We made it

Today we rode the last 25 miles to the Southernmost Point in Louisiana and now we are heading home wherever that may be. The whole trip has been 2800 miles and 2200 were down the Mississippi River.  The river is 2552 miles from it's source at Lake Itasca to the end so we didn't follow every bend but we sure followed a lot of it. 

The last three miles of the road were surrounded by water on both sides. People were fishing for redfish and flounder and possibly other things as well. Shrimp season opened last week so people were also trying to net shrimp. They call the area marsh because there are trees growing out in the water. Mostly cypress. There were lots of herons, egrets and other birds that my sisters could probably identify and would have liked to see. We looked at a map of the area and it is almost all water with a little land between the levees. 

We rode part way back and are staying at The Woodlands, a bed and breakfast that was featured on the Southern Comfort bottles for many years. And yes, we did try their special SoCo punch. We had dinner here with people that are from the area and some that come here often to fish. They shared lots of Katrina stories with us and they also wanted to hear our bike riding stories. They told us there are alligators in the ponds here and that you can see their eyes glowing if you shine a flashlight into the water. We tried it and sure enough we saw two glowing orange eyes. Then they started getting closer and soon we could see the whole alligator and it kept coming towards us. We turned off the flashlight and went back to our room. We had seen enough!!!

Almost there

We left New Orleans for the final leg today. The road started out really busy with trucks and then it got calm and peaceful through some wetland areas. Most of the last day into NOLA and the start today we were seeing huge refineries and shipping terminals mixed in with beautiful Plantation homes. 

Lately it has been mostly fishing industry. 

And we finally saw a real alligator!!! We passed within inches of it's mouth as it was sunning right by the side of the road. By the time it registered we had passed it. We thought it must be dead since it hadn't moved but we decided to walk back and take a picture anyway. As we approached it got scared and took off for the marsh. It moved so fast we could hardly believe it. Now we are looking more carefully as we ride but we've only seen one squished one since then. 

After we took the ferry across the Mississippi this morning we entered into area that is mostly water. A lot of it is really part of the bay and we have been seeing sea birds. We hope to see a brown pelican. 

We've also seen a lot of trailers. Katrina hit here hard and FEMA came in with their trailers. Most of what is what they left. We had lunch in a trailer restaurant and are staying in a trailer hotel tonight. 

New Orleans

We made it to New Orleans and yes, Erika, it is all we'd dreamed! 

Coffee and beignets at Cafe du Monde to start the day and drinks and live music on Frenchmen Street will add the finishing touch. 

Tomorrow we'll recover and work on the bikes a bit and then it's time to ride the last three days to the Southernmost point in Louisiana and back to New Orleans for a little more relaxation. 

Last night before New Orleans

The road was much better today so the wind and heat didn't trouble us as much. We went by lots of plantation homes from the Antebellum days. Huge live oaks lined the driveways and sometimes the oaks were there but the homes were long gone. Their shade was always welcome. 

We were riding  along a levee on one side and a small creek on the other when we started noticing what looked like little chimneys where the creek was drying. They are made by crawfish as they dig in to keep cool and moist. They form little bricks from the mud and just keep pushing them higher. 

We didn't actually see any crawfish--or alligators. We sure thought we would see them as we rode along the Grosse Tete Bayou because parts are so murky and still. 

We passed lots of sugar cane today and noticed that more people actually live around here than in some of the other agricultural areas we passed through. It was also interesting to see beautiful homes and places that almost look inhabitable right next to each other. 

New Roads, LA

Today was slow going because of the heat, the headwinds and the deplorable state of some of the designated roads. 

The bridge over the Mississippi was over a mile long and we actually rode downhill to reach it. The shoulder was good and there weren't many cars so this may rate as our favorite crossing since Minnesota. Then we turned south onto a Louisiana State highway and rode the bumps for 65 miles before we came to a town. It's a pretty area with trees off in the distance and crops all around. We saw sugarcane growing here and a little rice as well as some corn that is already being harvested. The roads are always near water but sometimes it's a creek or a lake or a diverted river and sometimes it's actually the Mississippi. We were even on the levee at times between two bodies of water. I know some of this water must have alligators but we haven't seen any yet. 

The Corp of Engineers has been very busy in this area protecting Baton Rouge and New Orleans from floods. They also had to reroute the Red River and Atchafalya River because the Mississippi River was getting lazy and started to change course to flow down those rivers. It is a major engineering feat but ensures that New Orleans will remain a port town. 

Craig wanted to stop and learn more about it but everything interesting was locked up with no trespassing signs everywhere. 

