February 9, 2019 - Chicot State Park to Simmesport, Louisiana

Day 40 Cross Country Bike Trip

We had a quiet night in the state park last night and good rest, but it was COLD again this morning. It was about 38 degrees when Tobey started off today with about 15-20 mph headwinds.Tobey headed north through the park while I did a little sight-seeing drive through the park. The fishing pier was about a mile from the south campground. I was a little nervous when I parked and saw this sign, but figured because it was so cold, not many alligators would be out sunning themselves!I stopped at the arboretum and walked through the visitor’s center. I asked about the alligators because there are so many hiking trails through the park. I was told most of the gators hang out deep in the mud until it warms to 70 degrees or so. No time for hiking today, and the temperature was no where near 70, so I was safe! They have a nice visitor’s center and it was a good stopping-off point if you want to hike.I took advantage of one of the trailhead parking areas to check out the Lake Chicot.Lake Chicot is a 2000 acre man-made lake. It was originally a cypress-tupelo gum swamp bordered by a hardwood forest. You can see cypress trees still in the lake.Seeing the dense the growth in and around the lakes and swamp areas brought to mind all of the books I have read with those settings. I can’t even imagine trying to navigate through these areas without roads – or a boat! Alligators, bugs, and who knows what else! No, thank you!! I have a much keener appreciation for all who have traveled this way.

We stopped in Evergreen for lunch and a rest. Tobey wasn’t excited about getting back out in the cold, but he did!When we got to Simmesport, I stopped for some groceries. I haven’t seen a Piggly Wiggly market in a long time. We had one in Marshalltown, Iowa where I grew up, but it has been gone for years!I waited for Tobey just before the bridge over the Atchafalaya River to see if he planned to ride over or load his bike. He rode!While we were discussing whether he would ride or not, we were parked across the street from the Rabalais Seafood Market. Clay, the owner’s son, came over and talked with us. He said we could park by their restaurant overnight if we wanted. They are a location for warm showers for cyclists. The Warm Showers Community is a free worldwide hospitality exchange for touring cyclists.  https://www.warmshowers.org/

We told him we didn’t need the showers, but we would certainly love to park overnight. Tobey rode another six miles, then we loaded the bike and came back to Simmesport. We passed a field with some longhorn cattle on the way back to town. They do have long horns!After parking we had dinner at the restaurant and it was SO GOOD and everyone was super friendly! We shared an order of onion rings and the special of the day – Étouffée. It was shrimp, crawfish and a fish filet over rice smothered with a great sauce. Étouffée is a dish found in both Cajun and Creole cuisine typically served with shellfish over rice. The dish employs a technique known as smothering, a popular method of cooking in the Cajun areas of southwest Louisiana. YUMMY!! Clay does part of the cooking and he also brought out some boiled crawfish for us to try. It was good, but a little more spicy than I am used to! I’ll stick with the Étouffée.By the end of the day it had warmed up to about 50 but it was still windy. Tobey rode 54.1 miles – and has 2053 miles under his belt now! This is the link for today’s ride: https://ridewithgps.com/trips/31550873

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).