Day 5 of the I Ride for Cancer 2012 Ride

Chris over the Mississippi River

Whew! Today was a doozie! The ride today was scheduled to be a very short day – only 64 miles. However due to the technical difficulties we faced it took a LOT longer to get to our destination – St. Francisville.

I started out the day at 7 am – right on time and rode out with high spirits thinking it was going to be an easy day. However, I knew I was riding into a headwind after my first turn north. The first I’ve faced on the trip so far. It was coming out of the North West – exactly the direction I would be going for over half of this day.

The other issue I faced out of the gates were the roads – AGAIN! Right outside of Opelousas I crossed a bridge that had a pothole in the middle of the road! I couldn’t avoid it due to the traffic. How in the world do you have a pothole in the middle of a bridge??

Anyways, my back tire hit it hard and I just KNEW it did something to it. I looked back as I was riding and it seemed a little out of round but was also holding up. However, about 30 miles down the road, I turn into a gas station right before this big bridge to refill on fluids and happen to check that tire. It was not only out of round, it had a broken spoke!!

So I call Vince and tell him my predicament. He happens to be only about 10 minutes behind me with the RV. So he pulls in and we switch out the tire – again –  and hope for the best. We’ll fix the spoke that night.

We also had another problem. The RV park we had planned on staying at is all full up. One of the oil plants around the area there is in shut down, which means that the plant is flying in people to work around the clock to get it back running, which means that those people have to stay somewhere. That also means we needed to find somewhere to stay – quick!

Bruised Ego

After the tire was fixed I crossed the bridge of the Atchafalaya River – it was HUGE! The grade had to have been 10%! And it went up at least 100-200 feet! So I got out of the seat and just climbed and climbed and climbed. I was thinking about stopping at the top to take a picture, but decided to just keep on trucking (or biking really).

Now about 20 miles down the road was my first turn off to take me to the Mississippi River – the Mississippi River Trail Road. At that intersection – I hit a yellow light and decided to stop. Well I stopped and couldn’t unclip my left foot. I ended up falling and hurting my hand and bending my brake a bit. I felt completely stupid as I fell in front of a full intersection of cars.

SO after I picked myself up and checked myself out – nothing was hurt too badly except my pride – I started rolling again. I make it all the way up to a major turn off and there was Vince, waiting for me at a Subway. So we had lunch there and it completely hit the spot.

During lunch we decided to stay at the Best Western in St. Francisville – and we were lucky to get in there! Otherwise I’d have to keep on riding for at least another 30 miles – and at that point, I wasn’t so sure about that.

Crossing of the Mississippi

After lunch I headed out – only 18 more miles to the Mississippi River crossing!

Crossing the Mississippi River was an emotional moment for me and I took a while on the bridge and took a few snapshots and did some reflecting. The thing I focused on was how extremely cool it was to be standing above the Mississipi – and I got there on a bike from Texas. Who would have ever thought? Definitely not me a year ago – that’s for sure.

After the Mississipi it was a “short” 18 miles to the Best Western – straight into the wind. It took me a while, but I made it – just in time. Because not 30 minutes after I get into the room, it started raining. In fact that night, 30 miles south of us in Baton Rouge, it rained 8 inches! Good thing it didn’t rain that much where we were!

Broken Spoke Issue

That evening Vince and I tried to work on the broken spoke. The problem that we ran into was the spoke was on the side of the cassette (what the chain turns) and we needed to remove the cassette. The tool that he has to remove the cassette didn’t work on this one – it was a size too big.

So that meant one thing – we needed to find a bike shop. Only problem is – there are no bike shops in St. Francisville. The closest one was 30 miles away in Baton Rouge. Which also meant that Vince needed to run down there while I rode on my own the opposite direction the next day.

Best Church Sign Quote of the Day

“Shine your light Jesus and show us the path for our life’s journey.”

Or something similar to that –  I need to stop and take pictures of the ones I like!

And that brings us to Day 6 – which I’ll post tomorrow probably! Until then – I’ll be riding the white line!