Daily Miles: 78.9
Total Miles: 1131
Max: 21
Avg: 13.6
Time on the Bike: 05:47:23
I had a good night’s rest and was on my way just after 7:00 AM. It was overcast and humid and warm, and there was a 60 percent chance of thunderstorms throughout the morning, so something great to look forward too.
I rode by crawfish fields too numerous to count under hazy and cloudy skies with patches just large enough to allow slivers of light to poke through. The fields are basically a series of flooded out ground, and they are the same kind of fields used to grow rice in the off season. Right now is crawfish season. It starts close to the holidays and runs to about June. When the weather gets too hot the shells get harder which makes them tough to eat. Ray told me all of this at the restaurant the other night and even showed me how to eat a crawfish. You pull in and twist the tail and then pull out. All the meat is in the tail, but you can eat the brains too, which are these yellow scrambled egg things. You suck them or take a finger and scoop them out. Pretty tasty.
I entered some piney woods and forests before noon and that was nice. I got a little rained on but that was okay as it didn’t last long. The worst part about it was the big logging trucks that misted the road water all over me when they passed.
I’m at warm showers host Mandy’s tonight. She’s somewhat of a hoarder but that’s okay. She has too large dogs that didn’t like me at first but we are all best friends now. There’s odds and ends all over her house. Bras hang over the bathroom door. There’s wires and plastic wrappers all over the place. Multiple flashlights of various sizes and colors rest in corners and tables. There’s nice art on the walls but the paint is chipped and fading. The trash is too stuffed and when I asked if I could take it out she said, “That’s okay. Not yet.”
For her this okay and that is okay with me. She’s a lovely and vibrant person with a great personality. We chatted out on the porch about our lives and got to know one another. Just strangers becoming friends in a small town called DeRidder in rural Louisiana.
There was no talk of politics and religion and I liked that.
Tommorrow I’ll enter Texas and leave Louisiana behind.
