Day 41

Woke to clouds and VERY dark skies . . . heavy weather predicted. But soon we were on our way from the school towards Opeloussa, our home for the night. 50 or 60 mile option today but most are taking the 50 mile route because of the weather . . .

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. . . easy living on the river as we neared McGee’s landing  . . .

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. . . where we enjoyed coffee and beignets. Great rest stop . . .

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The brochure mentioned swamp buggy rides available, and I had visions of riding in one of these, as Smoochie had done on her last visit to LA . . . but it ended up being more of a pontoon boat that went out on the lake for a 1/2 hour cruise. Pending weather . . . most of us passed on the ride.

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Saw this feller’ in the store with a photo of the guy who snagged him!!!!

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Life seemed easy as we pedaled along the levee . . .

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. . . and near some of the backwater bayou’s.

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The beignets had hardly settled and it was time to stop at another brewery. Greg is trying to decide which of the eight to sample. He ended up having more than one . . . but less than eight!!!

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Here was a weekend project in someone’s front yard . . . not sure how they are going to get it to the water.

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We have developed a running joke on our Southern Tier ride about needing some ‘recovery’ after our daily rides. This suggestion would not work for us, though. We usually start ‘recovering’ about 3:00pm and it may last until dinner . . . and it happens 7 days a week. We do celebrate though with a number of different kinds of  beverages!!!!!

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Soon we arrived in Arnaudville, our lunch stop. The skies were heavy but we were hungry again so stopped at one of the food venues . . . this one offering samples of boudin sausage.

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Cindy was the first one brave enough to down one . . . consensus was they were too hot to fill a po’ boy . . .

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So I had Claire make me up a shrimp po’ boy with their ‘secret’ tartar sauce, the store is know for. Delicious! Claire is from Canada, came down to visit her cousin, who owns the store, and was immediately put to work!  Merci, Claire!!!!

 

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YUM . . . .

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As we left Arnaudville I saw this display and stopped to see what it was all about. Ends up it is one of the 14 Catholic, Stations of the Cross, that stretches down the road, with one every half mile. Some are in peoples front yards . . .

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We have had some BIG dogs come out after us on this trip but this one takes the cake . . . mmmmmmmmm, might not have been quite this big but seems so, after having had 3 IPA, ’samples’!!!

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Here was an interesting little cemetery I passed by . . . only looks to be about 40 feet wide . . . sandwiched between two lots . . .

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but still actively used!!!

A little rain must fall . . . but right after taking this photo, the heavens opened up and for the rest of the afternoon it was RAINNNNNNNN . . .

 

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Tonight there was a group dinner at the arena, where all the campers are staying overnight.

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Plenty of pre dinner beer supplied by the ride . . .

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Everything Cajun with either fried or grill catfish . . . and

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. . . funnel cakes for dessert. Gaylord was one happy guy . . .

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Yummmm . . . more fried dough!!

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So . . . if you were camping indoors because of the wet ground outside, you could stay here and sleep on the floor with 300 of your best new friends, and use the two woman’s and men’s bathrooms, located on the back wall (arrow shows Tommy G’s little hovel) . . .  or . . .

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. . . you could stay where I did. Easy choice for me!!!!