Cycling Ellen

65.2 miles today
2098.8 total

When you buy a used car in Vermont, a salesperson might tell you that a car is a good deal because it’s a southern car as southern cars don’t usually have rust.  But, I learned today, if the car comes from Louisiana you might want to check out the suspension system first.  I heard today that the gas tax was supposed to pay for road improvements but in a place where a sheriff was re-elected while he was a prisoner in jail, you know the government has a few problems.  The Vermont potholes are looking good by comparison!  Today may have been cooler here than in Vermont.  There was a steady headwind most of the day and never reached 60 degrees all day.  This wasn’t the weather I expected in Louisiana and is apparently quite unusual for this area this time of year.

With today being a much shorter mileage day, and our destination a place with not a lot to explore, I decided to take my time and stop often along the way.  As we were passing an area with a few home along one side of a huge field, I spotted an older man watching us go by.  I rode my bike down his driveway and we chatted for a while about our ride.  He had an accurate count of how many bikes had already gone by (sign him up for sag help!).  After a few minutes, he said his wife, Emilie, would like to meet me too so I waited while she came out.  It’s these conversations with people along the way that keep this ride so interesting for me.

Later down the road, I stopped at Stelly’s Southern Gold Restaurant for some extra breakfast.  There we met Dee who has been a waitress there for 55 years.  She was very pleasant, had trouble finding her order pad (she grabbed a napkin to write on until she found it), and had a great sense of humor.

I rode with Pat the rest of the day through windy country (bumpy) roads dodging the dogs that seemed to live at many of the houses along the way.  Unlike Texas, most of these dogs aren’t tied up or in fences and they do love a good chase.  At one house, I stopped to take a picture and about 25 little dogs came running out and barking at the top of their canine lungs.  They were in a fence so I wasn’t afraid for my ankles but the noise level was amazing!

In Big Cane, I stopped at the little grocery store where Pat and I met Ralph and Ike, cousins who had lived there all their lives.  They thought Pat and I were sisters.  Maybe all Vermonters look alike.  I took their picture but they won’t see it on the Internet because “there are too many stalkers” so they don’t have a computer.  They each took a picture of Pat and me with each of them.  Check them out in the Louisiana pictures album and you’ll see how often they use cameras.

I’ve found that the people in Louisiana all seem to be friendly.  They wave as we ride by, the drivers go over to the other side of the road to give us room and people always seem willing to talk.  At a sandwich stop in Plaucheville, I got talking to the local priest.  He told me that he goes up to Maine sometimes but has never eaten a lobster there.  He told me that many of the Acadians that lived up in Nova Scotia were lobstermen who moved down here.  Apparently, the lobsters followed them and lost so much weight swimming down, they ended up as the little crawfish that they catch in Louisiana!

As advertised, the Sportsman Motel here in Simmesport isn’t exactly a high-class accommodation but we each have a bed and a hot shower.  I’m headed that way now to warm up from the ride on this cold and windy day.  Who would have thought I’d be cold in Louisiana?