After a refreshing night sleep at the Best Western, we were back on the road again. This is our 11th consecutive day of riding.
We rode into Baton Rouge, home of LSU, and found a bike shop directly on our route.
These guys were super nice, and I purchased a new tire to replace the tire which had been gashed the day before. They had Specialized Armadillo Elites there, so I got one of those. I would have preferred the Original Armadillo (for both price and toughness), but sometimes you have to take what you can get. Jake purchased a brand new rack, so we didn't have to wait for his temporary fix to eventually fail.
After passing through downtown Baton Rouge and the capitol building, we came upon the bridge to cross the Mississippi.
This bridge was a little scary. OK, a lot scary. Two lanes of highway traffic with no shoulder. Luckily, the traffic was light enough that almost every single car got into the left lane for us. The second challenge of this bridge was the gigantic expansion joints. They could have easily swallowed our tires and dumped us onto the road. It's amazing that neither of us wrecked. However, once we were over the bridge, it became apparent that one of the expansion joint bumps had put yet another flat tire into Jake's back wheel. (see scary bridge in background)
Perhaps 10 miles down the road, Jake was the victim of another rear wheel flat tire. I took the time to be a joker.
From that point on, we had a very smooth ride into a town called Opelousas. They permit camping in the city park, so we got dinner at a grocery store and headed down to set up camp. A bunch of guys were hanging out at one of the pavilions playing a bunch of Zydeco music, a pretty cool end to a good day. 88 Miles felt pretty easy today, which was possible with yet another fantastic weather day.
Day 34 - 88.41 Miles
Trip to Date - 1826.94 miles
Coast to Coast - 880.49 miles
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