Date(s): Nov. 5, 1999
Day: Friday
From: St. Francisville, LA
To: Easleyville, LA
Lodging: Inspiration Park Campground
Segment Mileage: 68.3
Cumulative Mileage: 2649.5
Actual Riding Time: 5:22
Average Speed: 12.7
Weather: Warm in the sun, cool in the shade
Temp: Low 70's
The day after the rest day always seems to be long regardless of the miles. Today's mileage was supposed to be around 56 miles, but I ended up doing about 10 more. In the morning I wanted to take some time and see some of the sights around the small towns through which we passed, such as Jackson, LA. It contains many homes on the National Register of Historic Places, and I rode around the back streets checking them out. In one stretch Lynne said that she counted 17 large churches and 80 houses. It seems that there is a church every few miles. The ride today was very scenic, through rolling hills and pine and oak forests that covered the road in several areas, which would be nice on hot summer days. Today wasn't hot. The temperature when we got up was around 40, a bit warmer than previous days, and I peeled off my extra layers of clothes within a few miles.
At Norwood I met up with Cyndi, Suzanne, and Jimmy who had just had their second beakfast. Suzanne and I rode together for a while and she demonstrated her Dutch dog warning, yelling loudly in Dutch at the approaching dog, and it seemed to work. Later in the day Oliver said that Mike used another technique. He said if you stop pedaling when the dogs approach, they lose interest. When I try it I think I'll have my pepper spray in hand.
At the store in Chipola, we met up with Bob and took a lunch break. Inside the store I tried my hand at the video poker game with predictable results. The woman standing next to me thought we were crazy riding our bikes cross country as she sat there feeding quarters to the machine in a dark room on a beautiful fall day.
Because the store was so far from the camp we met there to haul groceries. Oliver and I took off with our load and proceeded to fly right past the camp which was at the bottom of a hill. When we saw the sign that said the camp was 2.5 miles back the direction we came, we knew we were in trouble.
Dinner was cooked by Oliver and Jimmy who missed their turn while in New Orleans. Once again we have use of an enclosed pavilion with a kitchen and lights. We're getting spoiled, but at least we're saving on headlamp batteries. Tomorrow we head to Bogalusa, just before heading into Mississippi, our 6th state.
p.s. Much to my surprise, I just replaced the batteries for the first time in this Sharp TM-20 email computer. It uses 2 regular AA batteries. I bought it back in July and have been using it regularly since.
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