We left the B&B with 1/2 a loaf of banana- nut bread for breakfast. Luckily, we were back on the Adventure Cycling maps so we had a good sense of where to go (or so we thought). Later on down the road, we stopped to refill our water bottles and ate the delicious banana bread. As we continued towards St. Francisville (the end of Adventure Cycling map #6) we remembered that we were supposed to take a ferry across the Mississippi River (according to the map). We came to an intersection that didn't look right, so we asked someone which way the ferry was. He informed us that the ferry had been replaced by a new suspension bridge (see pics below). We double checked this information with receptionist at the Best Western Hotel across the street, and learned we had over shot the new bridge (so new that there weren't road signs designating it). We turned around (back up a huge hill) and eventually found our way onto the un- named road leading to the bridge. We stopped shortly after getting on the new road to drink some water. A man in a pickup truck pulled up next to us, got out of his truck, and started walking towards us with a big smile on his face. "Y'all biking cross country?" he asked. For the next 5 minutes we talked about how beautiful this area is for biking and about how nice the shoulders on the bridge were (he was getting us pretty excited to cross it). The bridge was incredible and we were the only ones on it (see pics below). The bridge, according to wikopedia is the longest cable stayed bridge in the western hemisphere, and the only bridge to cross the Mississippi for 90 miles. We biked through a maze of sugar farms (the roads were very John Denver- esk - see video below). Our maps indicated that there was a market/ place to eat (when we were about 14 miles away from Simmesport) but the GPS and the IPhone navigation showed no places to eat. We turned a corner on a quiet road to nowhere (see video below) and saw a sign for a restaurant/supermarket pointing over a huge hill (we later learned this hill was a levy to hold back the Mississippi river). We walked our bikes over it and found a small town with mobile homes raised up on huge pedestals (see pics below). We had a great lunch and met some nice people. They told us that the water a few weeks ago had been 30 feet deep where we had just eaten, due to flooding from the Mississippi River (crazy!). We left there around 2:00pm despite the rising temperatures. You know its hot when a local person says - its a real scorcher out here today (according to weather.com it felt like 105) We arrived at the Sportsman Motel (the only hotel for 50 miles in either direction) and checked in. We killed some bugs in our room and took nice cold showers before getting food at a market across the street. The motel is a bit sketchy and we will be sleeping with our mace next to our beds and getting out of here as early as possible.
Thanks for coming along for the ride!
Check out these 2 videos from our ride today:
PTL & make sure you have high water pants on !
ReplyDeletebike on! you guys are amazing
shabbat shalom