May 3, 2014

Days 52-54: April 25th – 27th: Peachtree City, GA

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After a super fun and relaxing few days in Atlanta with Sophie’s sister Marisa, we headed down to Peachtree City for my friend Megan’s long-awaited wedding. My college soccer teammates all came to town for the big day and we had an absolute dream of a weekend. We don’t get to see as much of each other as we would like these days so when we do get a chance to get together it is always a really fun time. The wedding was gorgeous and the reception was a blast. Just like the old days, we danced late into the evening and ended the evening with pizza.

 

After the late night on Saturday, Sophie and I took our sweet time getting out of the hotel on Sunday morning. Getting back on the bikes was a challenge after five days off (and consecutive nights of partying). Peachtree City has no bike lanes on its roads — instead, there is a system of golf cart paths all over town — so we meandered our way through the suburbs attempting to get back into rural Georgia. Unfortunately, the golf cart paths wind their way through woods and residential neighborhoods and it’s not always easy to tell which way you’re going. Eventually, Sophie totally lost her patience with it and we ended up just riding in the road to get out of town. Shortly thereafter, we discovered that Google and Apple maps do not differentiate between paved and unpaved roads which made for an “adventurous” ride. After 50 miles, several of which were on unpaved roads, we ended the day at a state park and set up camp. Having spent the previous six nights in fairly luxurious accommodations, sleeping in our tent again would take a little getting used to.

 

Apr 14, 2014

New Orleans to Moss Point, MS

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We left New Orleans reluctantly on Saturday. Having had such a great time we were inclined to stick around through the weekend but a reasonably priced hotel room proved elusive. Our sendoff meal was at Cake Cafe, my new favorite place on earth. Riding out of the city ended up being complicated as we navigated some incredibly poorly paved roads and confusing one-way street situations. We rode up through the Ninth Ward and had almost cleared the city when we came to a railroad crossing. A train was coming through slowly and eventually just rolled to a halt. We sat waiting for it for at least 30 minutes. It was crazy. I took it as a sign that we weren’t meant to leave but eventually we got through and rode east on Route 90 toward Mississippi. A few miles out of town we saw a big sign warning of traffic delays the following day because of the Ironman Triathlon that would be running. We thanked our lucky stars that we avoided getting stuck in that. On 90 we noticed a couple guys erecting a “ghost bike,” a bicycle frame painted white as a memorial to a cyclist who had been killed in that location. It turned out that a firefighter from Atlanta was in town training for the Ironman and had been struck and killed by a car the previous day exactly where we were then riding. We were informed of this by several locals at a gas station/restaurant/bar where we had stopped to rest. They were all telling us about the accident and how we should be careful out on the roads. They were all also very clearly loaded and we watched several of them hop in their cars and drive off. I even sat and watched as one guy drove in, went into the store, came out with a 22oz. beer, got in his car, opened it, took a swig, then drove off. Unbelievable. So yeah, that was a pretty gnarly experience. Back on the road, keeping a watchful eye in our rearview mirrors, we rode through the bayous and eventually over the Mississippi border. Dumbfoundingly enough, it is apparently legal to drink and drive in Mississippi (according to both my brother and the internet). As long as you don’t blow a 0.08% BAC, you can operate a vehicle while consuming alcohol. Whoa to that.

Our first couple nights in MS we camped at state parks where there a a million jillion kabillion gnats and I now have an equal number of bug bites. We also visited the Jefferson Davis Presidential Library and historical home, Beauvoir, in Biloxi. Yes, such a thing exists. After getting our history on we hit a local joint which was packed with (mostly drunk) locals having all-you-can-eat crawfish. I decided to join them and, after struggling with the little critters for a while, a local guy came over and said, “You’re not from around here are you?” He said he knew because “No one from around here would ever take a fork to a plate of crawfish.” Then he proceeded to pick up several crawfish off my plate and show me how to peel/shuck them. Southerners are VERY friendly. Anywho, now I know how to eat crawfish like a southerner. On the menu for tomorrow, a swamp tour where we will allegedly get a chance to feed some alligators. Stay tuned!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Apr 14, 2014

New Orleans!

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Clearly we’re a little behind on the blog so I’ll just skip to the good stuff. My parents met us in New Orleans and it was a total blast! We went to a New Orleans Pelicans NBA game, Sophie and I stuck around for part of the French Quarter Festival and saw Dr. John play, we poked around in all the little neighborhoods and generally ate our way through the city. We ate some of the best food I’ve ever had… every meal. Seriously, we never ate (or drank) anything that wasn’t incredibly delicious. A couple days after we left, Sophie and I were trying to decide what our favorite meal or dish was and we couldn’t decide — everything was so awesome. A huge thanks to my mom and pops for putting us up and taking us out.

 

Apr 4, 2014

Day 30: April 3rd, La Grange to Richards

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Somehow, we are still in Texas.

We found a lovely little coffee shop in La Grange this morning with delicious coffee and, mysteriously, free refills which we took full advantage of. It was clearly the only show in town because the joint was hopping with all sorts of locals. Among them was a guy who was super duper talkative. We learned many things about him including, but not limited to, that he was a youth minister in west Texas for a while and now has pictures of all his guns on his iPhone. Also, he said he’d been to California once and he liked it until he went to a gun shop and they wouldn’t let him even hold a gun because he didn’t have a valid state drivers license. It seemed weird to me that he would be just checking out a gun shop while on vacation but then it occurred to me that maybe people who are into guns do that, just for fun. Like how Sophie and I like to stop into local bike shops just for fun. Add it to the list of things we’ve learned on the road.

After our extended morning at the coffee shop we got a bit of a late start. We stopped not long after we started when we ran into the antique fair that apparently happens twice a year on the road heading into Round Top, TX. It is literally five miles of antiques. At least. It is crazy. And people really seem to get into it. They bring U-hauls to truck away all their goodies. Sophie misplaced her sunglasses this morning so we stopped when we saw a tent selling some. She picked up a pair of gangster shades and we continued on.

For some reason we stopped a million times today and the day seemed interminable. When we were about 11 miles out from our intended destination a truck pulled over ahead of us and the driver got out and walked over to us. He asked where we were headed and where we planned to stay. Turned out, he owned the B&Bish-type-place we were planning to stay. This place is a working cattle ranch and the owners, Ernie and Doris, have built bunkhouses so travelers can stay. They allow camping, which we had intended to do, but it seemed like it was about to rain (which it did) so we opted to stay in one of the bunkhouses. It is awesome. We have matching twin beds with Harley Davidson sheets. We also did laundry and cooked a hot meal in the kitchen. It’s almost like we’re real people! There are six other cyclists here tonight which is great.

Maybe next time I write a post we will have somehow, some way, emerged from Texas.

 

Apr 3, 2014

Days 26 – 28: March 30 – April 1, Hanging in Austin

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Concerned Mother #1 (Mad’s mom, Karen) arrived first, followed shortly by Concerned Mother #2 (my mom), and we spent a few days exploring Austin, where none of us had been before. We were joined for part of it by Virginia, who I am somehow related to through various marriages (step-aunt-in-law?) and who is an Austin native. She showed us the inside scoop which undoubtedly led to a more interesting and authentic experience than we would have otherwise had.

We finished up our stay in Austin with a fun evening out for some local beers and food. All in all we had a great time, and next are antsy to finish up Texas!