Just as we reached Innis, the stop at mile  65, the sky opened up and we had a major thunderstorm. We had some great chicken and lots of drinks. We also got to talking to some of the locals. They said we shouldn't ride the next 7 miles because there was a real dangerous stretch. It was finally agreed that one of them would take us to where it was safe. We tied our bikes up inside his cattle truck and off we went. He told us a lot about the area. He's a retired rodeo rider and penitentiary worker so he had some good stories. When we saw the dangerous stretch we were glad we had accepted the ride. 

We then continued to New Roads in a light rain and ended up with 75 miles for the day. 

Last day in Mississippi

We rode a mere 18.5 miles today and are resting up in Natchez. We stopped at the Emerald Mound Burial site from around 1000 years ago. Most of what is left is a grassy mound with historical placards around it. 

We came into Natchez through a poorer neighborhood but soon came to the stately mansions lining the streets. We were able to get a hotel room at 10:30 AM and then went out and explored the homes, museum and waterfront. There are some really big live oak trees here. We had dinner in a courtyard restaurant that seemed a little bit French. The snapper was delicious! We resisted Fat Mama's Tamale House and their Knock You Naked Margaritas!!!

We're really glad we took the extra day in Mississippi because Natchez seems so much more alive than the other towns we stayed in. We also want to be rested up to cross the bridge to Louisiana tomorrow and then ride at least 70 miles with no services and temperatures in the 90s. We are bringing extra water and Gatorade and we're starting early. 

Natchez Trace, MS

Last night we stayed in a cheap hotel in Vicksburg and toured the city a bit. There are lots of old homes, Civil War historical areas and markers celebrating the Mississippi Blues Trail. 

Today we were lucky enough to ride on the Natchez Trace. It's a two lane road that reminds us of the Taconic except there's no traffic. And when we look closer at the trees they are more live oaks and pecans and have Spanish moss hanging from them. We've also noticed fire ants so we were really careful where we pitched our tent. There are no services along the Trace but a  mile off we found Billy Bobs BBQ for lunch. It was really good but Craig ordered a rib sandwich and it was 3 ribs on a bun - bones and all. He figured it out somehow. 

Chotard Lake Resort

We had an interesting 77 mile ride today. We started a little late because we waited for a bike shop to open. They were really only a locksmith with a few bike supplies but we wanted to get an extra tube. We found one that will probably work if we need it. The first 50 miles today were pretty much through large farms and we only found one place to get food and drinks. The next 20 were prettier because we went through some trees and onto the levee. The pavement was all choppy and the going was slow. Then the road was closed and they were busy working on it. We  didn't want to find a detour and we were getting thirsty. One of the workers told us how to get around it by only walking about a mile on dirt. He also offered us cokes and cold water. That turned what seemed like a disaster into something wonderful. 

We weren't sure if we would make it to the campground before dark but we had water now and were prepared to set the tent up along the road. Then around 7:00 the campground appeared. They also had some really nice cabins available so we rented one for $75 and are watching the sunset over the oxbow lake and drinking some beers. They are Bud Lites with Lime so not real beer but very thirst quenching. 

This lake is great. Lots of white egrets flying over and nesting on the far shore and fish jumping everywhere. 

Greenville, MS

We entered Mississippi today. It is our ninth of ten states and the first state that neither of us has been in before. 

The road was fairly flat and we had a bit of a tailwind so we rode 101 miles to get to a town with hotels and maybe a bike shop. (Our first fully loaded century this trip!) At mile 65 we were thinking of camping but while we had a Garorade we were being attacked by mosquitos. And that was in town at 2:00 so we nixed the camping idea. 

The river delta here is very broad so we aren't always following the shoreline because no roads do that. We have passed numerous oxbow lakes where the cypress trees grow right out in the water. 

There aren't many towns because the farms have become so large and mechanized and there isn't work for too many people. We found 3 general stores to stop at and one of them made sandwiches for us and it was a great lunch at 11:00!

 The people in MS have all been so nice to us and we were thinking that they really care about bicyclists because they all swerve way around us. Then we found out that they have a well enforced three foot bicycle passing law. It's still nice that they all do it. 

Helena Arkansas

I want to thank New York for such a great job of putting bike and pedestrian lanes on their bridges as well as easy access to those lanes.

  As we crossed over to AR today we were on our first bridge over the Mississippi with a separate lane. To use it, however, we had to walk our bikes up the grassy embankment on the TN side and down the embankment on the AR side. We then had to ride a ways on a gravel /dirt road before we got to a real road. This was because we couldn't ride along I-55.  It was a safe crossing so we had time to take a picture but the whole thing took an hour. 

