Day 32 - New Orleans LA - Foley AL

178.6mi



















Felt good, so I pushed the mileage. Make hay while the sun is out.


Left New Orleans around 4:30 a.m. very easy to get out. Thanks AJ for your hospitality. My stay in New Orleans was certainly memorable! Really saw it riding for the first big chunk of miles. I didn't stop my bike for the first 78 miles. I had enough water, I had enough food, and I didn't need to use the bathroom. I think I only stopped at a couple stoplights. Otherwise I just kept on trucking


When I was leaving New Orleans I saw a bunch of big manufacturers. I saw Folgers coffee and a NASA plant.


There were a couple bridges that were closed due to construction, but I was able to sneak guy on them. The car is allowed.


I made it to Mississippi pretty quickly. And I pretty much just stayed on one road the whole way there. Guess what that road was? Yes I have returned to Old faithful, US 90.


Had some decent wind, 10ish mile an hour tail/cross tail wind. Good riding.


Very beautiful riding, probably some of the best on the trip so far. As soon as I got over the bridge at Bay of St Louis, I saw the Gulf of Mexico. I was able to ride along that for many miles. Extremely beautiful.


I was only planning on doing around a hundred miles today, but by the time I got to my destination it was only 11:00 a.m. The morning mileage flew by! So I decided to go a little further. Might not just make it all the way to my aunt's house?


So that's what I did


Little by little I made my way through Mississippi and out into Alabama. Once I was in Alabama I just kept on rolling.


I made very few stops today. The first like I said before was at 78 miles, The next one was after an additional 50, and then I made one more stop to fill up water 20 miles out from my aunt's house.


As I was going through Alabama I knew I was going to have to take a ferry to get across this one part. I checked the schedule, and the ferry left at 2:00 and 2:45. So I tried to get to get there by 2:00, but I needed to refill water and that would push it outside my range. So I got water got some food, and got back biking.


When I was about 10ish miles out I realized that I might be able to make the 2:00 departure. So for about the last 20 minutes I did in all out effort to get there. I mean really going hard. I was in the areo bars, in full TT mode. Really pushing it. And I got to the ticket booth at 1:59. I made it with maybe 2 minutes to spare. I was flying through that place. It was pretty fun!


And then it was about a 25-30 minute ferry ride. I ate some food and enjoyed it. I was able to see oil rigs off in the distance. There was a lot more than I was thinking, and they were a lot closer to land and I imagined.


Once I got to the other side it was 30 mi to my aunt's house. Piece of cake


Unfortunately there was a really bad stretch with heavy heavy traffic. Not much of a shoulder and not the nicest drivers. But I got it done.


Overall today I had to do a lot of 10 to 30 second all out sprints, this is not ideal. When you're biking, you have a matchbook. Every time you do a sprint you burn a match. Once all your matches are gone, game over. But I never got to that point. I felt really good the whole ride.


The weather was all right. I think it was low to mid-90s and very humid. Very humid. My hands were constantly soaking wet.


I rolled into my aunt's house around 4:30 p.m.. so that's only 12 hours in between when I left and when I arrived. So with brakes included, and with the 25 minute ferry ride included, I averaged 15 mph. That is crazy fast! So my ride time speed was probably 17 mph. Maybe faster. I don't care if I have a tailwind, that is very fast riding for 180 mi basically.


Had some good shrimp, broccoli, and french fries at a delicious restaurant. It's good to be with family. It made the riding a lot easier today. Family is always great. 


Thanks Shirley and Reese!


Sitting pretty good right now.


Also it has been exactly one month since I started

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