Our Sixth State!

April 14, Dave and Loren 26 miles.
April 15, Dave and Loren 45 miles.
Tuesday April 14: Dave and Loren 26 miles. We did part of the ride to the first SAG stop. We started out in rain and finished in rain. The other riders did 86 miles in the rain.
The initial part of the ride was quite pretty on a country lane. We then we're on a road with wide shoulders but there were a lot of blown tires so it kept us busy scanning the road for debris. There are also a lot of sticks and bark from the logging trucks and you can't  always tell until you get close whether they are tire debris (and the flat tire inducing wires) or bark. There was also thunder and lightning that had less and less time between the lighting flash and the thunder. This signifies how far away the thundercloud is so that was nerve-wracking. All in all not a relaxing ride and I took no pictures.
At the SAG stop we loaded our bikes on the trailer and got in Bubba's RV. We were cold and wet but soon warmed up. My leg seemed no worse, still swollen but not painful. We stopped at a restaurant for shrimp and corn chowder. The wet and bedraggled riders swarmed in. Everyone seemed to be cheerful but maybe it was because it was warm. They still had 26 miles to go at that point. We reached the overnight abode, a Baptist church. It was great to be inside out of the rain and not camping.

Wednesday, April 15

We had a short day today so we started a little later. We hoped to be ahead of the projected rain. The ride was quite pretty today. It started out hilly, then a few miles of downhill and finished with a few more hills. We crossed the Pearl River and entered Mississippi. Except for a few miles with no shoulders, the route today included country lanes and nicely paved roads.

We were able to take a picture with a Louisiana sign since the sign was missing when we entered LA. We also set up the timer feature on the cell phone and took pictures at the Mississippi sign.
On one of our dashes to get in the picture we stepped into a fire ant nest. They are all over doen here. Luckily we moved fast enough to not get any ants on us. They sting with a poison and leave blisters on some people.
The rain held off so before finishing we stopped at the Pearl Drugstore which had an old fashioned soda shop in the back.
Tonight Bubba cancelled the plan to have us camping tonight and instead we are in a hurricane evacuation center. We are supposed to get more heavy thunderstorms tonight. This area has had so much rain that the rivers are all at flood stage and flash floods are predicted in some areas. Luckily tomorrow is another motel night.

Our crawfish boil at Camp Marydale in St. Francisville 

How long do I stay off the bike?

Loren: 0 miles
Dave: 67 miles
Still nursing a swollen calf and trying to decide what is going to indicate healing. Frustrating.😬
Woke up to rain. The riders headed out into a relatively warm rain that seemed to ease off during the late morning. The riders rode on an old road that went through the Atchafalaya Swamp. Most of the riders liked the old road even though it was rough. There was lots of wildlife, including an alligator, a roseate spoonbill and swamp lilies. The riders went over the Atchafalaya River and on a new bridge, the Audubon bridge over the Mississippi River.
I was at the first SAG stop doing "attendance", making sure all the riders were in. One rider flipped over his handlebars and "taco-ed" (folded) his wheel in the swamp. He actually continued to ride after getting a wheel from one of the staff, but later took a ride in because he felt dizzy. He felt better today.
Dave's hip felt good and he completed all the miles.
Our home for the night and the day after (a rest day) is a Girl Scout camp called Marydale. There is a lot of land here and the cabins are quite spread out apart from each other. By the time we arrived it had started raining again.
The cabin we are in is housing 3 couples. It's pretty rustic but it does have bathrooms in the cabins. The camp beds aren't very comfortable so tonight we are going to sleep on air mattresses. Many of the riders requested that their tents get set up so the Wolf Pack did double duty and put up all the tents and then went to get the riders' gear from the cabins.
During our rest day I went in to St. Francisville and saw a nurse practitioner and her student. After I had discussed the timeline of the calf soreness and healing to where it isn't painful but still has swelling, they seemed to feel that getting back on the bike might actually help the swelling go down since riding in the car didn't exercise the legs. They recommended the type of calf compression sleeves that runners wear to prevent calf soreness.

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!

Riding again!

