Things got a little crazy this morning. I was up late last night, but I still managed to get out of the house at about 6:30. I adjusted my brakes on Friday, and I was newly equipped with a saddle and stretchy pants. This would be the longest ride to date, but I was feeling up to the challenge. I also downloaded an app for my phone to track the statistics of the ride [its called imapmyride+].
Lucas and I set out at 6:30. I noticed immediately that it was much cooler than it has been [I will probably break out some sleeves if it is like this next weekend]. By the time we got to Hwy. 51, I didn't think it was going to be good. I was struggling to keep pace, but it got better a couple miles down the road. Moving along, somewhere around Ruddock we hit a gnarly rain storm. The driving rain wasn't enough to stop us, we were bound and determine to reach our goal, which was to make it to the Manchac bridge. After the rain subsided there was a portion of the road washed over. We rode through the water slowly, careful not to kick up to much water as my cell phone was stowed in a bag strapped under my seat. It seemed like it took forever to get there, but finally we made it to the beacon bar, located at the base of the Manchac bridge. Halfway to our goal without a smoke break. That was all about to change because Lucas bought a pack of cigarettes at the bar. For the record, some people have asked, I do not smoke. I am not sure what time we got there, but there were about 6 people sitting at the bar. I am told they are called the breakfast club, and every Saturday and Sunday, they are all there at 6 in the morning. I think they sit and drink coffee, which turns into beers at around the time we got there, and talk about LSU and Saints football. I am a big fan of this, if I could I would become a fan of these guys on Facebook. They were amazing. By the look on there faces when we walked in, I thought we were going to have to pick a new bar to stop at when we ride to Manchac. They were great. They asked where we were riding from, and made a little small talk. We walked outside [to keep an eye on the bikes], and talked to the owner of the bar. I could smell a boil about to happen. I asked him what time the crabs would be ready, and he said he was steaming lobster [I was kind of hoping for an invite. I would have canceled the rest of my ride]. He told us about how slow the crabs have been because the price took a dive, but the price has been high, in fact the highest it has been in a long time. He also told us about his bar business being slow with the new DWI laws discouraging passers by from stopping on there way home to grab a few beers. It was very refreshing talking to this guy. He had a lot to say. I enjoyed it. But with no invite for lobster, and after smoking a few heaters, we had to get on our way. "On the road again" would be a fitting tune, partly because we were riding through the middle of the swamp and a willie song would be fitting and the obvious point that we were on the road again.
It seemed as though the way home didn't take as long. It was later in the morning, and now there are a bunch of people fishing on side of the road. I don't know why because everyone we passed I asked if they were catching and they weren't. One guy we were riding up on I could see moving around in the bushes, and when we passed he was taking a shit. I wasn't overly surprised, but I immediately thought that it would be funny in the blog. In fact I told Lucas that there was nothing that guy could do to save himself from being in the blog. It is funny that he did this because about a mile down the road he passed us up in his truck, leading me to wonder why he didn't just drive to the gas station ten minutes earlier when he felt it necessary to shit on the side of the road. Anyway we passed back threw the water on our way back, again careful not to get my phone wet. After the high water, we passed another biker. He was AWESOME. He was riding a recumbent, which is a different style of bike. Instead of sitting vertically like you would do on my bike, you would recline a little and your body is positioned at about a 45 degree angle. The pedals on this bike are on about the same plane as the seat, and they are located under the handle bars, kind of. This guy had an American flag shirt on, and he was as excited to be out on the bike as I was to see him. He gave us a big hello, and I told him I liked his shirt.
We rode a little longer then took another smoke break. Continuing down the road not to much happened between here and the interstate. We stopped at the gas station to pick up a Poweraide, and kept on going. About a quarter mile down the road we decided to stop at Bully's Halfway House. This place is awesome, it is not new to me like the Beacon Bar, but it is an outstanding place. Pulling into the gravel parking lot presented an unexpected problem, given we were going kind of fast because I was excited to pick up a bloody mary to go. The combination of the width of the tires on our bikes and the loose gravel was not good. I think everyone knows where this is headed. I hit the gravel and it almost took me down. I made it in by the skin of my teeth. I turned around just in time to see Lucas go down. The bike went flying. It was a spectacular fall. Plus he had a wicked awesome scrape on his elbow. The first war wound. We took a look at the bike, and it seemed to be OK. Lucas was OK, aside from the blood running down his arm. He took it like a man though. He was more worried about the bike than any bodily injury. We went inside. I got my bloody mary to go, and Lucas went to clean up a little. Who ever designed the bottle cages that I bought is definitely my kind of guy/girl. My to go cup fits perfectly in my bottle cage [for anyone not familiar with our awesomeness in Louisiana you can leave bars with booze so long as its in a to go cup, which is usually just a foam cup that doesn't have any markings on it]. The remaining 5 miles were easy. We made it home with no problem. 38.17 miles complete. I felt great. I will probably get another ride in tomorrow, but not a long ride like this one. We will see how I feel in the morning.
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