Crawfish and Rice Paddies

Crawfish and rice paddies were what I viewed through the car windows today. I am babying my calf again. I rode 43 miles yesterday and iced my calf as soon as I got into the motel. However after I woke up this morning I noticed the same swelling that I had seen immediately after the ride yesterday. Sigh.
Hans says "it's really looking Dutch here". He is a Netherlands native who now lives in Berlin. He is one of the staff people and was one of the staff assigned to a SAG stop. Our SAG stop was in Mamou where Fred's Lounge is. Fred's is famous for their Zydeco music which is broadcast from the bar on Saturday mornings. The bar was crowded with bicyclists because this year our route coincided with the Cycle Zydeco 5 day ride. This ride is low mileage and samples a lot of the sights and sounds of Cajun life. It was fun to see the dancers in the bar. Many were locals who asked some of the bikers to dance. It was pretty loud in the bar so later I sat outside and talked to some other bikers about various rides they have done.
Later I caught a ride with another SAG. I got some pictures of crawfish/rice fields. The site below explains how they grow both rice and crawfish in the same field. (We are going to have a crawfish boil on our rest day on Monday).
http://www.cajuncrawfish.com/how-we-grow-crawfish.htm
Ed took a little video of the boat used for harvesting crawdads. See https://youtu.be/kzKgu2ltR8k
Dave rode the 30 miles I had meant to do. About 6 miles from Mamou he and Monica had a distressing encounter with a pack of dogs. One dog ran across the road barking. Dave shouted at him and he stopped but a car passed Dave's bike and ran over the dog. The dog was screaming loudly and another dog from the pack attacked it. Meanwhile the owner looked on and shouted ineffectually at the dog who was attacking. When they biked on, she was turning to go in the house, seemingly without emotion. It was very upsetting for both Dave and Monica. This is the second dog that has gotten hit by a car while chasing one of our cyclists on this trip.

We finished up in Opelousas at a Holiday Inn, very nice. Anne cooked for us out in the parking lot.

Good news, Chandler will be able to be released soon with a back brace to protect the cracked vertebrae from movement. Not sure of what his plans will be, whether he will come back to the tour or not.

I thought it was interesting that he played the dulcimer with a lit cigarette (long ash) in his hand.

Dave is "all lit up".

" Tante Sue" (Fred's widow?) who will sell you her special cinnamon schnapps from her holster on her leg. If she really likes you, she'll take a sip out of it before giving it to you!