 Arkansas has been quite pleasant to ride through. The MRT is marked and the roads had either little traffic or great shoulders. It is also fairly flat and the people are very friendly. I had a flat tire and an AT&T truck driver pulled over to see if we needed help. 

 The main crop is sorghum now but some areas are still cotton. We only saw one cornfield and it didn't look too good. 

 Road kill has been changing, too. In the north we saw mainly raccoons and deer and then some squirrels. Possums started appearing in KY, along with frogs and now it's armadillos and frogs. 

I'm hoping it never gets to snakes and alligators. 

Memphis

We only rode 41 miles on Saturday and then we were in Memphis. It's a fun and interesting city so we stayed 2 nights. They have a real coffee shop! We went to the Mississippi River Museum and figured out a lot more of what we've been seeing and what is yet to come. We learned even more Civil War history and also about French and Spanish explorers and native Americans along the Mississippi. 

We had breakfast at the oldest restaurant in Memphis (95) and saw where MLK was shot and where they filmed "The Firm". We also listened to some blues and learned more about the Memphis music scene. 

We had some fresh salads which may be the last for a while and had Memphis ribs and red beans and rice for dinner. Now we're all set to cross the bridge into Arkansas tomorrow. 

Zip-Ties are the new duct tape

After 93 miles we ended up in a hotel in Covington, TN but we had an interesting time getting there. We were dry for about fifteen minutes before the first storm hit. We kept riding through rain all day with each new wave coming when we were almost dry from the last one. Somewhere along the way the bracket holding my carrier to my bike broke and my packs dropped to the ground. We were able to get them back in place with 2 zip-ties. Then Craig's back light shorted because it got wet inside. 2 more zip-ties and we got the spare in place. He picked up a pack of one hundred at a convienence/bait shop and used two more to really secure my carrier. Now we have enough to cover any emergency-I hope!

We are feeling like we are in the South now. All the breakfast sandwiches come on biscuits. Everyone calls us Maam and Sir. There are pop machines outside even when the building is boarded up. And they call it Coke, not pop. Sweet Tea is the drink of choice. It's good but someday  I'd like to find an iced latte again. And we started seeing cotton!!! We talked with a retired farmer and he said the KY line is about as far north as cotton goes. All the farms are a couple thousand acres now because they use automatic harvesters and nobody lives on the farms anymore. 

For a while we were riding through the hills. So much is covered with kudzu and it looks really eerie. The places looked a bit wild and uncared for and the dogs weren't tied up and enjoyed chasing us. We were glad to get back on the flats where there were more people and the dogs were lazier. 

Reelfoot Lake, Tn

We made it across the bridge over the Ohio from Cairo, IL to KY because a semi driver was nice enough to stay behind us so nobody would try to pass. It is a narrow high speed bridge and we had been warned about it so we were dreading it. Neither if us even remembers taking a peek at the River. Soon after the Ohio joined the Mississippi and there was a great viewing spot of the confluence. The first 10 miles in Kentucky had no shoulder and heavy traffic and the only hotel was closed. 

After that we were on rural roads and were riding through wooded rolling hills. We stayed at a State Park campground overlooking the Mississippi. The shower room had AC, there was a concession stand and we had a swing at our site. 

This was a great campground!

Belmont Columbus SP was an important site in the Civil War. The South tried to block off the River but Grant came down from Cairo with 4 ships and claimed Columbus, KY.  For this win he was awarded command of all the Union Forces. Neither of us knew much about the Civil War from the Mississippi aspect before we visited this park and museum and we were excited to learn so much. 

There are only 61 miles of MRT in KY so we were in TN by noon today. The welcome sign was not too welcoming and within 15 minutes those black clouds let loose. We were drenched before we could find shelter so we turned on our flashing lights and kept riding. Fifteen miles in we came to a lake with a hotel --$60 including tax but we would have paid far more as it stormed all afternoon. 

At the restaurant our waitress was so amazed that we were from New York that she told everyone else.  We had fried catfish, cole slaw and hush puppies. The cook came out and asked if the food was the same in NY and if the prices were different. We said we never had catfish in NY and his food was delicious. We said the prices were a bit higher in Manhattan but he has no idea. 

Devil's Backbone CG

We hopped the ferry back into Illinois and most of the riding today was fairly flat. The roads are in the Bottoms which is what they are calling the floodplain. It is much wider on this side of the river. We were often able to ride on paved levees past the cornfields. We did ride up the hill into Chester because 31 years ago we crossed the Mississippi River there on a west to east cross country ride on our tandem. This marks the intersection of our W-E trip and our N-S trip. Chester is where the comic strip "Popeye" originated in the 1920s and 1930s. My Dad got his nickname Jeep after the character Eugene the Jeep. Last time we were here we took pictures of the Popeye statue for him but now there is one of Olive Oyl holding SweePea and standing by Eugene the Jeep so of course we took a picture. 

