Another 7:15 start this morning, but the 70° temperature felt much cooler than yesterday, low humidity and a light breeze out of the south east, helped.  Our back road out of town passed small homes and pretty farms.  Nine miles into our ride we reached Henderson and the north turn (into Atchafalaya National Heritage Area), we had been looking forward to ever since encountering the south wind, days/weeks ago.  We were almost giddy with the idea of a tailwind on this long northbound stretch along the levy.  A quick jaunt to the top of the levy, to see if we were missing anything and then we were off.  Just as were settling into the saddle, ready to enjoy smooth sailing, we hit dirt, and not pay dirt, our pavement had only lasted two miles!

We bumped along the gravel road, struggling to stay upright.  A couple times we had to dismount to walk our bikes, pedaling just too treacherous.  It was such a waste of a quiet and scenic route.  Just as we thought things could not get any worse, not this, this……we had come too far to turn back now, but to play it safe we walked our bikes to the top of the levy.  Our rocky, terribly rough road, was slow with several cattle guards thrown in for an extra rattle.  Angry looking bulls with sharp horns did not even phase us.  After almost 20 miles, “vacation homes” appeared along the Bayou Courtableau Outlet Channel, we hoped it was a sign of true civilization, or at least a paved road.

Duckies had never been happier to turn into the wind along a busy highway.  Five miles later, we dropped into the town of Krotz Sprngs for lunch.  The shaded streets felt like air conditioning, but there was no food to be found.  One pedal stroke from rejoining our highway, we found a place to stop for lunch.  We would need our rest and fuel to get over this next bridge.But the owner of the cafe, insisted we not proceed via bike.  The bridge ahead of us was not the problem, but the following four mile stretch over the bayou offered no shoulder.  An hour of rest and ready to go, we politely declined her offer.  She chased us out of her cafe and insisted we load the duckies in her truck; there was no saying no.  The bridge was worse than we thought, absolutely NO shoulder and the lanes were unusually narrow; we were happy Claudette saved us from what would have been a big mistake.

Once back on the road, even pedaling the shoulder seemed too close to the traffic.  Forty five miles later we pulled into our stop for the day.  It took 15 minutes to determine the room they had booked for us, did not exist.  A mile later we checked into the next hotel, newer and more comfortable, but internet was almost non-existent.  Dinner would not be much better!  A short walk away was the only place for food.  Equipped with a bottle of wine (in a plastic cup) we “enjoyed” (with plastic fork and knife) Salisbury Steak for dinner.  When you are hungry and tired, everything is good!  It was only a 43 mile ride today (shorter tomorrow), but it had beaten us up.  We will make up for this, soon!