February 12, 2019 - Reserve to New Orleans, Louisiana

Day 43 Cross Country Bike Trip

Before we  went to bed last night we checked  the weather forecast and they were predicting rain. They were right. It started during the night and it pelted down and the wind rocked the little RV. It was still raining this morning when we got up. By 8am, it was letting up, so Tobey decided he was going to ride in spite of the rain.The route had a road closure so we had to backtrack - 3 miles from the River Road, go a couple miles on Highway 61, then 3 miles back to River Road. Not in the plan, but at least the rain had stopped!

A good share of the route had Tobey on a bike trail that followed along the Mississippi River. He was able to see boats and barges moving up and down the river. My route on River Road took me by lots of oil and gas industry and pipelines over the road. I think he got the better part of the ride!He saw this sign and said he knew we were no longer in the western part of the US. When I asked what he meant, he showed me this picture. In Colorado, EVERYONE yields to horseback riders!

One thing both of us commented on, however, was they need the last statement on ROAD signs. People here drive like maniacs! Just try to merge onto the interstate (which I had to do) and cars pass you on the RIGHT and then honk at you as they merge in front of you! On some of the areas Tobey was on streets, people cut in front of him then turned, almost making him crash into them.There was a nice parking area at the bottom of this bike trail where we took a break. Shortly before Tobey came down this part of the trail, he heard a loud crack, and turned around to see a tree go crashing into the water. I am glad it missed him!From here, I went ahead to pick up Poor Boy sandwiches for lunch and Tobey met me there. We shared a 12” shrimp poor boy, which is similar to a sub sandwich. It was delicious and packed with fried shrimp. We both said we would have them again!While we were eating lunch, the rain started up again and lasted for almost an hour. It was just drizzling when Tobey took off for the last 14 miles. I went ahead to the Three Oaks and a Pine RV park (via the  interstate and cranky drivers) and got us checked in. By the time Tobey arrived (about 3pm), it was a pretty steady rain and he was soaked. Once we got everything hooked up and gear stowed, he got a chance to warm up and dry out!

By 5 pm, the sky was clearing and the forecast for tomorrow is dry! We walked a couple blocks over to Natal’s Seafood and Grill for dinner. It wasn’t at all what we were expecting. It was like a convenience store combination take out restaurant. We got the fried catfish with a shrimp penne pasta and lo mien! Weird combination, but I didn’t have to cook .

We will spend three nights (two days) in New Orleans giving Tobey a break from riding. We will do some sight-seeing and try to eat more of the delicious food we have heard about!

Today’s ride was 55.1 miles – 20 of them in the rain. The link is: https://ridewithgps.com/trips/31624166.

This is a link that will show all of Tobey’s route so far. https://ridewithgps.com/events/71165-tobey-s-coast-to-coast-ride-2018-2019

On the left side of the map, it shows day by day stop and start points so you can look at each day’s route.

OR you can scroll to the bottom of the day-to-day and there is a box that says “Show all on Map”. If you click that, it will change the map view to show all days traveled so far (but be prepared for a short pause as takes a while for the file to load).