Beating Ike

Day 7, Friday, September 12, 2008: The weather today was quite a surprise. It was still very hot and very windy, but no rain. We were hoping to take the route across Dauphin Island, but the road was underwater. We ended up taking highway 90 into Mobile. There was a lot of water in the city and many streets and roads were under water. The ride across the Bayway bridge was quite an experience. The winds were so strong that we struggled making progress in low gear. At the bottom of the bridge water was across the road and we got our feet wet riding through the water. Jeremy had a blowout just before the water crossing but I made him ride across the water just for the experience. We had no spare tube. We did find a bike shop in Daphne and discovered that our break pads were gone on both bikes. We met with Dr. Rosandich, President of the United States Sports Academy and spent the night with Dr. Lawrence Bestmann who teaches for the Academy. The winds are fairly strong, but we are hoping to be able to continue our journey in the morning.

Day 6, Thursday, September 11, 2008: This was a very difficult day for me as I had an upset stomach and struggle the entire day. We were off route the entire day. We took highway 26 through Poplarville and Wiggens to highway 63. Highway 26 was very hilly and we hit our first rain showers just east of Wiggens. The headwinds were significantly higher today and there was a lot more cloud cover. It was, however, just as muggy as ever. We are staying in a motel just south of Wade, Mississippi. The winds have really picked up. We are hoping tomorrow is ride able as we really want to make it to Daphne, Alabama. We are hoping to stay with Dr. Bestmann and the US Sports Academy would like to do an article on Jeremy.

Day 5, Wednesday, September 10, 2008: It was a little cooler today, but the love bugs were back in mass. The temperatures started in the high 70’s and peaked out in the high 80’s. The winds were very calm. The big surprise was the hills once we left St. Francisville. We had rolling hills all day. There were no “granny gear” hills, but several that got the blood pumping a little. I thought all of Louisiana was flat, not true! Most of the roads so far are very narrow with no shoulders. The grass along the road comes right up to the edge of the road. The good news is the fact that traffic was very light except for all the utility trucks. They were every where. There were several logging truck and several of them laid on their horns to warm us. I’m not sure what they expected us to do since there was no shoulder at all. Jeremy kind of chewed me out today for wanting to do this final leg of the ride in September. He is very unhappy with the extreme heat and humidity. Our goal for today was Franklinton. However, there was no place to stay in Franklinton because the utility and clean up crews were taking up the motel rooms and it was way to hot to camp out. Bogalusa is a town of 13,000 plus people and about 20 miles away but we felt the odds of finding a place to stay would increase significantly. This would make for a 90 mile plus day, but we headed to Bogalusa and did find a place to stay. Rain has been predicated everyday so far, but we have yet to receive any rain. Our luck may run out tomorrow as the effects of hurricane Ike may start having an impact. Our goal for tomorrow is Vancleave, Mississippi.

Day 4, Tuesday, September 9th:
This was a day of dogs, snakes, and debris. We had all kinds of dogs coming after us today, but the most exciting was when 5 dogs from on farmhouse chased us. I was in the lead and a yellow dog just kept coming and coming. Jeremy was right behind me and all of a sudden I heard a great “Lion King” type roar and the dogs took off. We saw six snakes, five of which were dead and one alive. It is amazing how many utility trucks are in the area fixing power lines. We have seen crews from Ohio, Wisconsin, Texas, Georgia, Missouri, and Illinois. I have no idea who is coordinating the power problems, but it’s quite an effort, very impressive. As Jeremy said, there must have been a lot of angles in the area because it was amazing how many homes were missed by falling trees. This was a very hot, muggy, and long day. Our goal was Simmesport. We arrived at Simmesport around 2:00 and there was no place to stay and it was very very hot. However, in Simmesport I had a muffuletta sandwich and that was the best sandwich that Jeremy, George, and I felt we had ever eaten. We also had some very good boudin. We decided totry for New Roads with the hope of finding a place to stay. The biggest hill of the day was the incline up to the bridge that crossed over the Atchafalaya River. We made it two Morganza and “ran out of gas” and had to catch a ride to New Roads. We caught the ferry to St. Francisville where we spent the evening. We had no love bugs today until we crossed over the Mississippi. In St. Francisville most of the town was still out of power and all restaurants were closed. We did obtain a meal from the Red Cross. Only one filling station had a generator so they were able to sell gas and some food items. We really lucked out with a place to stay.