Friday, Feb. 22, 2008

St. Francisville, LA to Simmersport, LA. 44 miles, 979 total.

I toured some more old homes and a church today in St. Francisville. I got a lazy start, but that's OK once in a while. Washed my soaking clothes from the rain yesterday. Today got a little cool in the afternoon, and had to get out my warm gloves by about 2:30 pm or so. That is unusual!

This is the Mississippi River:



While looking for a place to camp, I found an old church, but it just didn't feel like a good place to camp, so I pressed on. I ended up staying at the Sportsman Motel in Simmesport, LA. They had a great pizza restaurant next to the motel, so I got a nice hot dinner.



And here's my "Sign for the day":



Can you read the small sign on the phone pole? Why would they care if bikes are on the sidewalk?

Thursday, Feb. 21, 2008

Norwood, LA to St. Francisville, LA. 29 miles - 935 miles total.

It rained really hard today, again! The rain was warm, but it totally soaked everything ... my sleeping bag, my clothes, and even my envelope full of my receipts. I had to lay them all out on towels so they could dry out! I'm sending most of these home to be filed, not only so I don't have to carry them, but also so they don't get wet again! I also got some large plastic bags to help keep my stuff dry.

I decided to stay in a motel again, just so I could do some wash and have a chance to dry out.

Dinner was great at a place called Oxbow Restaurant.

I also stopped at a couple of Plantations today: Oakley Plantation, where James Audubon did a lot of his early drawings of birds, and the Rosedown Plantation. Both of these were built in the early 1800's.

The top photo is the Oakley Plantation. The next two are the Rosedown Plantation.






I did some math today, and found out that I'm averaging 47 miles per day. At this pace, I'll get to San Diego on about April 7th. I'd like to get there sooner than that, so I'll need to increase my average by about 5 miles extra per day, or 52 miles per day, to get there by April 1st.

I'm surprised that I haven't felt the need to take a zero day yet, although there have been some days that I was being lazy!

St. Francisville had some great older homes and an old church. I stopped at a little coffee shop called "the Bird Man Coffee Shop and Book Store".

This trip is really fun, and I'm meeting a lot of very nice people.

Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2008

Franklinton, LA to Norwood, LA. 66 miles, 906 miles total.

Today was a great day! The roads were good, and there were only a few spots with heavey traffic. Most of the time, the traffic was light, but there were a few log trucks. Most of the time, they slow down and take a lot of care when passing me.

I left the motel early at 7:30 am, so I got a good start. It was nice to have a shower.

I'm having a real problem with these mail stops. It seems that every place where I think I can catch up with my mail, its either closed or I'm there too early or there is some other problem. I know that there are at least two letters out there, but I have not been able to get them yet. I had to send a written request back to one of the post offices, asking them to forward the mail ahead. I think my next stop, scheduled for DuPont, LA will also be impossible as I'll likely be there by Sunday. I could take a zero day, but I'd rather keep going than wait for my mail to catch up to me.

I had wonderful fried chicken for dinner tonight! The food has been really good!

Here's a typical shot of what the road look like here:

Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2008

Popularville, MS to Franklinton, LA. 45 miles - 840 total miles.

There was frost on my tent as I woke up in the morning, but I slept warm in my sleeping bag. I put on several layers of clothes to keep warm as I rode, even into the afternoon.

I was excited to get to the sign that said "Welcome to Louisanna". It won't be long until I'm in Texas! There's another big strom coming my way, so I'll stay at a motel again tonight.

Here's the sign for today:

Monday, Feb. 18, 2008

President's Day!
Perkinston, MS to Popularville, MS. 27 miles - 795 total.

Stopped at this great campground called "Roger's Campground" to see if I could take a shower and do some laundry. The woman that runs the place, Mrs. Rogers, was a very nice woman! She did a load of wash, offered me a towel and a place to take a shower, and while we were waiting for the clothes to dry, she even fed me breakfast! It was a beautiful campground next to a lake that she had built. I can highly recommend this place for anyone in the area needing a place to camp!

