Day 32-33 Limping into Louisiana

After nearly two and half sometimes tough, sometimes glorious weeks, I've finally made it out of Texas and into the flat warm heart of Louisiana, but it it's been far from plain sailing, and I've had to significantly reroute back to I-10, especially annoying after planning a route that was explicitly designed "avoid I-10."

It all started well though. I woke early by chance yesterday, and flicked on CNN just as the vows were being read out. It looked all lovely, and I decided to delay my departure till after balcony time. I caught most of service on the news in the dining room area of the motel, in the company of a big delegation of coffee marketers from Nakuru, Kenya where I'd lived for 7 months odd in 2004.

I didn't actually blame the American truckers for looking a little peeved as we loudly discussed the best places to drink in a town in the highlands of Kenya, as David Starkey toadied on in the background about protocol and British History as ABC News waited for the wedding party to appear on the balcony, and the British Asian bloke from Paddington, who ran the motel, gave a second running commentary on his his favourite places in London. I've got no time for nonsense views about America being overrun by foreigners, but on this occasion the truckers must've had a point.

For the vast bulk of the day there is little to say about the ride itself. It's green, lush, flat, tree lined, and populated round here, and I was happy to be finally pushing North and clear of I-10, onto my planned route 50 to 100 miles north of the coast, out the tornado zone (although there are some concerning signs on the road about evacuation routes) and into the heart of Cajun country. For most of the day, to my great surprise even the roads were not bad, however on the 10 miles that were true to form, Texas had two final treats up it's sleeve.

First was Texas puncture number five, which in itself would've been no issue, but then my saddle broke. I guess the vibrations on the crumby roads had created a weakness, and suddenly the back prong sheared off. It was a pain in the backside, literally at first, and subsequently metaphorically as I realised there were no bike shops on my route for 6 days, and my temporary patch up would not hold. As a result I've have to take a route 25 miles south....and back to I-10. Once there it would be illogical and time consuming to head back to my originally planned route, so now I'm rerouting to parallel I-10 till Florida.

Texas roads really are such a shame. Without them I'd have nothing but good things to say about Texas - with the exception of far far east Texas, which I found to be bland, slightly grumpy and to have an quite staggering number of rather ugly churches, all in rather uncomfortably competitive proximity. Generally Texas was great. It's everything you expect it to be. Sure it's big and brash, but often that means brilliant, and stunning. And sure Texans are huge in character (although surprisingly not waistline) but that adds to the place. But it also has stuff you don't expect, funky cities, cool art scenes, coast lines, and cracking food. It should be one of the great cycling destinations of the world, unfortunately the joke state of many roads, and the very tedious minority of imbecilic farm boys that view running you off the road as amusing sport, mean I can't make that cycling recommendation. But do go to Texas, it's fun, just do it in a car, preferably a double axled Dodge pick up truck.

So today was supposed to be a boring but easy day, and bar the spitting rain all day it largely fulfilled that criteria, with one unnerving exception. Having fixed the seat in Beaumont, I road the I-10 frontage to the bayou (which I think means canal in French) that splits Texas and Louisiana, where I had a quick 4 miles to ride on the shoulder of I-10. I'd google mapped my route, and followed the photos to check the quality of the shoulder almost all the way to the exit to the first exit road in Louisiana. It was the "almost" that cost me 90 mins of my time, and a few years off my life.

literally 200 meters from were I would exit the freeway I hit a bridge where the shoulder quite suddenly reduced from 5-10 metres wide to under a metre. As I saw it, I was faced with 3 seriously unpalatable options, push forward across the 100 metre bridge, risking getting hit from behind by one of the lorries that were dangerously close, turn round walk back a mile where the freeway rose up over the bayou, go under the freeway, ride back into Texas and find another much longer route into Louisiana, or most unpalatable of all, walk back half a mile to the picnic stop area and beg someone to drive me the 150 metres I need, which would've bugged me forever as a failure. There was thick swamp and forest off the road and a river to cross, so off road was not an option.

Goodness.....Love the trumpets

I trudged back the half mile to the picnic area to get my thoughts together, and got talking to the gardener, who told me he walks the bridge against the traffic most days. So I thought bugger it, trudged on back half a mile, under the underpass, and a mile back to the bridge westbound facing the traffic. I then basically just stood there looking at the task for 10 mins rooted to the ground with fear. Then I'd had enough and just sodding went for it. It' s an experience I never ever want to repeat, and was not helped in any shape or form by the oversize load lorry that bore down on me halfway forcing me to lean out over the bridge.

I'm not ashamed to admit I practically skipped over the verge the other side and onto the peaceful country road, but I'm so glad I didn't crumble. After then it was heaven. Smooth roads, reasonable drivers and relaxed, decent little towns. And then Cajun cooking tonight was delicious. I think I'm going to enjoy the South, and having made my target of clearing Texas by the end of April I'm in a good mood.

Route - Houston - Liberty - Kountze - Beaumont - Orange - Vinton - Sulphur

Friday 29 April
Breakfast - Frosties, 2 bagels and an apple at the motel.
Lunch - Chicken Guacamole sandwich - Kay's Cafe, Liberty. Good solid sandwich, and a decent cafe in the town square full of cops expanding their waistline
Supper - Buffet - Mama Kays. Not sure it was worth the $22, but it was late and I was hungry. It was a shabby looking place, even if the staff were hard working. However it was worth $22 just to hear to the very sizable ladies on the next table discussing the weight watchers meeting they'd just been to, whilst tucking into a full deep fried buffet. "I'm going to use up all my weekly points tonight" has to be my favourite line.

Saturday 30 April
Breakfast - Cherrios, 2 English muffins and an apple at the motel
Lunch - Beef salad sandwich - Subway in Orange.
 Supper - Cajun Crawfish soup, rice and salad - Hollier's Cajun Kitchen. Delicious. Well cooked, and beautifully spiced. Resturant was functional, but very very busy with good reason. Only complaint would be the tables were too close together for the rather portly customer base. Fortunately I was saved the indignity of a plus sized bottom in my soup, many were not so lucky. Maybe it's a blip, but people here seem much bigger than Texas.