Warm spring day through country farms and lanes
This was how I imagined this trip would be, except we had a slight glitch on the mileage on the Cue Sheet so I was four miles over - but that was fine. We had breakfast at the Comfort Inn, which scores a 5 because they have hot eggs, potatoes and cut up ham as well as toast, coffee, cereal and waffles - which I will never touch again. Then we packed our daily snacks - pbj sandwiches, fruit, nuts and cranberries and raisins, string cheese which I love, and a couple of sports energy bars which seem less and less like food the longer you eat them.
Then we set off from the hotel on to the highway and turned off on to a Frontage Road and then a quiet country road. Today we set off together because it was only 56 miles to Bogalusa - how did it ever get that name I wonder? - and even doing 10 miles or so an hour, which is about my rate, it will take only five hours. So from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. to ride means a short day, now that I'm a biker.
We segregated into groups with the Speed Racers moving ahead, and then taking a break at a pastry shop, and then for lunch, and still managing to pass all the rest of us pedaling away in the middle. The event of the day was passing a Global Wildlife Center where there are lions and giraffes and other Exotic Beasts. But all I saw through the high wire fence as we rode by were some large deer-like animals and some sleeping animals on the grass that were definitely not zebras and were a long way away from the highway. This is a big deal for school tour groups and they come out in droves every week.
We turned on to side roads with names like Chappapeela and Undeedus and Knapp Thomas and White Williams and E Thomas. The last one our cue sheet warned we should "watch for it - easy to miss." We all made it. There were cows and calves browsing in the green fields, and a large black bull lumbered to his feet as we pedaled by in case we planned to cause trouble. I saw a few sheep and a goat, and lots of beautiful horses grazing in fields by houses. These are not farm houses but many of them are elegant mansions with pillars or spacious homes surrounded by grass. It was cloudy and a bit windy, but warm and humid, the way Louisiana is supposed to be. It was also very quiet - only a few large trucks to threaten as they passed on the narrow two-lane highways, and most cars understood that we needed extra space if they wanted to pass.
We are at the Travelers Rest Motel, which has no pool and no laundry. Yesterday the hotel had a heated pool and a beautiful hot tub indoors which was a wonderful day to end the day of riding. My room wasn't even ready so I had to wait until I could shower and cool off. Tomorrow we are off to ride across another state line and reach Mississippi, and the town of Wiggins.
When everything falls into place, and the Sag wagon is there with water every 20 miles, and the terrain has some ups and downs but nothing too dramatic, and there are lovely views and fresh air and the warmth of spring, this is a beautiful way to spend a day, bicycling along the road and enjoying the sudden downhills which are always followed by an uphill - funny how that works. And then to arrive at a clean pleasant hotel with a shower and comfortable bed, to know dinner will be served at 6 p.m. and that there is nothing else to do but to pack up, and prepare for the bicycle ride tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment