Monroe, LS

7.22.2010

Louisiana is by no means flat. Today we rode 120 miles (with a 5 mile detour) from Shravenport to Monroe. There was no point during the day where I was thinking, “Boy, Louisiana sure is flat”. My mind was mostly preoccupied with how beat up and broken the roads were and what exactly had happened in the movie we had watched last night: Inception. We literally rode the entire day with a crack in the road three inches wide to our left, and frequent bumps in the road where tree roots had grown under the asphalt. The ride was definitely one of our more challenging days, and the fact that the heat climbed to triple digits in the afternoon was not helping our situation. Never the less I was able to remain in the same gear ratio I had chosen before for the whole day, although I was exhausted when we finally got to lodging.

Oh. And I joined pace line New Mexico... But I did it without a van to help me out.

Our lunch was an awesome subway spread sponsored by the local Pi Kappa Phi chapter. From lunch onward, a few of their chapter’s Pi Alphas joined us and commiserated about the quality of Louisiana’s roads. For dinner, we had a friendship visit at an organization that exists to help people with disabilities live completely on their own. These people hold their own jobs, pay their own bills and buy their own groceries. The best part about dinner though is that I was able to sample some local Louisiana cuisine. Alligator that is. They mixed up the alligator meat in a tasty jumbiliah and served it with salad and home-made ice cream. They showed us a picture of the animal it came from, which had been killed by a woman’s son in the lake behind their house. The reptile was 12 feet long, and was hoisted into the air with a fork lift. She said she still had plenty of leftovers in her fridge, and that they sent the beast in to a taxidermist to be stuffed. Not quite sure what kind of home décor you can make with that.

After dinner, we made a quick Wal-Mart run, where I picked up some much needed soap and a new camera. Now my blog can be colorful again!