Northport to New Orleans, Day Four
Day Four begins with crossing the Mississippi River on a two-lane bridge into Vidalia, Louisiana. After the bridge I take a left and roughly follow the route of the Mississippi River Trail. This is a series of roads that runs from New Orleans northward to the beginning of the Mississippi River in Minnesota. Maps of these areas are a little sketchy, and the MRT signs are not consistent enough to totally rely on.
These roads wind through some of the most desolate areas in the southeast. For the next 60 miles there is nothing but river and cotton fields. There are no stores, so you need to prepare yourself. With two water bottles I make it through and stop at a church for much-needed water on this warm August day. Praise the Lord!
I very much like crossing rivers on ferries. I try to plan bike rides in order to have this oportunity. I come to my first ferry as I travel from the west bank of the Mississippi River to today’s end in St. Francisville, some 91 miles for Day Four.
This is the second time I deviate from what I call the "80-Mile Rule." I am into doing century rides and I have always said that anytime you get to 80 miles you keep going to get your century.
Lesson from Day Four: Revise the "80-Mile Rule."
I stay the night at one of our (my) favorite inns -- the St. Francisville Inn. Sherry and I stayed here on the last trip she took. We were on our way back from M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston on May 2 when we deviated from the normal route to stay here. I leave a bit of Sherry at the inn.
I was in Gainesville, Florida, on BIKEFLORIDA when I got the frantic call from my sister-in-law, who told me a CAT scan showed a large tumor on Sherry’s kidney. This was March 22. Less than four months later Sherry would pass away on July 15. She would spend 42 days in the hospital and would go to West Alabama Hospice for another five days.
On the morning of her death I had arrived at the hospice center planning to do what I called the "Hospice Hundred" on the 1.7-mile track that ran around the complex. Ten miles into the ride the nurse came out onto the porch and flagged me down. Ten days later I returned and did that hundred miles.
Day Four begins with crossing the Mississippi River on a two-lane bridge into Vidalia, Louisiana. After the bridge I take a left and roughly follow the route of the Mississippi River Trail. This is a series of roads that runs from New Orleans northward to the beginning of the Mississippi River in Minnesota. Maps of these areas are a little sketchy, and the MRT signs are not consistent enough to totally rely on.
These roads wind through some of the most desolate areas in the southeast. For the next 60 miles there is nothing but river and cotton fields. There are no stores, so you need to prepare yourself. With two water bottles I make it through and stop at a church for much-needed water on this warm August day. Praise the Lord!
I very much like crossing rivers on ferries. I try to plan bike rides in order to have this oportunity. I come to my first ferry as I travel from the west bank of the Mississippi River to today’s end in St. Francisville, some 91 miles for Day Four.
This is the second time I deviate from what I call the "80-Mile Rule." I am into doing century rides and I have always said that anytime you get to 80 miles you keep going to get your century.
Lesson from Day Four: Revise the "80-Mile Rule."
I stay the night at one of our (my) favorite inns -- the St. Francisville Inn. Sherry and I stayed here on the last trip she took. We were on our way back from M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston on May 2 when we deviated from the normal route to stay here. I leave a bit of Sherry at the inn.
I was in Gainesville, Florida, on BIKEFLORIDA when I got the frantic call from my sister-in-law, who told me a CAT scan showed a large tumor on Sherry’s kidney. This was March 22. Less than four months later Sherry would pass away on July 15. She would spend 42 days in the hospital and would go to West Alabama Hospice for another five days.
On the morning of her death I had arrived at the hospice center planning to do what I called the "Hospice Hundred" on the 1.7-mile track that ran around the complex. Ten miles into the ride the nurse came out onto the porch and flagged me down. Ten days later I returned and did that hundred miles.
posted by Olivia at 10:35 PM
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