Hot and windy. That pretty much sums up today. After an unexpectedly slow start – almost noon, we headed on down the road toward the plantations. The head winds were the first thing we noticed, and they were really intense. We started drafting each other – which we rarely have needed to do – switching places every two miles. We got down to only 5.5 miles an hour for several miles! The heat had kicked up pretty high, and there was no shade at all. We did get to see one of the plantations, but it’s open by appointment only, and we somehow missed the second one completely (also open by appointment only). I think it was a combination of the heat and wind, and to make matters even more challenging, there was infinitely more traffic today – it didn’t even feel like the same road. Today we had huge semis, gravel trucks, over-sized loads – you name it.
Last night was an unusual experience, being alone in old house with no electricity and no furniture or dishes. We went to bed at a good time – we had our sleeping pads and sleep sacks, but we were keyed up, and talked for quite awhile. Mr. Caire showed up bright and early, at 7 a.m., bearing a gift – a big bag of ice. We were delighted! We put most of it in our Camelbaks, and then put the rest in our cooler for the day’s snacks.
We never made it across to the levee last night, but we did run across this morning. It’s so amazing to see that big old river flowing along right there behind that levee! One very entertaining thing we’ve seen for two days now, is the sight of the tops of very big ships, floating along behind the levee, as if they are disembodied.
We have a brand new stove, and even though we did try it out at Darryl’s house, and made sure it worked, it was only once, and then a week went by without any chance to use it again. This morning when Chelsea tried to get it going, she had a lot of fooling around to do to figure it out. It probably slowed us down by an hour, but we got good practice on the stove, and we did get to eat our oatmeal! Then when we were finally (!) ready to leave, one of Chelsea’s bungie cords had disappeared, so we had to refigure how we were going to strap on our things. Grrrr…that took another 45 minutes or so, and meant we left just as the heat was increasing.
Mr. Caire had apparently called his niece last night and told her about us, and sure enough, she was at the bank this morning just as we left. She introduced herself, and was really interested in our trip. Mr. Caire had also been to the bank and told the women at the bank about us. His niece Chris told us that he was really excited, which made us feel great. We were so incredibly appreciative of his offer! Then Betty from the bank came out to say hi to us, and offered cold water to us. We needed to fill our bike bottles, so that worked out perfectly. It was utterly awesome to have cold and then cool water all day in this heat!
We did make it all the way to Vacherie, to Laura Plantation. Turns out that it’s $15 per person to take the tour, and that was enough for a few days of good meals, so we opted out, and besides, we had no place to stay yet. We had asked at a local restaurant if they knew of anywhere we could stay, and the woman referred us to “Mr. Norman” at Laura Plantation. Mr. Norman was incredibly pleasant, and disappeared for awhile, then came back and said the only place was another 3 miles up the road, at another plantation, and they’d charge us $20 a person. We just couldn’t do the 3 miles, and asked if he knew of anyone who would let us put up a tent. After some thought, and another short disappearance, he returned with some welcome news – a woman named Phyllis, only a mile away, would put us up.
So here we are – instead of camping outside, Phyllis offered us a private room and bathroom, with air conditioning! We are on cloud nine. We’ve bathed, cleaned out our cooler, and we’ve been invited to share dinner with Phyllis and her husband. That’s especially nice, as we’ve been living on snack food for two days now, and a solid meal sounds like heaven. I was feeling pretty rocky today from the heat, and I feel SO much better with the a/c! Last night was hot all night long – it was 81.5 when we went to bed, and stayed that way quite a bit of the night. I find the hardest thing is never getting to cool down.
We’re off downstairs for dinner, so I’ll sign off for now from Vacherie, LA.