November 1, 2008
mississippi crossing, old centenary inn, or at least I hoped, why there are only three places to eat
Day Forty One
"The Mississippi river will always have its own way; no engineering skill can persuade it to do otherwise."
- Mark Twain -
"The Mississippi river carries the mud of thirty states and two provinces 2,000 miles south to the delta and deposits 500 million tons of it there every year. The business of the Mississippi, which it will accomplish in time, is methodically to transport all of Illinois to the Gulf of Mexico."
- Charles Kuralt -
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When I woke up this morning my knees began staging a protest. Sometimes they get better as I ride, sometimes they don't. I took some ibuprofen and started riding.
Breakfast was my typical gourmet fair from the convenience store: powdered donuts and chocolate milk. Instead of eating them there, I stuffed them into my handlebar bag and pedaled over to the ferry. I'll be crossing the Mississippi river, and thought I could save some time by eating during the crossing.
There was a twenty-minute wait at the ferry, so I started eating before I got on the boat. By the time the ferry was full, so was I.
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While I was waiting for the ferry I read the informational boards about the Mississippi levees, which I found surprisingly engaging. Here's my condensed and paraphrased version.
Native Americans lived along the banks of the Mississippi for hundreds of years and were never bothered when the river left its banks. They simply transported their teepees when the water started rising. However, as one person put it, "It's more difficult to move Baton Rouge."
The river had dropped sediment and created some natural levees, so the new settlers decided that building them even higher would offer some protection against the floods. So, in 1724, New Orleans passed an ordinance making each homeowner who lived along the river responsible for building and maintaining an artificial levee. Not everyone complied, but the ones who did built levees of dirt and rock about three feet high. In 1727, the New Orleans levee system was declared complete, and the city was considered to be flood-proof.
Someone forgot to inform the Mississippi river, which buried the city under water in 1735, then again in 1785. After that, levee building became a business and levee construction developed in earnest.
By the War of 1812 there were levees from New Orleans to St. Francisville, where I'm crossing today, a distance of more than two hundred miles. Still, the river flooded.
By the time the Civil War broke out the levees averaged about six feet in height. Again and again the river flooded, in 1862, 1866, and 1867.
In 1879, Congress turned over the responsibility of flood control to the Army Corps of Engineers. They discarded alternate plans of tributary runoff, spillways, and downstream reservoirs, deciding instead that the levee system could do the job.
And still, even after occasional pronouncements that the river was finally under control (likely by politicians, I suspect), the river flooded... in 1884, 1890, 1891, 1897, 1898, 1903, 1912, 1913, 1922, and 1927.
By 1928, much of the 1500 miles of levees were eighteen feet or higher. With the repeated flooding someone finally asked, "How high is high enough??" The engineers did some recalculating and this time came to a different and disturbing conclusion: that no matter how high the levees were built they wouldn't be able to contain the waters. They finally returned to their original drawing board and began using the floodways, reservoirs, and control gates it had previously discarded. Levees weren't completely discarded as part of the solution and by the 1930s the average Mississippi levee was still thirty feet high.
The Old River Control still functions and is key to flood protection in the lower Mississippi Valley; however, it's been flood-proof before.
Across the river from New Roads is St. Francisville (pop 1,765). As I pedaled through the town that described itself as "two miles long and two yards wide" I wished I'd been able to make it across the river yesterday and spent the night here in this picturesque town.
My goal is to make it to Kentwood (pop 2,205) today. Kentwood is the birthplace and childhood home of Britney Spears. I should amend that since, although a pop star, in some ways she's still a child.
However, as I continued to pedal my knees began to hurt more instead of less. I'm not due for a rest day until tomorrow, and I really wanted to put a few more miles behind me, so I just kept riding.
With Spanish moss clinging to massive oak trees among rolling hills, this is a beautiful part of the state. Shortly after leaving St. Francisville, I passed near the Oakley Plantation where, in 1821, James Audubon spent four months painting birds. At that time, many old mansions were falling apart, and he expected this one to do the same. Fortunately, it was preserved by the Louisiana government and restored to its original grandeur.
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After twenty miles of riding my knees weren't any better. They weren't terrible, but the problem is that after Jackson there isn't a place to stop until Kentwood. That means I have two options: stop in Jackson after a short day of 25 miles, or press on to Kentwood, more than 70 miles away.
Upon reaching Jackson (pop 4,130), I decided that I shouldn't try to push too hard. I'm already a day ahead - I need to ride 62 miles a day in order to catch my plane in Jacksonville, and I've done way more than that. I can afford to take a short day.
Arriving in Jackson, I was greeted by this church sign.
Laissez les bons temps rouler!!
There are only two places to stay in Jackson, both of which are B&Bs. The Old Centenary Inn and The Milbank Inn. I stopped in the center of town to call about prices, but when I pulled my cellphone out I was surprised to find that I had no cellphone service. About five seconds after that, I realized I was literally standing under the sign for The Old Centenary Inn.
Inside, I was met by Bonnie, the Inn's manager. As we were talking, another woman came in, Marilyn. As it turns out, Marilyn is the manager of The Milbank Inn, and just happened to be over here visiting. I learned later, from someone else, that the same person, a guy named Leroy Harvey, owns both Inns, the winery, one of the town's restaurants, and just about everything else in the county. The person who told me wasn't making a judgment, just stating a fact.
Bonnie, with a little urging from Marilyn, gave me a great price for a room. I'll be here for two nights, so I was pretty happy about it.
The Old Centenary Inn is a B&B which was built around 1935. The bricks used to build it are from Centenary College, Louisiana's first college.
It was nicely restored in the early 1990s after the original plans for the building were discovered.
It was past lunch time so I asked Marilyn and Bonnie about a good place to eat in town. Surprisingly, there are only three places to eat in this town of 4,130 people. I couldn't believe it. I was told there's Bobby's Drive-In, which, according to Bonnie, is managed by a woman who's been there "since God was pooping his pants."
“When she dies, that place is gonna SLAM shut,” Marilyn added.
“There's also Subway and the Bear Corners Restaurant.”
Curious, I asked why there were so few places to eat in a town of 4,130 people. Marilyn told me that the "4,130 people" also includes the State Mental Hospital (with 500 beds) and the Dixon Correctional Institute (with a capacity of >2500 people). Those residents don't get out too often for a nice evening meal on the town, or at least I hoped, since more than half of the prison inmates have been convicted of violent crimes.
My room had a jetted tub, so I spent about forty five minutes getting rid of more than a few aches and pains, then walked down to Bobby’s Drive-In and ordered a burger. I love to become invisible while I'm eating and listen to the people around me....
"You take a duck and slice it paper thin and wrap it in a jalapeño."
"I stayed with my sister in Europe. Back then there was a little store on every corner."
"Yeah, I couldn't believe it either. I just slipped and it cut my knee wide open. They sewed it up but the inside ain't been right since then."
"There was a mini tornado in my backyard. It pulled up a little tree but nothin' else."
"Those Germans just drank ‘til they fell asleep. Every night."
Back in my room I fell asleep for a couple of hours. After that, I blogged the rest of the evening.
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distance: 23 miles
average speed: 10.8 mph (my sore knee reveals itself)
maximum speed: 27.3 mph
time on bike: 2:08:18
cumulative: 2038 miles
Today's ride: 23 miles (37 km)
Total: 2,040 miles (3,283 km)
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