After a quick breakfast of muffins and coffee, we were out of the door just before seven.  With a long ride ahead and the temps supposed to get toasty, we wanted an early start.  The morning was still a comfortable 70°, but a bit humid.  Between the early start and heading against commuter traffic, the wiggle out of the largest city in the state was fairly easy, colorful and new sights, enjoyable.  One last goodbye to Satchmo and the city of New Orleans.

Thirteen miles later we were crossing the Inner Harbor Navigation Channel that connects Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi River.  Less than a mile later, we lost most of the traffic to the interstate.These shrines/temples seemed very out of place in the middle of nowhere.  Eighteen miles from the center of the city, we crossed part of “The Great Wall of New Orleans”, built after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, totally encircling New Orleans from the water.

After passing Textron, a manufacturer for military support vehicles, we were in the middle of the bayou, aka: nowhere.  A small neighborhood appeared with large homes backing up to deep canals, this too, seemed out of place in the middle of the bayou, but had a very romantic name – Venetian Isles.

We pedaled through a stretch of vacation homes bordering Lake Ponchartrain and Lake Saint Catherine; the house names as interesting as the houses.

Our blistering 12 mph pace was no match for the tenacious horseflies.  You could almost hear them laughing at our defenselessness as they swarmed our heads and bodies.  The morning was getting hot, the horseflies were driving us crazy, we were getting cranky and the morning muffin’s energy had worn off.  Thankfully, all we had to do is cross this bridge, past Fort Pike and end up at a bait and tackle shop on the other side.  The shop had the best prepackaged sandwich we’ve ever had and the proprietor, Shanna, gave us a remedy for the relentless flies….jungle strength bug spray!

After her shop, the road narrowed and every joint in the road was a jolt to our duckies; one last road insult.

Exactly four hours of riding, we crossed the East Pearl River and were in Mississippi.  Looking forward to hopefully better roads and finding them, complete with shade.  It was a pretty ride with very little traffic and only the occasional gust of breeze in our face, but the heat was wearing us down.

Shortly after one and on the edge of town, we stopped for something cold to drink (milkshake and sandwich) and a break from the now 92° (shade) 105° (sun) heat; thankfully the humidity was gone.   We had pumped out 62 miles in five and a half hours and our legs (and bodies) were struggling against this first real day of heat.  The thirty minute break was just what we needed for the last three miles.  For dinner, we had scouted out a German/Italian restaurant, but neglected to check if they were open; unfortunately not.  The second choice of Mexican was tremendously anticlimactic, so much so, we could not even take a picture.  But we’ve crossed into another state, better roads and hopefully a cooler day, tomorrow.