Bridges, levees and happy dogs

Day 17. 77mi. AIS 7:37, 619 elev., 10 mph

Simmesport to Baton Rouge

Out of Simmesport bright and early. Going to be a long, long day and we have to get into downtown Baton Rouge. As I’ve said before cities are exhausting with bad pavement, stop and go and traffic.

Starts with a quick stop to photo the horrifying motel/convenience store. (Call me naive). Then the neighbor directly across the street and his politics. Wow!!

Off we go over a big bridge to cross the Atchafayala River ( pronounced At-CHA-fa-lie-ya). It was a big river. They use the area between it and the Mississippi called The Basin to flood when the Mississippi is flooding. Big Army Corps of Engineers project in 1928. We followed that river going on farm roads for almost 40 miles of pleasant riding to New Roads, LA. We happened upon a man in an old pickup giving his dogs their morning ride. They acted as though they were in a parade! Just heart warming to watch. He stopped to say hello to us. I also enjoyed the cows this morning. They were nice to me too!

Found a nice little southern soul food bistro in New Roads. The owner and staff were so sweet and kind. Very welcoming and the food was good. Jim and I tried a crawfish Po’ Boy. Just a sandwich hoagie style with mayo, lettuce and tomato. The crawfish was terrific. We also shared fries with crawfish, shrimp and jalapeño and a smothering of tasty cheese sauce (just perfect, not over smothered). The downtown of New Roads is on the mighty Mississippi.

Off we went for about 9 miles to cross THE RIVER!! The bridge was big and beautiful with enough shoulder to stop and admire the view. Impressively big water. I read a story recently about a young woman paddling s canoe from Helena MT to New Orleans. Call me crazy for doing this ride but I think paddling a tiny canoe on this big river with the huge wake all the barges make IS crazy too!

The last 25 miles into Baton Rouge were pure hell. We were on an uncontrolled divided highway with a big shoulder but the traffic got heavier and heavier as we got closer. Louisiana has some small bridges where the road narrows to no shoulder and we had to merge to cross. Eventually we had to walk around one of these and find a back way into the city. Enough of that hell. This isn’t Austin ( or even close) even though it’s the home of LSU. It was a long haul the last 5 miles. The road was called Scenic View…ha! Followed along the Exxon Mobile chemical plant for at least 2 miles. Not my idea of scenic. But now we are in a downtown hotel, happy and comfortable and tired. We shall see what tomorrow brings. Following the Mississippi!