After 63 miles we found a campground right by the river and we are sitting at the picnic table watching the barges pass and the sun set over the river. 

Ste Genevieve, MO

We spent 2 nights in St Louis and ate at the Schlafly Brew Pub and also sampled "gooey butter cake", some St Louis specialties. On Sunday we took the metro and bus to see our niece in the suburbs. We met her dog, went swimming and enjoyed some margaritas and tacos. 

This morning we got a late start because my shifter cable broke and we had to wait for a bike shop to open. They fixed it up fine and I am thankful because today was 65 miles of hills. Not too long or too steep but they just kept coming all day. 

Going into St Louis was bike path for about 20 miles. Leaving St Louis the MRT was along a state highway and then US 61. There was a fair amount of traffic and little to no shoulder so riding took a lot of concentration. We stopped often to enjoy the scenery and to rest up a bit. 

This town is really interesting. We are at the Southern Motel B&B. It claims to be the oldest brick building west of the Mississippi. The whole town is historic with buildings as old as 1700s when this area was still French. 

Tomorrow we plan to take a ferry back to Illinois. We're hoping that either the hills or the traffic will be better. Both would be nice. 

Alton, Illinois

Yesterday we rode 93 miles because we did not go past any places still open for food or lodging. So many of the towns along the river here are not really towns anymore. The farms are huge and the soybeans and corn look pretty good. Most of the houses right in town look the worse for wear but we saw some beautiful homes and gardens right on the farms. The locals seem to be doing pretty well and must head to bigger towns to shop and socialize. The town we ended up staying in supposedly had camping but nobody was there and the bathrooms were locked up. We rode to the city park which was a ball field and some picnic tables and a bathroom with running water. We ate some dinner and waited for dark to pitch our tent. We woke to a beautiful sunrise and four deer and a bunny to share it with. The town had a cafe open for breakfast and lunch so we went back and had a big breakfast. 

We were pleasantly surprised to see a corner store around noon and the owner made us some sandwiches with homegrown tomatoes.

The pictures are: one of many brick silos,

a typical town home, sunrise from our campsite, and a sign for the recently flooded MRT.

We finished today riding along the Illinois River and the confluence with the Mississippi. We were right by the river and saw lots of barges with grain and coal. On the other side were steep cliffs. It was a really beautiful ride and we only had to go 73 miles to find a motel with laundry. St Louis tomorrow!!

Keokuk Iowa

These last 2 days have taken us through some pretty flat farmland. We've seen huge fields of corn and soybeans. We had some monster farm equipment pass us on the roads. They say it is for spraying  fungicide on the crops but I think they are filming a Star Wars movie. 

We stopped for coffee at The Filling Station in Milan and the owner is friends with the guy that rides RAGBRAI without a seat so he wanted to talk biking with us. A few miles down the road another guy flagged us down to talk. He had done a Trans-Am ride and was thinking of doing the MRT. It's always fun to talk with other interested bikers and we enjoyed the rest stops. 

After 82 miles yesterday we hadn't been able to find a hotel or even somewhere selling food so we camped in a DNR campground. There was no running water but there were also no fees or other campers. It was actually pretty nice and we had some oatmeal and the rest of our dried Michigan cherries for breakfast. 

We knew there was a town in 20 miles but there were no services. The next town had a Casey's but that was it so we had a slice of breakfast pizza and some Gatorade. We thought we'd stay in Navou. All the motels were full and the town was filled with LDS people so we went on. We went 2 miles out of our way for a total of 60 and crossed the bridge into Iowa to stay in a motel. We really didn't want to go two days without showers. We'll cross back to Illinois tomorrow because while Iowa has services it also has lots of hills. 

We're trying to get to St Louis by Saturday so we can spend some time with our niece, Jane, and her new dog. 

Rock Island

We started yesterday with 25 miles of hills and then we crossed the river into Savannah, Illinois and were greeted by lovely flat prairies. The crossing was about 3 miles of sloughs and then a pretty scary bridge over the main channel. Instead of pavement we had to ride on metal grating with a strong crosswind. The side rail was only hip high and we were quite thankful for the lack of traffic. 

Illinois did not have a sign to welcome us but they had something even better. 60 miles of signed and separated bike trails along the river. A lot of the trail was through wildlife refuge and restored prairies. Very beautiful and relaxing. 

We were at 84 miles when we reached the end of the trail so we stopped in Rock Island. Today's ride should be fairly flat but we won't go through many towns and we'll need to carry some extra food.