After a great few days in NOLA it was good to be back on the road again so we could get to bed at a reasonable time – it’s back to our usual routine of rising at 0545hrs and lights out at 2100hrs.

Leaving NOLA was rather quite pleasant. Early morning traffic was light and there are a reasonable amount of bicycle lanes in the city centre.  We use Google maps in cities as it generally gives good suggestions for cycle routes through quiet neighbourhoods.  This morning we passed many ‘shotgun houses’ which consist of three to five rooms in a row with no hallway. It was a very popular style in American south after the Civil War and is said reference the idea that if all the doors were opened you could fire a shotgun cleanly from front to back.

Out of the city, we followed a fantastic cycle route along the top of a Mississippi River levee for 30 miles or so towards Laplace. What a great day of traffic free, trouble free cycling.

Tonight, however, is now three days later so just where are the Wallies now?

The Wallies are now 212 miles further down the road from NOLA, just outside a town called Kinder, and 906 cycling miles from the start in St Augustine. The next four days cycling will take us to Houston with everything all being well. Whilst we are trying to follow the American Cycling Association’s Southern Tier Route we did not want to pass by great cities like New Orleans and Houston. So whilst we are in this neck of the woods our cycle takes quite a detour from the recommended route. It’s not all about the cycling. It’s actually all about cities and beer. So far, to be honest, the cities have been more memorable than the beer.

The weather has cooled, thank goodness, but that’s because its now raining. The last two days have been largely wet although, thankfully, we continue to miss the heavy thunderstorms. That said, at least the rain has given us the chance to test my new rain clothing.

I’m talking about the trousers of course. When cycling, full length waterproof trousers are an encumbrance and far too hot to wear. Now some cyclists will just say let your shorts and legs get wet. Well thats fine but they’re not cycling all day in the rain and perhaps day after day with wet shorts. So I’ve made us both a pair of waterproof shorts by cutting the bottoms off waterproof trousers. Simple idea but have you seen it before?  They work reasonably marvellously and look rather natty (now there’s a good word). Susan was even caught sitting in McDonalds with them on and it had stopped raining several hours ago. So an essential fashion item and good for spilt food as well.  I’m an ideas factory!

Our pedal through the rain has been fine and the drivers of Louisiana have, on the whole, been very good. Thank goodness. On one occasion we cycled along a fairly busy raised causeway (across swampland) on the inside lane of a dual carriageway with no hard shoulder. Visibility was poor because of rain and road spray and, I would say, it’s probably amongst the most nerve racking four miles we have cycled on all our tours. On another occasion, we cycled over the Huey P Long bridge leaving Baton Rouge.  It’s never, ever a bridge to cycle across.  Two fast lanes, no hard shoulder and bridge joints across the carriageway with gaps so big they can easily take a bicycle wheel out.  So, in the same day, we experienced our two most difficult stretches of cycling in over 14,000km to date.  It was a double measure of Tennessee whisky for me that night.

As we are touring, all our motels are on the edge of town so we can avoid traffic and its easier to get a ground floor room. That’s because one of our priorities is parking for the bicycle and, invariably the bike sits in front of the television and fridge.

As soon as the gear is unloaded and the bike settled down for the night we go to the nearest gas station. This is our standard daily purchase when we finish.

As you can see, food is not the priority at end of a cycle.

As I’ve said before, as we are at the edge of town, eating options are usually very limited. Dinner tonight was a pizza from the gas station and they actually did a fine job.

Fully loaded pizza, large 25oz can of Michelin Ultra (tasteless but inoffensive) and a carton of mixed fruit pieces whilst watching the live Kavanaugh Senate Hearing on television and we nearly have a nice ending to the day.

Nearly? Well it will be perfect when I open my bottle of Woodford Reserve Distillers Edition Kentucky bourbon. You just shouldn’t leave me waiting 10 minutes on a pizza cooking when the garage has an adjoining liquor store!

I think the 77 miles tomorrow to Orange, Texas, is now gong to be even harder than it should be!

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