You might want to check out John Holden's blog. He rides a long wheelbase recumbent. He has been doing all the miles so you will hear more about the rides. I am doing shortened miles while I am trying to heal from my calf muscle inflammation. See: http://holdenxcountry.blogspot.com
On Friday, April 10, Dave and I rode 43 miles. We rode in a vehicle to the second SAG stop. When we got our bikes in Kirbyville I noticed a library just behind the gas station. We needed to print a proof of insurance document that Chrysler had emailed to us. We went over to the library and the librarian graciously explained how to use the computer and printer for free! Thank you for this service for bicyclists. We are in the Adventure Cyclist mapped Southern Tier route so this is a valuable resource.
The route was quite flat. The Texas part of the route didn't have much of a shoulder, but it was SMOOTH, no Texas chipseal! Chandler had set up a little "goodbye to Texas" photo op on the Texas side of the river so we stopped there and took pictures.
We crossed the Sabine River and what? No sign welcoming us to Louisiana? There were the posts, but where was the sign? What a disappointment. Our fifth state and nothing to commemorate it.
We rode further and found a tourism bureau office which had a beautiful quilt on the wall so we had our photo taken there instead of at the state line. The lady at the tourism bureau was quite concerned that there was no sign there and made a call to the DOT.
We'll have to see if there is a sign when we leave Louisiana and see if we can get a sign there.
The country was fairly flat and not that interesting but I felt happy to be back on the bike again after 7 days completely off the bike. The Louisiana side had a decent shoulder too, so that was a plus. I amused myself by noticing signs. Moses is running for sheriff and "Bisquit" Smith is running for State Representative! I noticed the Edward Jones office sharing the same building as the welfare office. Probably don't share the same clients though.
However by the time we reached DeRidder, I noticed that I had a large "goose egg "on my calf. I iced it at our Dairy Queen stop (getting soda all over my sleeve in the process) and elevated and iced in the motel room before dinner. All that seemed to do was move the edema into my knee and made the whole leg stiff.
When we got to dinner we found out that Chandler, our bike mechanic, had been in an accident and that Bubba had taken him to the hospital. As of this morning (Saturday, April 11) he has been transferred to another hospital with a cracked vertebrae. What a shock! (Bubba has been in the hospital with people three times in a week on this trip!) Chandler's injuries could have been so much worse so we're counting blessings in that regard. The truck is a total loss.

Dave "Coach" and Graham. Graham is from England. "Coach has been the mechanic on the Michigan Shoreline tour for many years.

One of our riders rode the coast to coast ride two years ago and provided this picture of the LA sign.

Sunset the previous night at the otherwise forgettable campground in Silsbee.

Eclectic Shepherds Haven and Silsbee

Sorry folks, I thought I posted this last night but I forgot to push the "publish" button! I must have been distracted by the free margaritas that Cecil bought us last night!

We stayed at an interesting place last night, Shepherd's Sanctuary. It is a place that has repurposed items in every nook and cranny. There was a selection of little cabins and then our tent city that springs up from the truck each night. Unfortunately during the morning, they had a septic problem, perhaps created by the rainfall that flooded their drainfield. But I did manage to find one working toilet, in an open air bathroom. A different one that I used earlier...well let's leave it at that.

I did one more day off the bike but planned to ride for 20 miles the following day. Dave rode 20 miles on a planned basis to the first SAG stop and then iced up. (Wednesday, April 8).
On Thursday, April 9, both Dave and I biked together for 20 miles. The elevation chart is now basically flat since we are near the Louisiana border so it was an easy ride. The area is the "Piney Woods" of Texas. We are biking through the Sam Houston National Forest. Lumber trucks were passing us all day. A big part of the lumber in the U.S., such as 2x4's, are from Southern pines.
My leg felt fine on the bike. We'll see how it feels first thing in the morning since that is when it stiffens up and feels the most sore. I iced it twice just to counteract that.

Tomorrow we bike into Louisiana, our fifth state! Already we are seeing signs advertising po' boys and crawdads. Cajun food will be our next culinary experience.

Marsh lilies

I saw a very similar "objet d'art" in Montana last summer.

