he hotel had a decent breakfast, and we set off not too late today, about 9:30 or so. We had a relatively short ride today along old 61, going through the towns of Renova, Merigold, Mound Bayou, Winstonville, Shelby, Duncan, and Alligator before getting to lunch (and our stop for the day) at Clarksdale. We…
View MoreWe had been keeping an eye on conditions along the Mississippi for a couple of months after the bad storms in the upper midwest earlier in the year. Our concerns grew as we saw all the swollen rivers we crossed in the beginning of our trip, and were confirmed when we saw that the lower…
View MoreSheila made a breakfast casserole for us to start our day, which was just the fuel we needed. We took several pictures with Richard and her in front of the house before we got on our way. Construction along our original route forced a slight detour, but it had the added benefit of letting us…
View MoreThe longer day into El Dorado meant a shorter day into Crossett, so we were not in a rush to wake up or get moving. We did stop at a Dollar General store so I could get some work gloves that I converted into makeshift cycling gloves by cutting off the fingers. The route along…
View MoreOur early start from Shreveport was beautiful but chilly. We biked about 5 miles into the sun through Bossier City to get breakfast at Yelp-approved greasy spoon. We then took a gorgeous backroad to the town (village? hamlet? wide spot in the road?) of Bellevue, then the road to Cotton Valley, which after not too…
View MoreNo alarm and a late breakfast were followed by trying to find a bike shop to get some replacement tubes and other things. After Ubering to a couple of places, we got what we needed, and John went back to the Eldorado for his scheduled massage while I walked over to pick up the business…
View MoreToday starts with our last stretch of major shoulder for a while…I think, since I keep tweaking the route to try to avoid both shoulder and steep hills. We’re a bit concerned by the big storm coming in, but we actually managed to leave a little before 9 and think we’ll avoid the brunt. Fairly…
View MoreBreakfast at La Quinta was light-years beyond the previous day: dual wafflemakers (including a Texas-shaped one), fresh fruit, juice, pastries…much happier. Much sadder when realized John had another flat. Examining his tire, we found a piece of glass that was deeply embedded but hadn’t gone all the way through to the liner, a couple of…
View MoreThe Executive Inn and Suites, being the only public accommodations in Shepherd, are certainly not trying very hard to prevent other entrants into the market. There was only one washcloth in our two-bed room, or so we thought: we found the other one – which had apparently been left unwashed for some time, judging by…
View MoreJoe, being the procrastinator extraordinaire, didn’t start packing until after church. Amazingly, got it done in time, but then on the way to pick up John he discovered he’d forgotten his phone…doh! We were therefore a few minutes late to Discovery Green, but happy to see friends and family there to send us off. Joe’s…
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