Hank – We said goodbye to Bill and Erin and thanked them very much for hosting us for two days. We checked out the trail on top of the levee for a bit. It was cool to see a ship coming under the Huey P. Long Bridge. In a not very long time we were on Hwy 90 and enjoying a push from the wind. Along the way we ran into Ray Allen. He was doing his birthday ride a day early since we have bad weather coming tomorrow. He’s a Warm Showers host and lives in Houma. We were initially to camp in Houma but with the bad weather we’re going to sit out tomorrow we thought we should go farther west. Ray gave me his number and told us to let him know. So we had a place to stay, which was nice, if the winds went south on us.

When we turned southward we suffered from strong side winds that were also slightly ahead of us. I was slogging on the way to Raceland and a break there was welcome. So the wind slowed us down a lot on the way to Houma. But once we got back on Hwy 90 and were heading west again we were flying so we decided to push on to Amelia since the wind would help us nearly the entire way.

We took a break at a gas station in Houma. While munching on a snack and having a cold drink, a man walked by and recognized us. He had seen us on the road about 10 miles away. Kathy spoke to him and the guy asked her to repeat herself. He said he was trying to wrap his mind around her accent. I told him it was okay, because he talked funny, too. He got a big laugh out of that.

After that the winds carried us on Hwy 90 all the way to Amelia. Whew! What a long day in the saddle. The bargain hotel in Amelia gives you exactly what you pay for without all the extras most people are used to. But it’s better than being in a tent when the rain and storms hit tomorrow. Dinner was at a Mexican restaurant across the parking lot that is also owned by the hotel. The margarita and food was above average. So it was a good day overall.

Kathy – We had a nice breakfast and conversations with Erin and Bill before we had to say our goodbyes to these wonderful people. Before we headed out I gave them a packet of my flower seeds. Erin will plant them when the weather warms up a bit more. Louisiana flowers are all set. 🌼 We are grateful for all of Erin and Bill’s amazing hospitality. Hoping to see and host them at our place in Spokane in the future. We have lots of paved rails-to-trails bike paths that would be great to ride on with them.

So off we went. Leaving their home we had a levy right next to us. It was interesting to see a big ship in the Mississippi River right next to us, yet it was above us. I think Hank got a picture of it, kinda cool stuff to see. The weather was in the 50’s and sunny when we left just after 8:00 am. The clouds soon came in and remained with us throughout the rest of our ride and temps increased to the mid 60’s. Good riding weather.

We had our longest ride yet 74 miles! Our previous record was 67 miles. We initially planned to only ride 50 miles but we ended up catching a nice tailwind so we decided to ‘roll’ with it. Once we made that decision the winds soon changed. In the end we had 34 miles of headwinds/sidewinds, and 40 miles of tailwinds. We were slow during the headwind/sidewind portion and much faster during the tailwind riding. We pulled into the hotel around 4:30 pm.

Tomorrow is predicted to be heavy thunderstorms with headwinds in the 20+ mph range most of the day. The only thing between these Louisiana towns are wetlands and bayous. So tonight we snagged a hotel in the small town of Amelia, Louisiana and we will sit out tomorrow to allow this storm system to pass. The storms down here are quick to stir up tornadoes so we are always playing it safe when the big systems come through.

We found a hotel for $49/night. It is a new hotel that caters to the local fishermen and construction workers for long-term rentals. Thought, man we got a great deal! Well, as we moved down the hallway there was a note on every door stating tomorrow the exterminator will be entering every room to spray for critters. Not again! Reminders from lodging in Georgia quickly came back, so I kept all my pannier bags sealed closed with the bags remaining up high on my bike.

Once we got settled into the hotel and cleaned up (borrowed a hair dryer from the front hotel desk) we hit the Mexican restaurant nearby. Not much else around and we were starving. Dinner was okay, nothing to write home about though. 😁 Hoping you sleep well tonight.

A couple of notes… 

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