Feb
03
Don’t worry. We’re safe and sound on the Louisiana/Texas border, still without cell service, but we’ve encountered a serious glitch: Alan’s camera died. It’s been on its way out for a while, but it’s finally dead. The problem? Affording a replacement. As you probably know, we’re not being paid to ride our bikes around the country, but with generous donations, some of our own money and a grant from the Nathan Cummings Foundation, we have enough to come pretty close to covering our expenses to finish the ride. Unfortunately, that doesn’t cover replacement camera costs. We’ve contacted both Canon and Nikon numerous times about borrowing gear for the trip, but neither has gotten back to us. So here we are, on the border, having just finished 3000 miles and unsure what to do next. We’ve talked about it all day and we can either: spend the money and get a used camera, then hope that we get another grant to cover the last leg of the trip (across the midwest) or stop and work somewhere until we earn enough to come back and continue. The latter gets dicy with the weather and we may have to wait a year until the timing is right again, and the former is really a taking a leap of faith- we may get stuck somewhere in the Northwest.
We’re frustrated and exhausted from trying to figure out what to do. We want nothing more than to continue, and we’ll share my camera for the next couple days, but aaaaarrrrrgggg! We feel like we’ve come way too far to give up now, and of course, the project isn’t really about America yet- at this point it’s pretty much just the east coast and deep south. Not exactly the grand sweep that we were aiming for. So what do we do? I dunno. We’re going to keep thinking and try to figure something out.
In the meantime, check out our Photoshelter account! We’ve started to add photos from Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana.
Feb
02
So we know it has been a few days, but we have been cycling through one of the only dead zones for Verizon in the country. Both of our cell phones and our wireless card have been out of commission for the last couple days. We’ll try to catch everyone up.
New Orleans: We were there for two days- soaking in the sights, the beautiful architecture, and of course, the local cuisine.
We had beignets and Cafe Au Lait at Cafe Du Monde (twice).
Tried PoBoys at Mother’s. This was the Famous Ferdi Special: roast beef, ham, debris and gravy on a fresh-baked roll.
On the way out of the city we checked out some of the cemeteries, famous for their statues and above ground graves.
Many of the graves had stains where the water has been from previous hurricanes. We also took some time to visit St. Bernard Parish, where much of the damage from Hurricane Katrina can still be seen. Out of respect for the people living and working there, we didn’t take any images. It was incredibly heart-wrenching to see the devastation, and inspiring to see how hard people we working to clean up the area, even four years later.
We had a blast in New Orleans, and both of us agreed that the city was hands-down the most beautiful city we’ve seen on this trip.
A huge thank you is owed to Binos of Bogalusa, LA and it’s owners. They allowed us to store our bikes while we visited New Orleans, and Tony drove us to pick up our rental car. As if that wasn’t enough, when we returned, Tony treated us to a feast of local favorites including gumbo, etoufette and soft-shelled crab. Thank you guys for starting us out right in Louisiana!
Bino’s was the first of many examples we’ve come across in Louisiana of just plain amazingly nice people. We were invited into this venison sausage making plant the next day.
That night, when we were looking for a campground, the owner of Maddie T’s Truckstop in Simmesport offered us his trucker’s lounge for the night.
The next day we met some wonderful women in a corner store who had a little log for passing cyclists- we signed it and chatted with them for a good 45 minutes before allowing them to return to their game of rummy.
That night, we were taken in by Keith and his family after his childhood friend saved us from a 20 mile detour in the dark due to a bridge out 6 miles before Washington, LA. Keith met us at the campground and decided it was better for us to stay in his “outdoor kitchen”. Turns out Keith is the biggest LSU fan on the planet and probably also one of the nicest guys on it. He and his family took us out to the local restaurant for some fresh tuna and beers and we had an amazing night’s rest shrouded in purple and gold.
Last night the campground we had on our maps was closed, but the owner left the fishing party he was at, came to meet us, fed us boudin and insisted we stay for free.
Yesterday we hit 3000 miles! That’s about the distance of the TransAmerica trail, but we’ve got a lot more to go! Tonight we’re in Deridder, very close to Texas. We’ll hit it tomorrow or the next day (we may take a rest-day tomorrow and catch up on some administrative stuff we haven’t been able to do without internet). And get ready… we’re working on some changes to the blog that should make it more interesting and give you better insight into the things we’re seeing and people we’re meeting…
Jan
28
We crossed into Louisiana yesterday with the intention of continuing West.
But one thing led to another and we ended up in New Orleans! Today we’re not biking at all and resting our legs. This evening we’ll head to hear some live music, and relax. When we return to our route, we will edit photos and share the whole story of how we got here. It all started with a slice of king cake and a chat in a little bookstore…
