Day 2, La Place, LA - 43 miles

After a good, hearty breakfast at the Ruby Slipper Cafe, we returned to the van and, to make sure the day was going to be a smooth one I topped off my tires with air. That's when I heard the "pfffft" sound as I ripped the valve stem from the tube. The first flat of the trip prize goes to me.  Carol, our guide, did a quick tube change then we headed down to the river for the ceremonial pictures.  Then we were off.

As we traveled through New Orleans' Garden District, the houses transitioned from elegant decay to cute bungalows called shotgun houses (because if you fired a shotgun in the front door, the shot would exit out the back without hitting anything). At mile 5 we started on a bike path on top of a levee that would last us the next 22 miles.

As the day went on the temperature and humidity climbed, and the cold water from today's support driver, Yolande, was greatly appreciated.  Yolande is from Amsterdam and she and her wife are on this trip as part of a multi-month biking adventure of North America. They have already biked down Route 1 in California and, after we get to Minnesota, they are continuing east to Montreal.  They are just two of the 30 very interesting women on this trip.

Shotgun houses

Some of the crew