A Top 3 Worst Day on the Bike
Saturday was a day to forget. It was right up there with some of the disasters on my first bike tour- like the day from hell where 20 miles into my ride I fell into a sewer and cracked my helmet open…then 50 miles down the road some methhead pulled a gun on me. Or the day I got dehydration sickness in the middle of the desert and was crapping all over the side of the road.
Why Saturday was so bad:
We spent half the day on our computers trying to catch up on stuff and check maps and weather…we left Beaumont around 3 and headed for the gulf coast in a very caffeinated state. The plan was to ride the gulf coast highway to New Orleans.
Got absolutely lost in our post-caffeinated downer state and ended up riding about 24 extra miles in the dark…in oil refinery land. It looked like something out of a sci-fi novel.
I crashed into Jared and skinned my knee pretty bad.
Road over 4 unnecessary bridges- 2 of which were pretty terrifying– very steep grades/no shoulders.
Jareds front tire was leaking more and more all day until he finally gave in changed it at 9 pm.
Went through Port Arthur at 12 a.m. on Saturday night- wow- crackheads fighting, prostitutes, a methed out woman, some guy that came up and slowed down next to us pumping his bass, gunshots across the street, and a pack of wild dogs that chased us out of town.
When we finally got out of town Jared was completely turned around. We ended up riding into the oil refinery and asking the security guard for directions.
Rode over 2 more gnarly bridges. Then rode 20 miles in the rain and headwind (@ 8mph) desperately searching for a camp spot in the marsh, where you can’t camp. On the upside of things Jared was scoping out a potential campsite and found a prize deer skull with 4 point antlers…you’ll see.
At mile 93 for the day, we reach a town and found an abandoned lot at 2 a.m. We unpacked our bags and got swarmed by mosquitoes (the terrible saltwater marsh kind).
A little while after we fell asleep it started to thunder and lightning and rain. I realized we were under the tallest tree around. I was a little scared, but we were so exhausted we couldn’t move. In fact we didn’t move until 4 p.m. the next day when it was too hot and humid to stay inside.
The End.
Lar
Pictures to come…
/*We are writing this from a mobile library bus in Cameron, La*/
I just read your crazyguyonabike post and thought I’d suggest that you should get some sort of mapping software on your computer. You can load the entire US roadways onto your hard drive, so next time you guys are retardly lost, you just fire up the ‘puter and figure it out. Some even have GPS thingies you can attach via USB or bluetooth to have it find your exact location. Or you could just splurge $90 and get an actual GPS unit. But at least find the software so as a last resort you can’t ever be completely lost. Next time you’re parked somewhere for a month, I’ll send you a copy with the next batch of clif bars.
i have that balckberry…it’ll give me the cords fo free….but it also got hit by a car and is unpridfdicatlule
Sorry about the shitty times.
That is an awesome picture, though.
Leila! Leila! Leila!
From a distance it looks like Lauren is standing in front of the burning remnants of a city
(its an refinery)
sh*t the bed! glad you’re ok
I’m sorry, Lar, that sucks. You’ll be in FL soon enough though. Then you can hang out in the warlock’s clubhouse and be a badass all day. At least you’re not working…
i’m sorry to hear that!