May 12, 2007

Today’s ride was from La Place, La. to Donaldsonville, La. It was scheduled to be 37.1 miles but because the ferry we were schedulted to take across the river does not run on Saturday or Sunday we had to add an additional miles making it a total off 44 miles. My Garmin had us doing 40.7 miles but it is short because I forgot to restart if after we stopped at the first plantation. Oh, well. Today was my first bicycle crossing of the Mississippi River. Can you believe that I did this bridge?

The ride was very nice..I do like riding of flat lands. Long miles go much easier on flat lands. I rode with Jenna and Edith along River Road. This was Creole plantation country. We passed several plantation around Vacherie, Louisiana including, Laura, Felicity, St. Joseph and Oak Alley. We chose to take a tour through Laura and Oak Alley Plantations. The tour guide at Laura was wonderful. She knew so much about the plantation and the history of the area. Laura’s 160-year-old slave cabins were where west-African folktales of Compair Lapin, better know to most of us at “Br’er Rabbit” were recorded.

Laura Plantation

After Laura we rode to Oak Alley and had lunch at the restaurant on property. We all had the lunch salad because no one wanted anything heavy in our stomachs during our hot afternoon ride. Our tour of Oak Alley was very disappointing. We had a young girl who was very difficult to understand because she spoke super fast and had either a tongue ring or a lisp. We tried asking questions but all she could answer was part of her script.

Oak Alley Plantation