Day 19 - Opelousas, La, 55 miles, 868 miles total

Nice wide shoulders on Hwy 190 today.


With a full width rumble strip every 20 feet.

Actually the rumble strip wasn't bad.  It vibrated the eyeballs a little but I didn't lose any teeth.

Most of the route was on 190 today except for about 10 miles of detours on relatively quiet country roads.

I got stopped for about 20 minutes by this train.

The country roads had no shoulder but they were almost completely deserted too.

Rural Louisiana

I must be in Hawaii!  The senility is getting bad.  I don't even remember the ocean bit.

Once back on the 190 I came to a shoulderless causeway over the Atchafalaya basin.  I didn't know what it was spanning at the time, but I did know I had no other choice  but to cross it.  So I waited until there was no traffic approaching and started riding.

It became apparent very quickly that this was no short bridge.  I couldn't see an end to it.  So adrenalin kicked in, and the next thing I knew, I was pedaling as fast as I could at about 19 mph to get over it in the least amount of time possible.  That bridge ended up being at least 3 miles long, and I was exhausted when I finally reached the end of it.  

But the other traffic was great.  Every single car or truck that passed me got over into the other lane first.  Nobody tried to squeeze by.  I have been very impressed with the courtesy other drivers have given me on this entire trip.

The Atchafalaya Basin and Swamp is the largest wetland in the U.S.


The bridges over the Atchafalaya River

It would be easy to confuse the Atchafalaya with the Mississippi.

A Bayou that I don't know the name of.

About 20 miles before arriving at Opelousas the sprinkles started, and by the time I got here there was a light rain.  But the cloud cover kept the heat down, which was appreciated, as was the absence of billion volt lightning bolts.

NEXT---)





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