October 10, 2021
free roadside water, the apostle todd, and indigo
Day Two: Gramercy to Baton Rouge
I woke up at 7:30 and ate one of the pecan and maple granola breakfasts I’d made. They are truly delicious, and I could eat them every morning.
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I packed everything up except the tent, ground cloth, and rainfly, which I placed on a soccer goal so it could dry out in the sun. The fabric is very thin so it didn't take long. I started riding at 10:00. It seems like I frequently leave at 10:00, whether I stay in a hotel, camp, or try to pack everything the night before.
Highway 3125 wasn’t great, but it got better with each passing mile. When I turned left on 70 I saw a massive bridge crossing the Mississippi river looming in front of me and wondered what kind of shoulder it had, but my route kept me on this side of the river as I turned right and hugged the bends in the river. I've pedaled across bridges like this in the past. They're kinda fun, kinda scary.
Even looking at the map for turns, I somehow missed one and ended up in Burnside. I stopped for a few minutes to eat a protein bar, then, aggravated at myself started riding back to the route. I had a headwind going back on the narrow, crowded road that had no shoulder.
The picture doesn’t really express how old and majestic these two trees look.
I passed the Houmas Plantation, which I believe is also a B&B.
Around the 25-mile point I stopped on the side of the road to rest in the shade when another rider pulled up from behind me. Todd was in his early fifties, and interested in touring, but with a hammock instead of a tent. He’s been trying to devise a way to use his bike as a tree-like support (for when trees aren’t available), thinking that if he can design something like that, then others would want to purchase it. We chatted for a few minutes and he took off again.
I started getting short of water, which is much less of a concern now than it has been in the past since I have a water filter in my panniers. I did a lot of research, and found one that not only filters out the viruses and bacteria but the chemicals from the farm runoff as well, which is very important since I frequently travel through rural areas to avoid traffic. I haven’t needed to use it on this trip, but was considering it. Weirdly, just as I was thinking about pulling it out and dipping into the ditch water (or some other source of water that doesn’t have the word “ditch” in it), I saw a bunch of discarded plastic water bottles on the side of the road. They appeared to be intact so I opened one up, noting that the seal hadn’t been broken, and inspected the water very carefully. It looked 100% unadulterated and pure as the driven snow. I slowly poured it out to inspect it even closer, not finding any impurities, then picked up a couple of them for potential use later. I figured if the seal wasn't broken they were probably okay (for those of you squirming in your seats right now, thinking "Man, that guy is an idiot!", you’ll be happy to know that I didn’t need to use them).
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I kept not eating lunch and, again, wasn’t sure why. The protein bars make a big difference and prevent me from crashing (metabolically, and perhaps physically), but even so, I should stop and eat the lunch I packed. This area along the river remains very industrial, with a lot of refineries and huge pipes passing over the top of the road from the plant to the river.
There’s also a lot of (I think) sugar cane, tall green plants which sway in the breeze, growing in swatches between the refineries.
I stopped in Carville which, as far as I can tell, consists of a single convenience store. Todd was outside drinking some water. I said hello again and went inside where I was surprised to find the smell of cigarette smoke everywhere. I was thinking the cashier didn’t want to upset a customer by asking him not to smoke, but when I got a better look at her I saw that she was the one with a cigarette delicately dangling from her lip. She had an ashtray right in front of her and didn’t appear to be even trying to hide it. I bought some Gatorade and went back outside, now smelling of smoke, and asked Todd if it was legal in Louisiana to smoke inside. He said, “Well, there are federal laws and state laws, and there are city rules. You just can’t enforce something like that in a small town like this.”
Interesting tidbit about Carville: there was a hospital here which, for a hundred years, treated people with Hansen’s disease. Hansen’s disease is what we used to call leprosy (and another interesting factoid: it’s transmitted by armadillos).
Upon leaving the store, Todd and I rode together for a while. He was a little more talkative now, and I learned that he’s a “man of faith,” having sold all of his possessions “just like the apostles.” He doesn’t own his place of residence (he rents), a car, or anything other than his bicycle. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that this ride is his first attempt to do a “century,” which is what us bikers-in-the-know call 100 miles in one day. He first heard about touring in 2019 and was amazed that anyone could do something like that. Now that he’s retired from working at a factory he’s interested in doing one.
