miles to the Butler Greenwood B&B, off the highway. There was a long gravel path under drooping Spanish moss and tall trees, and lush green grass to the main house.

Anne Butler, the eight-generation owner of the property now, was there to greet me and I am in the Treehouse, which is a romantic big open room, with an outdoor deck,  and a mounted deer/elk head on the wall above the fireplace, its nose tilted upwards as if it doesn't want to know what's going on in the room. There is a Gigantic four-poster bed, definitely big enough for four, handmade it says on the plaque by a master woodcraftsman. Every room has a coffee maker, fridge with breakfast croissants and things to put on it, milk and juice, so we can make our own breakfast.

After my recordbreaking ride, I had a bath, dinner on the patio by the pool which was delicious, followed by icecream and dessert, and then I went to bed..