Day Five

We had hot & long straight roads today. Some bad chip seal for over ten miles. Louisiana is beautiful. People are very friendly. Have new friends at Leevines Exxon in Gardner; thanks for the support and the kindness. We also met Dereck Taylor Sr. Aka “Ghetto Fabulous” and his crew in Alexandria, LA. Dereck is from NYC & insists that we will love it there. Thanks Dereck; be cool. Right as we were riding into Jonesville, LA I ran over something with my back wheel. It started to thump and then about 3/10 mile from hotel…BAM! It blew out through a 2 inch gash ruining a 7 dollar tube and 60 dollar tire. Now I’ve used my spare and lost a tube. I hope there is a bike shop in Natchez, MS. Tomorrow we head for Natchez, MS and the Natchez State Park. Very short day at around 50 miles but I could really use a short day about now. Had dinner at Chittlin’s tonight; grilled shrimp, potato, salad, onion rings & about 5 cups of sprite! Service was great, sorry I missed her name (maybe see her for breakfast so I can thank her for the hurricane update). So, we got hotel rooms tonight in Jonesville. Met some really nice folks; of whom I can only seem to remember Rick and his little boy JoJo. Some really nice folks and I thank them for the kind words and support. The shower was GREAT tonight and very much needed (I even managed a shave on my sun-burnt face)! Sharon volunteered for laundry detail so I paid for dinner. Now I’m pretty much wiped out and going to turn in. Thanks go out to everybody following on twitter. Thanks for the kind words in the comments section (when you make a comment below it automatically get sent directly to my phone). So, by all means… Keep’em coming. Enjoy the ride! Oh, btw, I may have grossly under estimated the number of rain days I’ll need based upon the recent tropical storm activity. Let’s just see what tomorrow brings and do it one day at a time.