Another table couldn’t finish their beer pitcher, so they offered it to us… So two free pitchers of beer. And beautiful sunshine. What a day!
Equipment
Equipment and Supplies used
Day 45: Beer of the Day (free!)
Relaxing in New Orleans at Nonna Mia drinking a free pitcher of Abita Amber beer because they couldn’t fill it full. I’ll take it. Thank you, Universe.
Day 41: Baton Rouge to Laplace…
Fifty miles done…
Only forty miles left until this stage of the adventure is complete.
I’ve got 8+ hours of video footage and over 400 photos from the last 41 days to review and publish. So many stories to write from notes and so many people to thank.
Now, on to today…
Highway 61 /Airline road is ridiculous in its level of danger and hazards.
Louisiana, as a whole, by far has the nicest people I’ve met South of Missouri.
People have been honking and cheering and waving and coming up to say hello, or, you’re crazy, or amazing, but all lighthearted and good things
A sheriff even turned on his lights and sirens as a celebratory greeting today while he passed me.
Honestly my thoughts after this whole trip is that Highway 61 should be avoided complelely South of Iowa/Missouri.
Today, before leaving Baton Rouge, I posted a message along with my route to the New Orleans social bicycle group stating that I’d be biking into New Orleans the next morning if anybody wanted to ride along and I was looking for a places to camp out until my rental agreement started on the fifteenth.
A woman said her family lived right off the route I was taking and I could camp there. I said thanks and proceeded to start pedaling towards their house… 50-some miles away.
I arrived around five pm and they had to r
un to a rehearsal, so off they went and I just hung out in the back yard, set up my tent and relaxed and played with ‘Dogzilla.’
The family of Dara, Sonny, and their two children, Nola, and Freedom were amazing hosts. They fed me a great meal of squash, salad, chicken fried steak, and mash potatoes. I got a hot shower, great company, and now new friends.
The family rescues stray animals and fosters/adopts the critters until they can find a permanent home.
Sonny is a crafty handyman, he just came home from a full day of work and after a brief conversation, he asked if I needed anything on fixed or any spare parts for the bike. I said I’d be nice to have a more secure way to carry the guitar. I thought we’d just be brainstorming…
Instead, he spent until around midnight making a holster for the guitar in the back yard.
Day 38: Beer of the Day
Natchez Brewing Company, Bluff City Blonde…
It’s OK… Really iron tasting, they must have hard water ’round here.
I went to the Natchez brewery down the street, but they were closed… Even though the sign says they should be open.
Washed down with a Jucy Lucy burger…
Day 34: what’s new, pussycat?
I stayed at Jeff Busby campground last night. It didn’t freeze like I expected, but plenty of condensation on the inside of the tent fly thanks to my exothermic temperament.
I spent some of the morning drying my boots some more and wondering if I should head straight South of keep on the Natchez.
I could motivate myself to leave the sleeping bag earlier than 8am if the weather was about ten degrees warmer at night. I’m just getting anxious with being about three hundred miles from New Orleans and the idea of being off the bike for more than a day.
The desire is to stay here another day since it’s free, but my batteries are low and I need to find a place to recharge them to keep my phone going; and the real reason, tomorrow I’d still be 300 miles from my destination.
Although the dynamo on the bike is good to generate electricity, it needs assistance from time to time. I mailed back the solar panel since I had no plans of sitting around in one place until New Orleans.
…
I decided to take a day off and relax. It’s free camping here and I’ve got enough food for a few days. If I get off the Natchez Trace and head South I’m less than 300 miles away from my first waypoint.
I’ve seen a few cats around camp today. It seems they’re living in the drainage culverts, part of the time, anyway.
I unpacked everything this afternoon, adjusted the rear fender on the bike, cleaned off some mud, aired out some clothes…
I am carrying a heck of a lot of colorful junk!!
Time to repack and strip, service, and rebuild the stove so I can eat Mac and cheese tonight with flax seed.
Day 27: East Cape to Cario and beyond…
Susan, the mother (?) Of the brother of the owner/manager came out to greet me with donuts after I explained how I was treated by the owner’s boyfriend (?) last night.
She wished me safe travels and I’m now heading South along back roads in light drizzle and will stop along the way for breakfast and then cross into Kentucky or Missouri before lunch.
Warm weather here, I think it stayed in the sixties all night, but after my experience with the boyfriend of the manager who came off more as a drug dealer / club bouncer than a campground host and the constant route 149 traffic I didn’t sleep that well.
Oh and the spiders are getting bigger…
Let’s see how far I can make it today!
Day 26: Happy Thanksgiving
I’m eating left over pizza from lunch and the can of ravioli that Keith graciously gave me while camping out in a trailer park next to a major highway and across the road from a tiki bar and a strip club in East Cape Girardeau, Illinois.
Happy Thanksgiving.
I’m thankful for my first shower in three days.
Day 24: Beer of the Day
Stag Beer… Golden quality
Day 22: Beer of the Day
Urban Chestnut Brewing Company: STLIPA
India Pale Ale at Shelly’s in St Louis, Missouri
Day 19: Hack of the Day
Fenders keep warping and rubbing on the tires. After riding through a ton of mud last night my fenders bent again. So today,I just ziptied the side that wouldn’t stay in place. I suspect I’ll be ziptieing the other side soon.
