Day 28 - Friday, December 19

Description: Finished the ride today in Opelousas Louisiana after 61 miles. We plan to shoot for St. Francisville tomorrow but had to modify our route due to a lack of "acceptable" lodging. I found out that Kevin requires silk sheets, down pillows, and gourmet food and we could not accommodate that with the official Adventure Cycling route plan so he made us change directions to meet his personal needs:-)

We all started stirring around 6:45 this morning and the plan was to be packed and ready out in front of the motel at 8:00 sharp. We could not wait to go next door to the Donut Cafe to fill our tanks with pure energy. Bad news - the cafe owners must have heard we were coming and figured they could not supply enough sugar and fat for us so they closed their doors for the day - ouch. Not a problem as our new Sherpas directed us across the street to a Shell gas station for coffee and Bear Claw danishes which were not bad but not the same as the Donut Palace. Eventually, we were ready to roll at 9:00. Kevin drove the van (with Eve - their dog in the back) ahead to Mamou to scout out a lunch spot and then rode back toward us to join the group. Teresa, Carl, and I headed out into a warm, overcast, and breezy day. The Smit's must be in good standings with the wind gods as we had an excellent tail wind all day. Kevin, on the other hand, had to fight a strong head wind all the way back to meet us but that is OK because he needs the exercise. We had very smooth roads with good shoulders and Teresa was quoted as saying "this is perfect, I could ride all day with conditions like this". Carl and I agreed as we had unloaded several of our bags into the Smit's van earlier and our bikes were feeling light and fast. Teresa rode strong and we could hardly keep up with her fast pace. We stopped several times to take pictures of the many rice fields which also raised crawfish. What a great combo ehh? The fields were all flooded and ditches along the roads were full of standing water. We were afraid to stop too long for fear the mosquitos would carry us off. Later in the day we saw numerous cattle and horse farms which looks to be the local business. Man is this area flat! For the first 50 miles, we only climbed 40 feet of total elevation. After a while, Kevin caught up with us and we all rode together toward Mamou for lunch. Shortly after Kevin arrived, we came across a 3 legged dog (I think his name was Skip) who had just chased Kevin a few minutes ago. The angry dog took skipped into the street in an attempt to eat all of us. This guy had a big bark and could really move with only 3 legs. Since Kevin is the slowest rider, he was the one most at risk of getting caught but somehow, he out paced this monster for the second time. After recovering from the dog, we breezed into Mamou which was a really neat little town with a population of 2,711. We stopped for some pictures on the downtown streets and then entered Maxie's Cajun Diner for some real home cooked bayou food. Kevin, Teresa, and Carl all ordered the Shrimp Etufe and I had the grilled shrimp with pasta and an awesome cajun cream sauce. Carl and I also had a side orders of fried mushrooms and french fries. They were very nice and even gave us a free dessert of a white cake with cream cheese icing - em em good. After saying our goodbyes, Teresa loaded up her bike and rolled forward in the van as she had a work conference call. Kevin, Carl, and I walked the streets some more and enjoyed the local color before mounting our bikes. Back on the road, we rolled through Ville Platte, Grand Prairie, and then arrived at our targeted destination of Washington. The tall stories and trash talking was significant as we often road 3 abreast on the country roads. We also were chased by rain clouds all day long but never were rained on - wow were we lucky. Teresa did not get off of her conference call before we arrived in Washington so we started looking for housing options. We consulted with a bunch of locals at a gas station and they all said the only place in town was a dump and even dangerous. After a group discussion, we agreed to ride another 5-6 miles to Opelousas to check out a cheap hotel recommendation. After paying for a couple of rooms, we found out this place was a dive. The rooms looked as if they had no maintenance for many many years - especially Kevin and Teresa's. Carl summed it up best by saying it was better than camping and it was fairly cheap. We did not feel like looking anymore so decided to gut it out. We unloaded, cleaned up, and then smacked on crackers & cheese, celery, carrots, and a beverage or 2 while planning out the route for tomorrow. Then we got hungry and walked up the street to The Palace Cafe for dinner. This was a Greek/Cajun place and it looked like it was frozen in time from the early 60s. Teresa had a stuffed eggplant with crawfish (not so good), Carl had the deluxe seafood stuffed eggplant (very good), Kevin had a Greek salad and chicken gumbo (very good), and I had the crawfish bisque which was most excellent. With the meal, we had salads and rolls to help replenish the carbs from the day's ride. For dessert, Carl and I had root beer floats from the Dairy Queen that was between the restaurant and our flea bag motel. We tried to find some Zydeco music but they told us there was none on Friday nights. We thought that was strange as this place claims to be the Zydeco capitol ot the country! We did have an option however, Cherl (our waitress for dinner) said she would dance Zydeco style at our table for $5. Carl offered her a buck and she stood firm on the five. Cherl was "real local" and we had fun with her. Earlier, Carl had asked about some Greek options and she said "this ain't no greek restaurant - it is Cajun. I have been here 33 years and it ain't Greek!". We tipped her well.....

We all enjoyed the ride, the local food, and most importantly the people in the small towns we visited today. It was a lot of fun!

Good night.

Weather: Warm but very comfortable all day with a good breeze and overcast skies. It showered all around us but we were spared!



Performance Metrics:



Miles: 61 Trip: 2,079

Total travel time: 8:00 Trip: 213:00

Bike Riding time: 4:59 Trip: 167:26

Avg speed: 12.29 Trip: 12.63

Max speed: 19.56 Trip: 41.87

Total ascent (ft): 85 Trip: 50,925

Avg pedal RPMs: 84 Trip: 86

Avg heart rate: 86 Trip: 112

Max heart rate: 127 Trip: 195

Calories burned: 4,800 Trip: 122,018



Weather Statistics:



High temp 74 Trip: 75

Low temp: 68 Trip: 28

Hours of rain: 0 Trip: 13:30

Hours of snow: 0 Trip: 0

Total days of rain/snow: 3

Wind factor: favorable

Total good wind days: 10

Total bad wind days: 18



Misc. Stats:



Flat tires: 0 Trip: 8

Mechanical failures: 0

Hotel or camping today: hotel - Townhouse motel

Total hotel nights: 26

Total camping nights: 2

Cups of coffee: 2 Trip: 91

Pints: 4 Trip: 46



Mood rating (1-10): 10 - lots of fun today with great riding, weather, company, food, and the local people.