Day 15: New Roads Louisiana,39 miles

We slept well at the B&B and left about 7:45 AM.  

We knew we only had about 35 miles but rain was threatening. The wind is what made the trip difficult especially the last 15 miles.  2 Flat tires did not help either--there was lots of glass on the shoulder of the road and with the wind we could not always avoid it. 

We crossed the MissIssippi. There was a new bridge over the river and it was very long but quite an engineering fete.

We had Louisiana gumbo and it was delicious.

Tomorrow we go to Simmesport which should be about 44 miles. 

Day 14: Clinton Louisiana, 60 miles

We started our day at the "sugar shack" for breakfast. Ron has not learned to like grits--Sharon enjoyed hers.

The sugar shack also was a bakery and we got a very nice apple fritter for our mid morning snack.

The weather was very nice for riding. There were quite a few Rolling hills and quite a bit of traffic but we kept safe.

I don't know why Some of  Louisiana bury above ground.

We had calculated the ride to be 52 miles--so we were disappointed when it was further. All of the restaurants are 2 miles uphill from our bed and breakfast so we are settling for the deli at the local gas station. Menu: Fried chicken,fried fish, potato salad, coleslaw, red beans & rice, dinner rolls.

This is a historic town. The courthouse below was built in 1840 and is still used.

We are staying at a B & B built in 1902. It is a huge house and we are the only guests so the entire house is ours. The owners live 5 miles away. Tomorrow we expect to have a shorter day to New Roads.

Day 13: Franklinton Louisiana, 64 miles

When we last blogged we had finished a hard day with the wind. We did not even want to go out for food so we ordered into our hotel Pizza Hut. We could hear the wind howling through our windows.

It was 31° when we started riding this morning about 7 AM. Thankfully there was very little wind. We did have quite a few rolling hills.  Plenty of warm clothes so we do not get cold. most of those clothes on all day because it's remained cool.

We are now in Louisiana.

We had our second flat of the trip--this time it was on Sharon's back tire.

We are in the part of Louisiana that has limited lodging so our distances will depend on when the motels are available.  This motel is close to a laundromat so once again we have clean clothes.

ThIs part of the country also has limited restaurants other than fast food. We were delighted to see a local Mexican restaurant midday. It had great food and lots of it. 

Tonight we will snack on food that we had in our packs since there are no restaurants in walking distance.

Tomorrow we will stay in a B & B in Clinton Louisiana. Our mileage is now over 700. 

Riding day 12: Wiggins, MS, 44 miles

We didn't want to leave the golf coast without having some good seafood. So last night we went to a recommended restaurant and I had crabcakes and oysters with our salad. It was so good we would have gone again if we were still in town. Sharon is modeling the hat that was thrown from one of the Mardi Gras floats yesterday.

Biloxi got hit very bad in the Katrina hurricane 10 years ago. The motel where we stayed had 25 feet of water. We asked where to walk to see the downtown and we were told that there isn't much downtown because of the storm. Many of the buildings that look older are reproductions because they were destroyed.

We had quite a stash of Mardi Gras beads we gave them away to some guests in the hotel who said they will cycle them by throwing them from a parade float next year.

We kept a few for our bicycle decorations.

Now to tell you about today--we left at 7 AM in 30 degree weather. Temperature was not the problem it was the wind. We stopped after seven hours of battling the wind.  The computer shows a weather warning for High winds here. It has 14ph winds now mostly headwinds all day. One wind gust stopped both of us. Our speeds were pretty slow!  But we are safe and in a nice Hampton Hotel.

At 4 pm it is now 54° with 16 mph winds.

Rest day in Biloxi--happy Mardi Gras!

We did not do much today except went to a great Mardi Gras parade. tomorrow we head north to Poplarville to reconnect with our Southern tier bike route.

It was a cold 34° with wind we bundled well waiting for the parade.

The main event of the parade is the Mardi Gras beads throwing & catching. Ron and I got hundreds of necklaces!

It was fun.

Day 11: Biloxi Mississippi; 45 miles

We started our day going for a southern breakfast. Sharon had grits along with a biscuit and Ron had biscuits and gravy. The biscuits are delicious--we don't want to know how many saturated fat's are in that recipe!  We chatted with a table full of men--they were very entertaining.  

We started riding when it was daylight enough and reached our new state of Mississippi.

We have been in communication with some friends from Salem (Pam and Gary Ray) Who are full-time RVing. They were in the area driving east as we were riding West.  We had lunch together and a short but nice visit.

We then continued riding about 10 miles into Biloxi Mississippi.  They are celebrating Mardi Gras in this area with the big parade tomorrow. We have decided not to go into New Orleans. Several people told us it would not be smart on bicycles during Mardi Gras. So we are going to take a rest day tomorrow and stay and watch the parade here.

Day 10: Bayou La Batre 56 miles

This was another great day for bike riding. Since we went to bed at 8:30 we got up at 6 o'clock & actually left before it was quite daylight. By the time we were finished with breakfast at the waffle house we took off. We were trying to get ahead of the wind and peddled fast and hard.  We Made very good time for about 7 miles until we saw the dead end sign. Ended up going about 14 miles out of our way.

 But the wind was at our backs the rest of the day. During the ferry ride we had a beautiful view of the bay with the oil/natural gas wells. We were told the water is only about 10 feet deep except for the boat channels that they dredge every day.

We had to wait about 45 minutes for the ferry and the ferry ride was 30 minutes. So we were hungry when we landed. We found a great bakery and had a hoagie and a pastry that Ron said was one of the best he has ever had!

The ride after the ferry was nice and included a bridge that was 4 miles long. 

It is Mardi Gras season & there are bead necklaces all along the road. For the last 10 miles we decided to stop and pick those up--our bikes are now decorated for the event!

Tomorrow we will head to Biloxi Mississippi. Friends of ours from Salem who now full-time RV are there now and we hope to meet up with them. We still plan to go to New Orleans but we will be there after Mardi Gras.