However, it did rain a bit overnight. It didn't do much to cool the temps. I did not sleep in my sleeping bag, nor did I sleep on it. I found the coolest was sleeping directly on my sleeping pad. It wasn't half bad!
In the morning as I was preparing breakfast, I opened my pannier and the biggest spider I have ever seen in the wild scurried out! I hollered a good, "Whoa, baby--that's a big-ass spider!", and told Christian to come see. Then I took a picture. I found a discarded section of a tent pole and used it to flick the bugger away. Boris, the guy who gave us water yesterday, drove up to see how we fared last night. I showed him the photo and asked if he knew what kind of spider it was. He didn't know, but warned me that they have brown recluse spiders here. I knew it wasn't a recluse because it was too big.
We ate our breakfast among the mosquitos, then hurriedly packed the rest of our stuff and got on the road. Even though it was overcast, the weather was warm and humid again. Riding with a breeze helped.
We spent the better part of today's ride riding on the levee. We crossed a couple of bridges. We don't think they were over the Mississippi, but we could be wrong. They were "Control Stations" (ie dams). Christian was quite interested as his job is with the German Waterways.
The levee is, of course, very flat. At times we were cruising (with the help of a tailwind) at 18mph! After awhile, we could see the Mississippi River. Christian didn't think it was the Mississippi because it wasn't wide enough, but according to my Garmin, it was indeed "Old Man River".
The book of the MRT says the Louisiana portion is not yet signed. However, we did see one sign on the levee road. It's always comforting to know for sure we're on the correct route!
Most of the wildlife we saw was of the bird variety. A lot of egrets today and more red-wing blackbirds. There were also some big hawk-like birds. Not sure exactly what they were.
We saw a sign for road construction and "gravel on roadway". Turned out we got to ride on new pavement for about 8 miles. It was heaven!
We made good time and did 50 miles to Vidalia and the Riverview RV Park. It is a great place and our cheapest, so far, of campsites we have had to pay for--$11.48 total. One of the rules here is that you can't put up a clothesline. That's okay, I made my own "clothesline" (see photo below)!
We are just across the river from Natchez, MS. Tomorrow we will leave Louisiana and enter Mississippi!
1 comment:
Looking like a lot of fun...not so sure on the spider though. Thanks for bringing us along!!
RL
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