March 14, 2010: De Ridder to Opelousas, Louisiana

First, some items I forgot:

We have two new riders this year, Leslie Edmonson from Ft Collins and Bob Wagstaff from Colorado Springs. It takes some force of will to join this group already two-thirds of the way across the country. Welcome and good luck!

Also, Gary Angerhofer has returned after riding with us the first year, then missing the second year because of a broken wrist. He knows what he’s in for and we’re glad he’s back.

And, we lost two riders this year: Norman and Terri Rabinowicz. Norman fell on our Arizona trip last month and although he’s expected to be fine, his recovery was slower than the timeframe allowed. Get well soon.

Speaking yesterday of Jerry’s comment that he’d lost control of the group, it seems important to report that he made that comment while conducting our group meeting in his bathing suit while co-leader Steve Parker stood along side in a fluorescent Hawaiian shirt and sparkly red stringers tied in his hair.

And finally, if you’d like to our route, the following link will take you to google maps with the route roughly lined in blue:

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=111519575826108196739.00047efa75b9bdf821ba4&ll=30.562261,-88.17627&spn=11.244597,23.269043&z=6

Now for today’s ride:

Louisiana is gorgeous. We flew 89.9 miles along flat roads with minimal traffic through dense mixed deciduous and evergreen forests that broke out onto broad plains of rice paddies and crawfish farms. Apparently the rice paddies double as crawfish farms as you often see crawfish cages in the deeper waters of early growth rice paddies.

Rice paddies that double as crawfish farms in eastern Louisiana

The higher humidity in Louisiana makes the air slightly misty even on a clear sunny day like today. The rivers are so flat and broad that the banks are mounded with white sand that probably only washes downstream after unusually large storms, and maybe not even then.

White sandy beaches line slow moving rivers through the upper Mississippi Delta of Louisiana.

We heard warblers; saw hawks and egrets, the occasional possum, and lots of brave little black and white terriers optimistically charging the bottoms of our shoes.

The group seems to be settling in today. You ride 160 miles in a couple of days and people pipe down a little.

From right to left: Rachel, Ron, Bob, Katrina, Mark, Nate, Jerry, Bill, Pat, Polly, Kathleen, Chris, Matt, Patty, Alan, Julia, Stu, and Claire congregate at lunch.

Adding to our collection of photographs of Alan sleeping across America, here he sleeps through the afternoon briefing, while Marcella, Rich, and Patty make notes for the following day.