Todd and I said our goodbyes in St. Gabriel since he needed to take the meandering road along the river in order to get his 100 miles in, and my path took me on a more direct route. I got to Highway 30 where it was a straight shot to Baton Rouge. The road was busy, but had a good shoulder. Even better, I had a great tailwind. At 2:30 I still hadn’t eaten lunch, so I stopped at the Tiger Mart (as in Louisiana State University Tigers in Baton Rouge). There I spent about 25-30 minutes cooling off in the shade and the breeze while finishing my PowerAde and eating a couple of protein bars and some grapes I purchased in the store. It’s pretty warm (88 degrees with a heat index of 90), but not suffocating. The humidity in the South is always going to be high, so there’s no use whining about it.
I perused the Warm Showers app to see where I might be able to stay tonight. Just in case you haven't heard of it, WarmShowers.org is an organization where people sign up to host cyclists. Like the name suggests, the host offers a shower and a place to pitch a tent, although some people also offer a spare bedroom and/or kitchen facilities as well, and sometimes even a meal. Alternatively, you can find someone to host you, using their yard to pitch a tent. I’ve used it as both a host and as a hostee. I sent a message to someone in Baton Rouge then continued riding.
At LSU I exited Highway 60 and rode on the levee again for several miles until I arrived downtown where I laid down on a park bench for 10-15 minutes to rest. I didn’t get a reply from my first WS host so I sent a message to another one, then walked my bike half a block toward the restaurants. A couple on bicycles asked me about my trip, and I asked them about a good place to eat. They said the options were pretty limited on a Sunday evening, but the place we were standing near, Jolie Pearl, was pretty good. There’s also a pizza place around the corner and the usual fast food places like Subway where you can get a bite to eat.
I figure I can get a Subway sandwich in Iowa City, so I opted for Jolie Pearl and sat a little distance away - at a table across the narrow street, where I enjoyed the live music and the entertaining drunk, homeless woman at the table next to me. After the music ended she provided an additional track, singing some Creedence Clearwater Revival. The shrimp Po Boy I downed, along with the margarita, were delicious.
There were no campsites I could get to before it got dark, and neither of the Warm Showers hosts responded to my messages (which is very unusual) so I looked at some of the nearby hotels and ended up getting a decent last-minute rate at the Hotel Indigo.
One of the dehydrated food items I brought on this trip was a brownie dessert by OMeal. I’d never tried one before, but it seemed intriguing because the packages heat themselves up. That seems kind of awesome in a nerdy way. The chemical reaction when water touches the heating element creates heat and steam (there’s a small smoke hole for the steam to escape). Oddly, you're not supposed to open the dessert package until after the steam/heat reaction has finished, so there’s no way for the steam to get to the brownie, just the heat. Consequently, it tasted pretty bad, very dry and crumbly. Blech. I didn’t even finish it, and considering it had chocolate in it that’s really saying something.
I realized my chamois butter was MIA so I started looking at local bike shops. I also realized that my headphones were missing, and looked up to see where the nearest Best Buy was.
I know I'm going to sound like a commercial, but I really love my headphones. They use bone conduction and fit in front of your ear. When I first learned about them from another cyclist I thought they were going to be gimmicky, but the sound quality is wonderful, you can wear them with a helmet, and they're waterproof (mostly). The thing I love the most, however, is the fact that you can still hear ambient noise around you... sounds I would normally miss, like "Hey buddy, get off the f#&I %&ing road!" and horns blasting at me. (I jest. I rarely hear that kind of thing) Truly, it is nice not to have an earbud stuck in your ear, blotting out important sounds that could save your life.
Here are a couple of pictures from my hotel room window, one looking west towards the Mississippi river and the other looking downtown (I was fortunate enough to get a corner room).
61.0 miles
557 feet climbed
4.6% grade
8:41:05 total time
4:53:43 moving time
22.1 mph max speed
12.4 mph average moving speed
3173 calories
119.8 total miles
Today's ride: 61 miles (98 km)
Total: 120 miles (193 km)
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