Breakfast of champions, boudins. (The Louisiana spelling is slightly different from Texas.) I got two from the gas station – one to eat, and one to carry. These were the steamed kind that I prefer to deep-fried.The weather channel said scattered thunderstorms today. But look at the forecast for tomorrow. I may have to shelter in place.There were inmates slowly walking along the highway picking up the plentiful litter, with a slow moving truck following them. The truck had a porta-potty on the bed. I didn’t get a picture of the actual workers, unfortunately.They grow milo here.The ACA route took a winding path following the shore of the lake. This is Hwy 1, which is shorter and more direct. Looks all right to me, but I followed the ACA route.The instructions were hard to follow. I realize now that I was supposed to turn right onto the poorly-paved road.This can’t be right…This is the official ACA road. Not very good, and there was still traffic on it. I saw no reason to follow it, and shifted over to Hwy 1 at the next opportunity.Simmesport was not nearly as deserted as Joanne suggested. It probably would have made a decent stop. And it had the modest-looking Sportsman’s Motel. But I didn’t want to stop after such low mileage. It was barely noon.I ate at a somewhat dilapidated place called Cajun Chicken. Some of the signs just said “un Chicken.” The ice cream machine was broken, so no cones, shakes, sundaes. They were out of iced tea, so I got fruit punch. But here’s the thing: there were people lined up and waiting. Pretty good chicken.
I met a couple of farmers at lunch. They did soybeans, milo, rice, and crawfish. They said that crawfish are already in the ground, and they just come up and eat the slime on the rice stalks without damaging the rice. They also agreed that I should take Highway 1.
It was a little scary going over this tall and long bridge. There was no shoulder.On the other side of the bridge, a cool wind began to blow against me. It felt great, but I knew what that meant. For the next 3 miles, it rained HARD. Stinging hard. No pictures, of course, because I had buttoned down my pack.Rain comes and goes quickly in this region. When it stopped, I took this picture. Looks like it could have been out of a computer game. Some egrets were perching on the cows, but flew away as I approached. Maybe they were catching flies? The cows didn’t seem to mind.I had a difficult time following the ACA instructions into New Roads, but with the help of my Android phone, got to town. I had trouble locating the Morel’s Inn, which looks nothing like lodging from the outside.My room was about $80 including tax. That discourages me from staying an extra day, but we’ll see how severe the weather is tomorrow. This is a touristy area, so the accommodations are bed-and-breakfast type. Without the breakfast, in this case.
After I took a shower and cleaned up, I had several choices for dinner. Morel’s Restaurant on the lake, associated with the lodging. Satterfield’s Restaurant, also on the lake, which had a basket of crawfish prepared 3 ways, plus fries, for $15, and 12″ pizza for $7. There was also Tiger Drive In – probably cheap, but nothing special. Ma Mama’s Kitchen was across the street, serving a variety of fine food. Google maps had two dollar signs on it. It was fairly upscale, but I tried it.
The turtle soup was divine! It came with about a tablespoon of sherry to stir in just before eating.
I also had seafood pasta, which was shrimp, crawfish, crab, and bacon in a cream sauce over angel hair. Good, but only good. I didn’t get a picture.
This concluded Map 5 of 7, and I will start on Map 6 tomorrow.
Miles today: 68.2 (on account of taking Hwy 1 shortcut)
