BIKE TOUR

I woke this morning in South Park to another humidity free day. I wasn't able to get a hold of the warmshowers in town, so I tried to keep warm in the windy chill while packing up. My head cold had worsened from the day before and a stop at Papa's Potatoes was needed to warm me up. "We specialize in Stuffed Potatoes" but I had hashbrowns, scrambled eggs, sausage, and what I would call a real southern biscuit. The motivation of the warmshowers in Simmesport pushed me on. It's exciting to be back on the ACA route. In Big Cane at the grocery, they know my story and I signed their book. Claudia offered me a room that the headwinds and 40 degree temps made hard to turn down. Here in Catholic country all the families are getting together for Easter weekend renting fun jumps for the kids to play on. We went a couple houses down past their crawfish traps balancing carefully on the levies in their big truck to her sister's house for gumbo. Apparently I was quiet becaus...

Stopping in Eunice at the DQ for some ice cream, I ordered from a woman who could only be described as wearing intense eyeliner. I was only just into Louisiana when I broke down. Perhaps there is more eyeliner to come. I left Kinder without much fanfare. I rode past fields of crawfish through the cool spring air, Good Friday is in observance today and there were few out pulling their traps in their shallow paddle wheel boats. Other observations of Louisiana include varying conditions of shoulders but usually with glass, large bullfrogs added to the repertoire of roadkill, and honkers. I don't understand how they don't understand that under no circumstance is honking a nice thing. Please understand that you are loud. I can hear you coming. I am not any more likely to get out of your way if you honk. Where do you expect me to ride? You are the one polluting with your gas guzzling truck or SUV. I think I'm done ranting for the day before I start getting mean. 9.3 ave - 15.7 m...

I woke for the third time with an attempt at a comforting feeling that tomorrow I'd be on the road. Fortunatly, this time, Dean was able to saw and tweek my tandem wheel to fit. After only 8 mights, I will continue to Opelousas. THere isn't much else to say except that it only takes about a week for your patterns to change. I can hardly remember the lifestyle on the bicycle. At least I got to observe the time old tradition of scaling the freshly caught perch caught in the pond out behind your mom's house.

I woke for the second time with the comforting feeling that tomorrow I'd be back on the road. But not until 11 would I know this to be true... Then it wasn't until the wheel was delivered that I found the wheel to be too big to fit between the fork. Sometimes I can identify all too well with the cockroach next to the toilet laying flat on its back wriggling for movement. On another note... Kinder shut down a Wal-Mart. I have a new found respect for this small town.

My wheel did not come today. This fairly difinitively means I won't be leaving until at least Thursday. It's 6 days 7 nights with out the pirates or romantic plot line. I guess the only commonalities are the timeline and the feeling of stuckness. It's not Kinder. Let me be clear. Kinder is quaint and slow. But I so desperately want to be working on my last 21 days. 1050 miles is all I have to go. The salt water spray is nearly stinging my nostrils. April is a heavy month for birthdays. Maybe the fourth of July is an exciting time for a lot of people. I made tuna today. That was exciting.

Perhaps everyone should have a TV like the Mitsubishee widescreen in "The White House". It turns off and on at will. So just when you thought that you'd be vegging out watching That 70's Show Season 3 Disc 2 for the next several hours, yopu're not. You go for a walk. You attempt to communicate with the locals or you sketch potential tattoos. For those wondering about the pictures, I was able to pick up my parent's camera today. It did feel a little strange intentially going out into the humidity to take pictures. Normally it is my excuse to stop. I found that by looking up MY SPACE MUSIC pages I could listen to my favorite artist anywhere. Laundry will be done tonight or tomorrow and Steven has agreed to pick up my wheel tomorrow. He is a Mass Communications major over there at the college in Lake Charles. So he was going down for class anyway. Both he and Justin have been very kind to me during my time at the Kinder spa of rest and relaxation. Take a load off...

The sunlight peaking through the rumpled shades tried to bring the room out of shadow. In the dim I lay listening to the thunder and rain pouring off the roof. Thee is a comfort in the ceaseless rain. But I cannot be in the beauty draped in sleep and sound forever. Tis a pity that I must disturb this silent constant noise. I also ate crawfish today at the Baptist church's annual crawfish boil.