Into New Orleans

Had a fun evening after a day of rest-Halloween on Bourbon Street,one big party fueled by alcohol(ie others!),with names like grenades,hurricanes-etc, quite the experience.2 members of the group went missing and surfaced this morning no q and a's
We are seeing Louisiana countryside,farms,small towns,with much different culture evident, enjoying crawfish étouffée po boys gumbo jambalaya boudin sausage alligator frogs legs bread pudding beignets(repeatedly ) beans and rice chicory coffee...
We continue discussing exercise and mostly within the group exercise is very integral to all our well being mental and physical. The group actually are in general all very good athletes having all long histories of staying active. Arthur from england participated in sailing the west coast of England stopping intermittently to run up mountains in a race ?fun.
Berit a ER charge nurse too is very active, having grown up in Denmark cycling has always been part of her life.
She feels depressed without exercise and her husband encourages her to ride and do this trip --without him. He is a physician and wondered how I managed the time off

Silsbee, Texas to Merryville, Louisiana

It was with mixed feelings that we last Texas. It was an amazing three weeks, but we were ready to move on to the last third of our trip. We have now passed the 2000 mile mark.

Our stop in Merryville was very interesting. On the way in to town we stopped at the local vegetable stand. We got talking to the owners about the community. They said business was bad and people had left town after the sawmills closed. Despite this they refused to take any money for the delicious mini pecan pies they gave to Errol, Kelly and Olaf or the peanuts I got. Kelly did buy some fresh pecans from them that she shipped back to Chicago, with the help of another local.

Linda and her crew made us feel very at home in the Museum. We camped under the pavilion, literally on the stage. It was pretty cold over night - around 45 F.

Errol bought a scrabble board and we have been enjoying some lively, competitive games at night. Cathy, Joe and Errol are neck a neck in wins.

Merryville to Oberlin, LA

Today we rode on through De Ridder from Merryville, where we stopped to try to get an inner tube for Olaf. This looked like an interesting town.

The first part of the day we had a 13mph headwind. After we turned SE the wind was at our back and much more pleasant. We arrived in Oberlin to find that there was no camping option, so we are staying in a motel. We took the shuttle to a casino where we had the all you can eat buffet - and people were certainly eating all they could!

The terrain is changing again. We are seeing rice fields and sugar cane as well as cotton. We are also in Cajun country with bayous and swamp areas.

Austin to Bastrop to Carmine To Richards To Silsbee to Coldspring to Merryville Texas

We have just crossed over from Texas into Louisiana today. Our time in Texas was fascinating and the terrain varied from desert to hills to forests for the last couple of days. We also have crossed into much flatter countryside which has been an enjoyable change from the hill country.

Some highlights from the last week:

Bastrop state park is recovering from a fire last year and evidence of the damage is extensive. New growth is flourishing and we enjoyed our ride from there through the rest of the park.

In Richards we stayed at Checkpoint Harley. It is a working farm and biker haven with cabins, A fresh water pool and kitchen facilities. Ernie and Doris were very hospitable and let some of our group milk the cows and feed the calves. They seemed to be living the frontier life and enjoying it.

We had really good Texas BBQ at the Smoking Gun in Coldspring just outside the state park we were camping at

It was a long 75 miles into Silsbee. But was not too difficult as it was mostly flat.

Tonight we are staying at the Museum in Merryville, LA. The town's ladies are preparing dinner for us. They have been preparing dinner for bikers for the last 30 years.