Friendly Firemen, Freegan Fried Fish, Fucking Flat Tires…..& Maggots

After our shitty shitty day, which was sort of nice as uneventful riding was getting a little too routine, and the one of the reasons we like to live like this is to escape routine, we packed up our crap and headed down the gulf coast highway, which was nice although most peoples houses got crumpled and torn up from hurricane Rita Ike, which hit the area only a few months prior,  there were a lot of birdies, froggies, and mosquitoes in the salty marshes of southeast Louisiana, through which the mighty highway runs, sitting just a few feet above sea level, having to be moved inland in some places because of coastal erosion,  which is a big problem in these parts.

Then the road came to a stop and we had to cross a river on a ferry boat. The fee was $0.25, but Laurens good looks and silver tongue got us off the hook.

Then we camped.

The next day we rode through more marshes and saw like 83 alligators and 242 turtles.

Lauren asked some firemen where a good spot to camp would be, as we were now in the dark and treacherous cypress swamp,  they told us we could stay behind the station, they even gave us some french fries and fried fishes. When we woke up we found a lot of maggots in one of our bags.

Then we rode our bikes some more, a lot of people around here have been asking us if we’re married.

Then my front tire went flat and we stopped and patched it.

Then my front tire went flat again and we stopped and patched it.

Then my front tire went flat again and we stopped and patched it.

Then Lauren treated me to some crayfish pie.

Then the sun went down.

Then a police car pulled along side us and asked us what the heck we were doing and where we were going to sleep.

It turned out to be a really, really nice policeman and he sort of made the local fire department put us up for the night.
(and whom we are probably going to stay with tonight as he and his wife live just outside of New Orleans)

So we slept in (seperate) beds at the local fire department waking up at 7 am sharp and skidaddling.

And then my front tire went flat again and I patched it…and switched out the tire with the spare folding one we carry.

/*The reason for all the flats was that cracks had formed on the inside of the tire (which I got a hell of a deal on at the bike swap in Tucson) and every time I hit a bump it would pinch a (exact same every time) little hole right on the center line of the tube. */

We are now sitting in the Patterson, La library. On the way here we were followed by a truck block after block, we assumed it was an old person who had no clue what to do about bicycles in the road but it turned out to be a guy who told us to pull over ahead and he wanted to talk to us, which we assumed meant he was pissed or wanted to convert us to his religion. In actuality it was a man from New Orleans whose son has ridden all over the country and Europe.  Talked to us for a while and gave us $20 for lunch at this tasty Cuban place in the next town and told us we could stay with him for a night in New Orleans.

People have been REALLY nice to us lately…maybe its the big deer skull on my bike, maybe its the haircut, or maybe its just that good ole southern hospitality.

That’s about how it happened. Time to go.

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