ST: Day 12

Daily Miles: 67

Total Miles: 784.7

Max: 25.4

Avg: 14.6

Time on the bike: 04:33:53

I woke up early in the hotel room, 5:30 AM, and couldn’t get back to bed so I started getting ready. Everything was somewhat dry and this made me happy. I had a long day ahead so it was probably a good thing that I was getting an early start. 

I decided to ride on the sidewalk for awhile until I turned down a side street. 90 hadn’t been good to me yesterday so I wanted to leave it alone.

The morning ride turned out to be pretty fantastic. I was on backroads all day with little traffic. I soon crossed over a large bridge and took another secondary road down the shoreline with basically no cars. I broke away from the shore and followed some backroads. On a dirt road I saw in the distance two people on bikes with panniers riding my way. They were a retired couple from Vermont who had started in Los Angeles. It was clear they had been on the road for a while. They had that weathered look about them, dirty bags and bikes, sun tans and large smiles on thier lips. We exchanged notes and stories and it was a pleasure chatting with them for a few minutes. It is a rare occurrence it seems to spot other cycle tourists so it is exciting running into one another. 

I finally emerged back onto 90 but now I was far away from Beloxi and  the casinos and lackluster shoreline and the highway was deserted. It was good riding through what I can only assume to be a bayou and I finally crossed into Louisiana around noon. I stopped at a bait and tackle shop and bought an overpriced Gatorade and  made contact with my friend Matt who lives in New Orleans and who I was going to stay with for a few nights. 

He was nice enough to come out and meet me on 90 about 20 or so miles from his apartment and give me a ride into the city so I didn’t have to bother with heavy traffic and the 90 bridge, which I guess can be terrifying, so I was appreciative of the ride. 

I’m in New Orleans now and I’m not sure how long I’ll be here. At least tomorrow but probably longer. I’m thinking three days. There is some really terrible weather coming in, especially on Thursday, which may bring over an inch of rain and severe thunderstorms. Not particularly good or even decent biking weather. I probably need a good break anyway. There’s some things I need to get done and I want to explore the city a little bit, too, since I’ve never been here before, and it’s supposed to be pretty great.