cross country ride Lake Charles LA to Lafayette, LA april 12

Is it me or is the cue sheet wrong? I thought we were headed for Louisianna.


Welcome to Iowa, Louisianna, home of the Rabbit Festival, but I couldn't find anyone to tell me what it was all about. Notice the churchly neighborhood admonition.




A boat being built on the Calcasieu River


It's either for roping or herding, but I'm not sure which.

Although today was a longish day, we got a slow start because we had a heavily overcast day and it was dark. We were also riding at a slightly slower rate than usual because of the tricky head and side winds. 12 miles into the ride we came across a cue to turn left to Iowa. Looking at the ever darkening skies and increasing winds, we began to joke about having taken a wrong turn somewhere. We continued on, holding a slower pace to make the riding in the wind a bit easier but it was becoming more and more noticeable when there were trees or building sheltering us from the wind and we were able to ride upright, and when we were exposed to the swirling side winds and struggling to keep control of our bikes at all. After one particularly scary incident where three of us had our bikes shaking around like a dogs’ tail, we pulled into a car wash to get out of the winds and compare notes. About the time we had begun to debate the feasibility of riding 6 miles to the next town we suddenly heard thunder and the wind settled down into a sullen growl.

We rode back to an open convenience store, begged shelter and called up the SAG to let them know where we were so that they could come back and get us whenever possible. Since both the van and the Subaru were sweeping up riders as fast as they could, starting with the riders farthest out, and we were about two thirds of the way through the ride, we had about a half hour to wait. We settled in with coffee and chocolate milk to watch the rain sheet down and listen to the wind howl and shriek. The sky went a funny greenish, and the lady who owned the store said if it got much worse, we should definitely move away to the back of the store away from any windows. We waited and although the rain didn’t let up, the wind settled down a bit, and the funny color went away. We started thinking up songs about the rain starting with “rain, rain go away”, followed by “raindrops keep falling on my head”, and were finishing up with “ dancing in the rain” along with an impromptu tap dance with our bike cleats when the van arrived.

We scurried out and handed our bikes, one by one, up to Carol, clad in a souwester rain outfit, who was up on top of the van loading up the bikes. We were the last ones to be picked up so we went straight on to the hotel.. We found out after we got in, that we had been riding through a tornado watch area and that there were some tornado warnings in the area. It continued to rain all day, but because the van had had to go back and pick up riders, and Linda hadn’t been able to find a grocery store open on Easter Sunday, we had to eat out at a restaurant. The only place in town, other than the Mcdonald’s that was open was an all you can eat Chinese buffet, so dinner was short and sweet but not necessarily so nutritionally valuable as some other meals.

The worst part of the ride was that Carol was up on the van loading bikes in the middle of the thunder and lightning which she seemed ok with but had all of us shivering in our shoes a bit. We could feel the winds shoving van from side to side as we drove. The rain was coming in very localized fits and starts. Had it been just the rain, at least until the thunder started, we all might have ridden on, but the wind definitely confirmed our decision to go to ground and call the ride.

So our Easter Sunday was celebrated by an unintentionally weather related delay , a left turn in Iowa, and a ride through a possible tornado area. By the time we got to the motel, we were all glad that the lobby had hot fresh coffee. The five riders who made it in ahead of the storm by riding quickly straight through had unloaded the luggage and so we were all able to get changed into dry clothes without having to go into the rain again. Then we had Chinese food for dinner because it was the only place, besides Mcdonalds, that was open on Easter Sunday evening.

Todays stats

Distance 60 out of a possible 83 miles

Ride time 4:36

Speed 10.5 mph