Bridges, Bayou, Breeze and Beaches: Day 1 New Orleans to Bay St. Louis 69.7 miles, 82 degrees, 15 mph SSE wind with gusts

Luke 24:5b-6a “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen!

Today was a tough first day of riding. One of the longest days of the trip with a stiff headwind the entire way. Okay, enough complaining. We did see a lot of wildlife: snakes, possums, various birds, alligator – all dead. We also so fun looking ducks and some kind of circling vulture – too many slow cyclists.

We really did cycle through the bayou and we only saw one alligator and I think he had seen better days. Poor guy – he was right by the side of the road.

At one point in the ride we crossed the Pearl River between Louisiana and Mississippi six times on US 90, which is closed to cars between bridges 2 and 5. We were told that Louisiana doesn’t have or doesn’t want to spend the money to fix the road. It was a nice five mile stretch with no cars.

Thankfully, we are not staying at this hotel tonight, but I guess we couldn’t have stayed there if we wanted to, as they have no vacancy:

You know you are staying in the lap of luxury when the business next door is…

The shower is a 4.5 for those of you keeping score. The only reason it scored that high is that Bill is generous when the water is hot and there is good water pressure.

Here are some bonus photos from our walk around NOLA yesterday.

We spent the morning at the WWII museum…it is excellent! We have been there three times and feel like there is still more to see. Yesterday we toured the section on the European portion of the war and a special exhibit that they have on the Aleutian Islands. Super interesting.

We also did a bit of walking around…I found some Christmas ornaments in the fabulous store and we ate beignets at Loretta’s. It was great to see a Christian-owned business among so many less than upstanding establishments.

And, I think that New Orleans always has a parade – even the day before Easter.

Dinner was at a place called the Cornet and if you believe the back of their menu, it was where Louis Armstrong got his start as a young boy.