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Wednesday April 16, 2008, 123 miles (198 km) - Total so far: 2,083 miles (3,352 km)
Today at dawn the men rushed the Texas/Louisiana border and found no flag to take, so our calvary went inland another 100 miles, 123 total for the day, and setup camp at the Best Western - Ville Platte. -General Joseph Connolly, April 16, 1866.Ok, enough of the civil-war journal style.
First off, you've gotta see this hillarious video clip from yesterday. There are two incidents here as one video, the first black dog was scared off by my growling and barking, but the next 2 dogs were unphased and held on for a few seconds before being choked by my cloud of dust.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeKSiXN4jzg
Today was a relatively easy day, despite a nagging head and crosswind all day. I had given myself plenty of time to get to Ville Platte and I made it without incident. Most of the day was on well shouldered roads, with exception of the first road of the morning, which was a death-trap in disguise of a bike route. Not sure what the adventure cycling folks were thinking when they picked this road, but it was constant, two way semi traffic going 70mph with no shoulder. I had plenty of angry honks and lots of pick-up trucks flooring it as they passed me to choke me with diesel exhaust. By the way, that's one of their techniques to attack a bicyclist without physically hitting you with something. Smoke you out.
The clouds were building all day and I was expecting a storm but nothing really materialized and as the day progressed and I moved east, things began clearing. I made it to Mamou, LA and called ahead to Ville Platte to confirm a motel room. As I was coming into Ville Platte, some guy completely sticks his upper body out the window (while driving!) and is yelling, "mmmaaannn! I just saw you in Mamou! in MAMOU!" I waved and said "I know! I'm goin fast today!!" and he waved back. Mamou was about 15 miles away and I was cruising at 23-25 so it didn't take long.
Before Mamou I saw a sign that said "road construction next 9.1 miles" and was freaked out because it went from dirt, to gravel, to sand, to mud. I was going about 5mph, when just ahead, after only a mile of drudgery, I saw the worker bees laying brand new asphault. Sweet! It doesn't get any smoother than 2 hour old roadway to ride on. They had laid quite a bit in the past few days and I road new tarmac all the way into town going 25mph the whole way.
Also, I regret to inform you that my armidillo is close to death. The 700X23 rear wheel that took me here from Phoenix is on it's last legs. It's hard shell is worn and thin, with cracks and innards exposed. Brook has it hooked up with some services from Armidillo Hospice of America, but I think I may have to resort to the unconventional and likely illegal assisted armidillocide, and end it's life. I may just let it live out it's life and let it collapse on it's own tomorrow, but I feel a responsibility to let it go with dignity while it's still in one piece. If I let it go any further, it's going to explode into a disgraceful mess on some backroad tomorow and end up another piece of roadkill, amongst the dozens of turtles I saw today.
I wish there was more to say, but honestly, this area is pretty boring and very flat. I think the level of interesting things increases with the amount of topography and people, neither of which were very present during todays ride, with exception of a few short sections of busy road and a couple towns I rolled through. I need some drama.. rain, just missing a tornado, a Cat4 hurricane, something. Oh yeah, I hit the 2/3 mark of the trip today. Over 2000 miles done with about 1000 to go!
I'm on a real computer here so check the next post for pics!
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