We woke up at 5am today hoping to get an early start, but notices we had two flat tires. By the time we got the flats changes, got packed up and had breakfast, it was 8:30am when we finally got on the road.
On good advice from others, we took the long cut to Lake Charles, LA - 100 miles for the day! Our elevation varied from 2 feet below sea level to 130 feet above ( see crazy bridge photo). All of our hills were bridges or overpasses.
Did we mention that we finally made it out of Texas? It only took us 15 days!
We were surrounded by water all day, riding south along Sabine Lake, then east along Louisiana's Gulf Coast (even there we saw many off shore driving platforms and on shore storage tanks), and then north through the bayou. Even though much of our day was spent in and around the Sabine National Wildlife Refuge, the only wildlife we saw were ducks, birds and 1 turtle. In spite of assurances that we would see gators and caution gator signs, thus far alligators in Louisiana appear to be as rare as armadillos were in Texas.
Thank God we had no flats once we left the hotel.
Once close to Lake Charles, we got back on route 10 hoping to ride ten miles to our destination. This stretch of highway was clearly not intended for cyclists. After five intense miles, we bailed and took the GPS 12 mile loop around. After making it across hundreds of miles of desert and arid lands, the challenge in Louisiana is a surplus of water (namely getting across open water). Thanks for all the prayers, we sure need them!
Checking out where these towns are that you are travelling through.If Louisiana is shaped like a boot, you are in plantar fasciitis, I would say. Beware of banjo music in the bayou, stay together ;)
ReplyDeleteDebG