Yep, Mardi Gras is grittier and wilder in New Orleans. I am a bit late with this post for that reason.
But first, lets talk about today's ride. The forecast today was for 10-15 mph winds, increasing as the day progressed, beginning ENE then clocking to E by 10:00. Here is the route: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/19220762
Obviously, getting on the road early would be a good idea, so we woke at 6 AM, and started riding at 8 AM. The country remains flat, and is prone to flooding.
Many homes and businesses are on stilts.
Kind of a double, double wide.
Margaret wanted to buy this one.
After about ten miles, we came to our first bridge, and hill of the day.
This bridge was unusual for Louisiana, it had a shoulder and was fairly new. Most bridges in LA that we have seen have no shoulder. It is also apparently illegal to paint a bridge in Louisiana.
We had to get through the levy system as we approached New Orleans. Here we are going through one of the gates.
Now we are inside.
I have really come to dislike riding on busy highways, so when I saw that our route on US-90 lost its shoulder for about five miles before and after crossing the Inner Harbor Navigation Canal, I started looking for an alternate. I found one. It just needed us to use a closed road over a railroad drawbridge.
Approaching the work around.
Our exit.
The little pile of girders under the I-10 bridge is our bridge.
Success.
Margaret took a video of us crossing the bridge, but it is too large to post here. We will see if we can post it elsewhere.
At last we rode down Royal St. in New Orleans.
This is a picture of me finding out that, due to a computer SNAFU, we didn't have a room.
All ended up OK; they had rooms available. We celebrated.
We had such a good time that we are staying through Ash Wednesday. Tomorrow we cross the Mississippi River on a ferry, and ride to Raceland, LA. https://ridewithgps.com/routes/19281650
No comments:
Post a Comment