I’m sitting down to do the blog before dark falls, and Chelsea is in the bathroom hand washing our cycling clothes with our new Campsuds – supposed to be good in cold water, hot water, and salt water. She’s finished the first round, and she’s wheeling her trailer out onto the porch in the sun, using the cargo rack as a drying rack. We’re hoping to catch some of the wind outside to speed the drying process. I’m going to have to type fast, as the sun will be setting soon, and we have no electricity. That’s not a problem with the lights, but the laptop will run out of battery. I checked our Verizon signal, and there’s just about none, so we won’t be uploading this tonight.
After being up until 3 a.m. getting our New Orleans/Norco photos uploaded, and getting the short blog up on the website, 9 a.m. came really early. We had packed Judith’s van last night with our trailers and bikes and duffle bags, so this morning wasn’t hard at all with getting things together. We simply had to do our morning ablutions, eat our trusty oatmeal, put the remaining few things in the van, and off we went. Judith had graciously offered to take us across the Mississippi River, as the ferry upriver is out of commission, and bicycles aren’t allowed on the 310 bridge. (When I saw what it was like, I was SO thankful we didn’t have to ride it!) Just on the other side, right under the bridge, is a little park (aptly named Bridge Park) with a tourist center and big parking lot. We unloaded the van and started putting together our bags on the trailers.
Wouldn’t you know, somewhere along the way our beloved bungie cords had gotten lost. We had some, but they weren’t the ones we have used to secure the duffle bags and tent to the trailers. That took some doing, and by the time we said our good-byes to Judith, and used the bathroom one last time (the woman in the tourist center let us use her “private” bathroom) it was nearly 12:30.
The ride went really well, and we were so pleased that it was flat, flat, flat. We had headwinds much of the day, alternating with side winds and tailwinds depending on how the river curved. We are following the Mississippi River on Hwy 18, going through towns so small that they aren’t even on the map. We saw virtually no services all day, and the two rest breaks we took were in yards of homes. We had one long section – actually it was only about 3.5 miles, but it felt longer – that passed through a huge Dow Chemical plant, followed in short order by two other huge chemical plants, and then finished off with a huge Louisiana Power and Light generating plant. We did get a kick out of all the workers pointing at us – we couldn’t hear much, but we could hear “bicycles”, so we always waved.
One great thing happened today – we saw a bald eagle at our long rest break. We always carry binoculars, so it was easy to keep an eye on it, and we are hoping that Chelsea’s photos of it turn out (our zoom lens is noticeably dismal). The roads were well paved, and though there weren’t any shoulders for most of the ride, people were very courteous and swung wide for us. It was pretty hot – that would be my only real complaint for the day, but compared to what we rode through last summer, it was a cakewalk. One funny thing we saw – a Catholic cemetery tucked right into the grounds of one of the chemical plants.
Judith, our CouchSurfing host for the last few days, is a real piece of work. She’s been confined to a wheelchair for the last four years, but to see her function, you’d think it had been much longer – she is so efficient. This woman has her systems down! She’s got a wonderful Southern attitude about life, and she is terrifically funny. We’ll be writing more about her in the Norco blog. She had given us some Terra chips for snacks, and we just couldn’t cram them in anywhere, so I tied them on the top of my trailer. Chelsea laughed about it, and commented about how bright and shiny mine was compared to hers. Judith, without missing a beat, said “Oh, honey. Don’t worry about it! She’s just got more bling than you do!”
As we neared 4 p.m. and the end of our heat tolerance, we started looking for places to stay. We had reached Edgard, which looked huge on the map, relatively speaking, but there were absolutely no services except the county courthouse (the counties are called parishes here in Louisiana), and a bank. There may have been a very small Dollar General type store. There are no motels, hotels, bed and breakfasts, or campgrounds in this part of the world, so we stopped at a bank, just closed, and asked a young woman in the parking lot. She took us back to the bank and knocked on the door, to get her co-workers attention. When they heard our story, they all pitched in with ideas, especially when they heard it was a mom and daughter needing a place to stay.
Betty, one of the bank employees, took us outside. After praying over us for a moment or two, asking Lord Jesus to keep us safe on our travels, she pointed out a neighboring house – a beautiful big old place set way back from the road under shade trees. She said that the man who lived there, Mr. Caire, was a judge, and he might let us stay in the house next to his, behind the bank. Now, I have never in my entire life just walked up to a perfect stranger’s house, knocked on the door, and asked if I could pitch a tent on his lawn. But I did it today! Mr. Caire took one look at us, stopped in utter puzzlement, and then invited us in for a glass of cold water till he sorted things out. His solution was awesome – he does own the house next door, and it’s empty. There’s running water, but no electricity, as a huge storm that swept through last week tore the electrical panel right off the house.
So, here we are in a beautiful 60-year-old house, made of cypress. It’s a 2/1 with a living room, dining room, kitchen, and of course the two bedrooms and one bathroom. There’s a huge kitchen, a big central hallway, what would be called a breakfast room at the back of the house, and a small sitting room at the back of the house. There are dead bugs everywhere – clearly they had fumigated, but someone thoughtfully left a whiskbroom, so we have swept our walkways clear. There’s no electricity on, but there’s a brand new water heater, and the water was still hot enough to take a great warm shower.
Chelsea’s setting up our beds, I’m still typing away and doing the Picasa album, the clothes are drying outside, and we’ll settle in in a few minutes to eating our crackers and cheese. We’ll hit the beds early tonight!
Tomorrow we have a delightful day – we have no fewer than 5 plantation homes to see, and one of them apparently has several homes on it that were brought from other locations. We rode about 18 miles today, and we hope to do about the same tomorrow. We may end up around St. James, or a little closer. Mr. Caire has asked that we return the key to him when we leave, and he has church until 8:30, so we plan on leaving shortly after that. It should be much cooler riding in the morning!
It’s getting to dark to see, so I’m signing off for now. Chelsea and I are going to run across Hwy 18 and climb the levee to see the Mississippi. Everyone been talking about how high it’s been – it’s been at flood stage for a long time from all the rain upriver, but it’s going down fast now.
Signing off from Edgard, Louisiana