10/13/18

I’m back in the saddle again.

Out where a friend is a friend.

It was great to get to ride again.  Yes my hip was a little sore and my jersey rubbed my shoulder but a little pain can be good.  It remined me to be careful, which I was.  I had to borrow a helmet from our Leader group, which was a little tight but it allowed me to ride.

Ed and Frank rode slow with me at the beginning of the day.  They put me in the rocking chair so they could watch me, as the above says “Out where a friend is a friend.” Since we stayed in a park last night we only had  snacks in camp and by the time we reached the first town, Bunkie, we went to a convivence store for something to carry us through to the first rest area which was at Cottonport.

The roads were again rough so I took special care for most of the morning.  Our second rest stop was Simmersport at which point we were directed off route so we could see interesting southern areas.  One such area was the White Hall Plantation House which was the home of a river boat caption, state senator and Simmersport founder.

Along this stretch we were hit with a head wind, but Eddie, one of our route leaders and a very strong rider, came along and slowed down. By this time, I was in the lead of our group and I caught on to Eddie as well as did Ed and Frank.  Eddie pulled up us into the head wind at around 15 mph for about 15 miles.  If we had ridden by ourselves we would have been lucky to averaged 12.5 mph.  That shows how strong Eddie is because he would have normally been riding at least 18 mph and upwards to 20 mph.  We were extremely grateful and it help me get back in the flow.

At New Roads we stayed at the First Baptist Church.  The church was close to downtown where we had dinner at a restaurant on an Ox Bow lake.  We witness a beautiful sun set and watched part of the Astros playoff game.