La Grange to Mexican Hill Ranch, Richards, TX

Dave and I both took the day off. His hip had been painful after only 12 miles the day before and it looked as if it could be hilly. We were able to ride with a vehicle that would be following the route so that is appreciated.
Within the first 4 miles we came across a group of riders with one rider down. It turned out that he had felt I'll and thought it was his heart. Someone had called 911 and we stayed to wait for the ambulance. The fire department arrived and started some oxygen. Then some other fire volunteers arrived in a truck. Then the next to arrive was an EMT in a truck. FINALLY the ambulance arrived. They took him to the local hospital and after a further five hours were going to release him. However they then decided that the blood test results were of concern and made plans to transfer him to Austin. He had a procedure this morning and has now told Bubba that he will be back riding with us in a week!
The most amazing thing is that his son was in Austin on a work assignment and was able to be with his father during this ordeal. That is a God thing!
Today on our rest day we took a hayride around Mexican Hill Ranch. It was really interesting as we came upon a calf which looked like it had been abandoned by its mother. Ernie and Doris brought it back to the mother and it appears that the mother has accepted it back. Otherwise Doris will need to bottle feed it.
During the afternoon, a couple we had met during Moonlight Ski nights at Big M came over to have lunch and visit with us. Sheila and Frank live in Indiana but travel to MI to cross country ski. One time they happened to be in the Manistee area and saw a notice about our Moonlight Ski event. They now come up for one of our events each year. When they were talking to us in January they mentioned that they would be in the Texas Hill Country doing their own self-supported bike tour at about the same time as we are, so they kept in contact with us and came over to see us in our "tent city". They were impressed with the logistics of a group this size!

Bubba arranged a speaker, Russell Cushman, who is an artist, sculptor and historian. He was very enthusiastic and filled us in on the local history of the Brazos valley. He was commissioned to do a sculpture of a Texas Ranger named Frank Hamer, who was the person who ambushed Bonnie and Clyde and killed them to stop their killing spree. Prior to that he took on a group of entrenched criminals that comprised the local government. They were known for lynchings and other brutality.

The area was also the home of many of the original bluesman who were the inspiration for singers such as Eric Clapton. One of them was actually the buggy driver for Frank Hamer. He was recorded as saying that Frank made the area safe for blacks again.

A calf who seemed lethargic and seemingly rejected by its mother.

The site of old Baylor University.

Texas Paintbrush and Bluebonnets.

How many big guys can fit on a loveseat to watch basketball?

Lockhart to La Grange, TX

0 miles for Loren, 12 miles for Dave

For a description of the rides, you may want to see the blog of Lisa and Jeff at http://pedal4paws.blogspot.com 

The morning dawned with a misty rain. It surprised me when I came out of the tent, since I didn't hear it on the tent walls. Before I got up I heard two owls, call and answer. Their timing was so regular it didn't even seem like it it was two real owls!

When I got up I saw something that looked like white splotches on the grass outside the tent. They turned out to be little rabbits for Easter. I don't know why we had four, I think they must have multiplied overnight. We also had some plastic eggs with candy in them. The Easter bunny was either up very early or very late!

I didn't ride again today. My calf feels much better, even first thing in the morning which was when it was the most sore. However, later in the afternoon, I did notice that it had swelled again, so I lay down on my air mattress and elevated it while I iced it. I am very happy to know that the muscle is healing itself, so I'm feeling more hopeful than I was at first.

Dave was not so lucky today. He started the ride thinking that after he felt so good yesterday, that he would try for 40 miles today. Well, he only got 12 miles in before the hip was hurting and he called for a SAG vehicle. With the rainy and cool weather, maybe that aggravated the arthritis? Oh well, tomorrow is another day....

We are indoors tonight. We are in a recreation center in the town of LaGrange. Nice to be in out of the rain. (How does he do it?) The staff are even doing an extra day of laundry for everyone's wet clothes.

A couple of the guys in the Wolf Pack have dressed up, one has a pizza costume on and another a woman's wig???

Lots and lots of Bluebonnets and Texas Paintbrush flowers. Riders came back with pictures of a large field of Bluebonnets. The car I was in didn't ride the route so I didn't see the field. I did see a lot of wildflowers on the highway. It was flat light and misty so we didn't take pictures.

Lots of different birds here in Texas. Dave saw a Scissortail Flycatcher today. Really a beautiful bird, he didn't get a picture though.

             Scissortail Flycatcher. Not our photo, from Google.

Tomorrow the riders have an 89 mile ride. We will be in Richards, Texas on a ranch. The following day is a rest day.

We have been enjoying Cocoa, a little Cockapoo here. Mickey brought her and she has been a favorite of a lot of the riders. I had been looking for a poodle but was dissatisfied about not hearing back from several breeders after I thought we had communicated well. I think they may be putting me on the backburner since they might prefer to have their dogs go to owners who will show them. So, I searched around for a breeder of Cockapoo puppies and found one in Michigan who has a male and female available. I contacted her and sent a deposit for the female. So, we will pick her up on the way home in early May and have a new puppy in the house! 

Future sister to Corkie.

Bubba arranged to have a speaker for us tonight, an astronaut! Bill McArthur gave us a slide presentation about his time on the space station. Really interesting and funny too. He is a bicyclist himself and will bike with the group tomorrow.