Day 5 – Dew and Despair
Saturday, October 25th
DeRitter, LA to Opelousa, LA
We got an early start today, leaving just after dawn with the night’s chill still in the air. After making a short stop for provisions and chatting with some locals about the bikes and our trip, we left DeRitter and joined up with LA 26. This was such a gorgeous ride. The air was fresh, cool and clean, dew still blanketed the land and mist calmly rose off the lakes and ponds we passed. It was impossible not to enjoy the morning.
We even got to pass several pastures of grazing cattle. Apparently Louisiana cattle are much more worldly than Texas cattle. They weren’t even phased by our presence and only a few even bothered to look up for our passing. But then we approached a pasture with a calf. Without the benefit of the wisdom other Louisiana cattle have amassed, he didn’t know what to do at the sight of us. So he ran. This startled the two other calves in the field, so they ran. The subsequent process was pretty revealing: the older, wiser cows who hadn’t bothered to notice us saw the calves running and immediately followed suit. Yes, that’s right. We started ANOTHER stampede! This one even threaded through an open gate into a neighboring field. Is that not an awesome accomplishment? Now we’ll HAVE to start a tally. Stampedes caused by us: 2.
The stampede had us grinning for several miles, but as our breakfast wore off, our muscles wore down and Dad’s ankle wore out, we decided we should take a break. We stopped at a gas station in Oberlin, bought a soda, used the lockless, handleless restroom, then sat down by the bikes to take care of Dad’s ankle while we drank a Dr. Pepper. Sitting there, massaging his ankle, we talked and watched the road. To our amusement, a cop drove by with his lights on but no siren. He wasn’t speeding – just driving along a little under the speed limit, heading West. We smirked and went on with our conversation when a few minutes later, he passed driving East. Same speed, still with his lights on, he quietly pulled into the gas station parking lot, circled a bit, pulled out, drove East a bit more, pulled into another parking lot, circled, pulled out again and headed East out of our sight. “Looks like he pulled someone over then forgot where he put them.”
Then an Oversized Load truck toting some kind of gigantic tank passed by, trailing a caravan of drivers angered at their slowed progress. Dad laughed: “Is that the same guy we passed yesterday afternoon?” “Yeah, I think it is.” This truck driver was one of the few who had been polite to us on the road, and we could see by his cautioned pace (and angry cavalcade) that his courtesy yesterday was no fluke. This guy is a careful driver.
Back on the bikes, we enjoyed 26 all the way to it’s intersection with 190 where we turned East and stopped in Basile for lunch. We stopped at a drive-up restaurant that specialized in fried chicken, but also excelled at Po-Boys. Everyone in the area loves the food at this place, so it took us a while to get ours, but the sausage Po-Boy was amazing. While waiting on our food we talked to lots of locals about the bikes, our destinations and the best roads to follow. Except the fact that our muscles got cold waiting on the food, it was a very pleasant stop.
However, after this point everything went sour. And it all started with Eunice. The drivers on 190 near Eunice were clearly the careless type, so we were on the lookout for trouble when it struck. A new, big, black pickup cut us off to make a left turn while we were cruising down the highway at over 20 mph. He stopped in the chicken lane when he saw we were coming, then decided to pull in front of us when we were almost to the intersection and chose to stop in the middle of the intersection as we were just upon it. Thankfully, nothing happened other than a hard adrenaline hit to the blood, but it only reinforces my mantra: If you’re going to drive a truck, don’t be an #@!r$*%q&. If you’re going to be an #@!r$*%q&, don’t drive a truck. Drive a moped. With a helmet. Or without (that’s really your choice).
We tried to calm our nerves and focus on Eunice’s traffic, then on the other side of town we hit glass. Someone (maybe in a truck) had chucked their Bud Lite bottle on the side of the road. The angle of the road masked the huge shards of glass until I was on top of them and by that point it was too late to warn Dad. His rear tube when flat with a pop and a hiss and we pulled over to fix it. His tire and tube were shredded and completely shot. We finally got on our way with a new tire and tube when, a few miles down the road, the new tube went flat. We were pretty sick of Eunice by this point, so Dad fixed
it up and we rushed on to Opelousa – our destination for the night.
When we arrived in Opelousa, we began the motel search. Keep in mind that at this point, Dad has been pulling (not doing any pushing) on his pedals at 20-24 mph for this 90+ mile day. One place – the Ranch Motel – wanted $50 for what should have been a $20-25 room. It took us four calls and three tries with the GPS to find the Budget Inn which wanted $55 for what should have been a $30 room. The Oaks, advertised as being open was closed for renovations, and the Townhouse Motel was asking $60 for a room with torn wall paper, badly stained carpet, dubious bedspreads and a pubic hair in the tub. We called some of the major chains in the area, Best Western, Days Inn and the Holiday Inn, but, as we are finding more and more often, all of their rooms are taken by construction workers and refugees from the hurricanes. The smaller motels are reaping the benefit by charging triple what they should, knowing they can depend on the abundance of desperation to fill their rooms.
We went back to the Budget Inn and she let us stay for $50. Unfortunately, the only restaurant in the area was a Church’s Chicken and we had had our fill of fried chicken for awhile, so while Dad cared for his ankle, I visited Andy’s Supermart, which looked like a supermarket on the outside, but had mostly cheap clothes, sugary drinks and beer on the inside. Their only fresh food was bananas. I also checked the CVS and the Family Dollar where I bought peanut butter crackers, oatmeal, Mandarin Orange snack cups, a jar of bread and butter pickles and a root beer. This composed our dinner, along with some Deviled Ham chicken spread we picked up in DeRitter that morning. For a day that started out so nicely, it sure took a turn for the worse.
Today’s Quick Stats:
Bike Distance (mi) Average Speed (mph)
MiniWini 95.12 18.6
Sti(ck/g) 94.55 18.6