Ride Across US Day 13

The second forecast round of severe thunderstorms came through very early in the morning and did not dissipate until about 9 AM. This delayed my start until about 10:30 but what a very comfortable place to be delayed, the Wildflower B&B. The weather was now beautiful, clear and cool. Not to have an uneventful day I had to first detour about 20 miles off route to the south to Zachary LA just north of Baton Rouge. You see I was all comfortable sitting talking with Michele, I stood up forgetting my glasses were on my lap. My first step was on the glasses snapping the fish line that holds the lens in. No problem, ride to the nearest Walmart eye care center get them fixed. The Adventure cycling route is on some highways but mostly back roads and small towns. The ride to Walmart was along a somewhat busy highway with wide but terrible shoulders, not a problem just ride. Arriving at the Walmart I walked the bike into the entrance lobby while many watched in surprise, had my glasses fixed, for free and had lunch at Subway. Back on the road and headed north east to rejoin the route. There is a supplemental Cycling route on the Adventure Trail route that goes into the Baton Rouge Airport so I quickly picked that up heading out. My day was going to be a short ride again because of the weather and glasses delay, oh well. I road to St Francisville, a very pretty river town and took the ferry across the Mississippi. The river was high and muddy, as were all the rivers around this region many were expected to flood in the next couple of days. I ended the day about 5 miles further in the town of New Roads which was along a false river. These are large lakes that have been left when the Mississippi has made one of its many changes. I had a nice room in a 20 room motel associated with a restaurant. Yahoo, a restaurant, which was on a float on the lake. No dinner at a gas station tonight. Today's observation; Shoulders of roads are an interesting part of the road, mostly ignored by drivers. What they are is a collection area for whatever comes off of or out of vehicles. I have passed by enough spare parts to build a car, I often wonder where all those big bolts come from. You better keep your eyes on the shoulder ahead or be surprised what you hit and I have. There are things that I've passed that need to be left off the blog!