Day 30

Day 30: October 28, 2021 (Cottonport LA to New Roads LA)

Today was Dave Marr’s 60th birthday.  How cool is it that he chose to spend it with me on my bicycling journey?  We met for breakfast at 6:30. We wished Dave a happy birthday, ate, and mapped out our day.  The forecast was for mostly sunny skies; a nice change from Day 29.  

Kelly rode with me.  Dave was driving the RV and Sabrina was driving the rental pickup truck.  Kelly rode the Trek road bike, and I was on the Specialized gravel road bike.  The entire ride was on one road.  We rode about 20 miles on a very bumpy shoulder when Kelly got a flat tire on the rear wheel.  Flat tire number 12.

Kelly put the bike in the back of the pickup, and I rode ahead.  Dave was just about a mile up in a church parking lot.

We got the tools out, flipped the bike and tried to get the rear wheel off.  This is the first time I had to take off the rear wheel on this bike.  I couldn’t get it off; it was on too tightly.  

Kelly pulled up a video on how to change the tires on this bike.  The video used a special tool, which we found still on the bike from when the bike shop worked on the bike.  We were doing it right per the video. 

I gave it my all to loosen the bolt and I broke the end of the bolt off.  That loosened it up and we were able to fix the flat, but we couldn’t use the bike.  With the end of the bolt broken off, we could only get 2 turns of the bolt when we attached the wheel to the frame.  Not enough to feel safe riding it.  

I was so pissed.  This ride is hard enough with shit like this happening.

As we were working the bike, the winds really picked up.  20-25 mph cross winds.  A mile or so down the road, the shoulder was pretty smooth.  I switched to the recumbent and Sabrina rode the gravel road bike.  The winds were tough.  

We were riding through sugar cane country.  I didn’t know they grew it in Louisiana; the last time I saw sugar cane was on Maui.  They were harvesting it and transporting the harvested cane to the plant.  There was sugar cane debris all over the shoulder.  It was impossible to avoid on the recumbent.  So, what should have been a smooth ride was a bumpy sugar cane ride.

We made it to our hotel in good time.  We parked the RV and took the pickup for a late lunch.  We went to Ma Mama’s Kitchen in New Roads LA.  Mama can cook.  We had a great lunch and then desserts.  

For Dave’s birthday, he ordered a piece of wedding cake; it was on the dessert menu.  It was the largest piece of cake I had ever seen.  It was a wedge that was 8 inches wide, 4 inches thick, and 10 inches long.  It weighed well over a pound.  It was awesome.

That reminds me of another restaurant moment.  It was our first lunch in Louisiana.  The restaurant we went to had alligator bits on the menu.  I had never eaten alligator.  Our waitress was probably college age, she was a local, and very upbeat in a genuine way.  I asked her what alligator tastes like; she responded without a beat, “like frog legs”.  It was really cute.