Day #10: Diamondhead, MS- Covington, LA. 53.3 Miles

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...




Actually, it was in reverse order. We left the hotel at 7:00am with heavily buttered english muffins and bananas packed for breakfast. While I-10 was a joyride yesterday, today was a different story. For a few miles we enjoyed the same shoulders as yesterday, but then in an instant, they were gone. Stranded on a huge bridge over the Pearl State Wildlife Management Area, we were forced to walk our bikes along the guard rail with huge trucks too close for comfort. On a positive note, the view was spectacular. After walking across the bridge, we saw signs indicating that we had in fact crossed into Louisiana!! State #4... what up!! After taking a picture (see below), we saw a sign for a tourist  center just 2 miles down the road. On our way, we passed a small forest fire (see pictures below) and encountered 2 more shoulder-less bridges (they weren't nearly as long as the 1st one though). Tired and hungry, we arrived at the tourist center that had a rest area specifically for pets. We filled up our waters and devoured our breakfast. The woman behind the counter approached us (unsolicited) and asked if we would like some help figuring out the best way for us to get where we wanted to go. She showed us 3 maps which she had photocopied specifically for us and patiently explained how to get to a designated bike trail which would take us directly to Covington, LA (our intended destination). Instead of needing to get back on a busy road, the woman had a police officer open a back gate (which is only allowed to be opened in emergencies) which led us out onto a quiet road and eventually led to a long bike trail - see a small portion in video below.  We thanked her profusely and continued on our way. While things have been going well, we knew before we started the trip that we would need to rely on the kindness of strangers and the help of the Lord - today we had both. On our way to the bike trail, we were concerned that we had made a wrong turn, so we hailed down a man driving a tractor to ask for directions (see picture below). He not only stopped, but he got out of his tractor to point us in the right direction. The bike trail was beautiful and shady with frequent Ranger stations to fill up our water bottles with cold water. We stopped at these stations a few times and picked up some cycling maps for the state of LA (these came in handy when planing our route for tomorrow). We ate lunch at a a cafe along the bike trail and biked leisurely towards the Comfort Inn in Covington, LA. Out of the corner of his eye, my dad spotted a Wal- Mart (as only he could...the sign wasn't even that big) so we stopped in for a few things. We checked into the hotel and relaxed in the room. No movie tonight...just taking it easy and figuring out how/ when we are going to meet up with the Adventure Cycling maps (the ones we have been using).




Thanks for coming along for the ride!


Check out our route at the link below: Dimondhea, MS to Covington, LA

Check out a video of the bike trail we were on at the link below:
http://www.youtube.com/user/Elliotsloyer#p/a/u/0/JZZwQtAtca4