Sunday, Feb. 17, 2008

Larue, MS to Perkinston, MS - 32 miles, 768 total miles so far.

The day started out cloudy and cool. After just a short time riding, it started to rain, but not too bad. Then the sky grew dark and the wind started to blow hard. I knew that it was about to be a heavy downpour, and I was already wet from the first round of rain. Not too far later, I found an empty house with a nice carport, so I pulled in to wait out the storm.

About 5 or 6 very heavy thunderstroms past over head, with lightening and thunder. You know the lightening is very close by when you hear the thunder at the same time! I was really glad that I had a good shelter.

Not long afterwards, though, the sun came out and it turned into a very nice afternoon, although it was a little cool.

I rode into the town of Perkinston, but there wasn't too much there except for a nice community college. I was able to get a burger at the Student Center and watched the news for a while. Also had a nice talk with Charlie, the guy that runs the Student Center. But then, it was back on the road.

That evening, there was a bright moon out, and I could ride without my light. I rode until about 7:00 pm or so, and soon found a nice place along side the road to put up my tent. There was very little traffic, so I slept really good.

I'm seeing more and more signs that really strike me. Some are funny, some are deep. Here's my sign for the day:



Thanks to everyone that's following along on my blog. I hope you are enjoying it and I appreciate all your prayers and thoughts. I also enjoy hearing your comments. Thanks to everyone that's sending them to me.

Also, please make plans to join me the last two weeks in December, 2008 in the town of Sisters, Oregon to celebrate the completion of my trip! Everyone is welcome (if I can find a big enough cabin to rent) for a couple of days or for the entire two weeks. Watch this blog for more details as they become available. I'd love to have you as my guest.

Friday, Feb. 15, 2008

Bayou La Batre, AL to Hurley, MS. 34 miles, 692 miles total.

I was doing really great until I blew out one of my trailer tires, twice! After a closer inspection of the tire, I found that it had split from the inside out. Of course, I have extra tires for the front and rear of my bike, but NOT for the trailer. I hobbled back to the TNT Video and Pizza store in Hurley where I met the nicest couple, Cheryl and Jessie, the owners. Not only did they feed me dinner and allow me to set up my tent behind their store, they also gave me a ride about 20 miles away to a Wal-Mart where I could purchase a new tire. I had such a nice time there, talking about their recent trip to Florida. What wonderful people they were, and the food was out of this world. I had the Pulled Pork BBQ dinner, and it was great!

Then for the bad news. When I got up the next moring and started to fix the tire, I discovered that I had purchased the wrong tire, even though I had the old one in my hand! I couldn't believe it!


Saturday, Feb. 16, 2008
Hurley, MS to Larue, MS - 44 miles, 736 total.

Since I had the wrong tire and needed to get back to Wal-Mart, I decided to try and use a small piece of rubber that I had from one of bike lights, placing it on the inside of the tire and under-inflating the tube ... just enough air so it would roll, but not so much that it would try to poke out through the torn tread. It worked for about 4 miles or so. Then there was an Assembly of God Church. Here's what the reader board said:



I thought I'd give it try. The pastor's house was next to the church, and I thought that I'd ask if I could leave my bike and trailer there while I hitch-hiked to Wal-Mart. They were just leaving to return a carpet cleaner to Lowe's, and it was near a different Wal-Mart than the one that Jessie took me to, but that didn't mater. I rode with Paster Bob and his lovely wife about 20 miles the other way, returned the wrong tire for the right one, and was back to my bike within the hour! Thank you Paster Bob!

Once I was on my way, the sky grew dark and stromy, and it felt like it was going to rain really hard, but there were only a few rain drops, and then the sky cleared up. By 3:00 pm, the sky was completely clear and sunny.

I camped in a very remote area near a motorcycle trail in a forest. I knew it was going to be a cool night, but I've been sleeping very warm in my down sleeping bag ... almost too warm in fact.