Day 12 - Feb 26 - Hell on Earth

As I mentioned in my last post, we stayed at a city park last night under a huge pavilion. Some of us laid out on top of a long table that had been constructed under the pavilion. It wasn't as cold last night as it has been, so I actually slept warmly -- when I slept. A train came by several times during the night, blowing its horn loudly. Also, there was a stray dog at the park. He was a sweet dog -- very playful -- but became annoying after a few minutes. He chewed on EVERYTHING: branches, plastic spoons, wrappers, you name it. At one point, Ryan found him chewing on a scull from some animal long dead, so I have dubbed the dog "Scull." He disappeared just as we all went to bed, but then re-appeared in the middle of the night and started terrorizing us. Around 2 am, he pulled Ryan's helmet off the table and chewed it to pieces before we could realize what he was chewing on. He also pulled a bag out of Dave's pannier and chewed on it and its contents.

                                                                            (Scull)

We all knew it was going to rain today. We just didn't know how much. Ryan wanted to take a day off and stay at the park, which he did. Everyone else elected to ride to Washington, LA, which was going to be a 57 mile day. When we left, it was about 53 degrees. It started sprinkling almost immediately and did so off and on for most of the morning.

At mid-morning, we stopped at a country store and didn't want to leave, because it was so dreary out.

But we finally managed to rally ourselves and took off. It soon began to rain in earnest. Not a downpour, but a steady drizzle. And the temperature began to drop as the day progressed. By 1:30, we were cold and damp, so we stopped at a combo gas station/restaurant/lounge. I had probably the best fried chicken I've had in many, many years -- and not just because I was cold and damp. It was just that good. After lunch, I spent several minutes warming up under the hand dryer in the ladies' room. Yes, I know, I seem to spend an inordinate amount of time in ladies' bathrooms, but they are functional on so many levels. Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do to survive.

Once again we found it difficult to leave the warmth and dryness of the building. While we were eating, it began to rain steadily. Since we had another 20 miles to go, we finally mustered the will to hit the road. We had decided while eating to take a short-cut, which was not part of the established route. We've realized from past experience that the powers that be chose the route they chose for a reason, and rejected the shortcuts for a reason. Nevertheless, we wanted to trim 6 miles off our day's ride. The shortcut was great until the last 5 miles or so. We had also decided at lunch to go to Opelousas, instead of Washington, because we believed it would have a better choice of motels. Thus, while we shaved 6 miles off our route to Washington, we added it back to reach Opelousas. Which is when the trouble began. 

The road we had been on had been fairly nice with a decent shoulder to ride on. Once we got to Washington, the shoulder disappeared and the road turned to a broken, pot-holed, washboard mess. Since my bike is so wide, if I straddle the white line on the right side of the road, then my left wheel rides down the pot-hole strip made by the right tires of the cars. With water on the road, I couldn't see the potholes, so my average speed, which had been a consistent 13 mph, dropped to a miserable 8 or 9 mph, and I just jarred my way down the road. I prayed that I didn't blow out a tire, or worse, a rim. Either would have been ride-ending for me and would have stranded me in the middle of nowhere. Meanwhile, the traffic increased ten-fold, and the drivers made a game of trying to splash me with pot-hole water. So the last five miles was in a constant rain, about 45 degrees, on a road from hell with evil drivers. I was literally crying, especially since I had lost sight of everyone else.

Eventually, I found myself in downtown Opelousas and started riding down the sidewalk because the traffic was so bad. I finally stopped in front of town hall and discovered that Mike had left me a voicemail, saying that he and Carol had gotten two rooms at the Budget Inn. But I didn't know where that was, so I went inside town hall and discovered that I had overshot them by two miles or so. Now I'm soaking wet, because the rain had soaked through my rain gear and into my clothes underneath. My hands were absolutely frozen solid, as I had on polypropylene gloves that were soaking wet.

By the time I found the motel, I was in the beginning stages of hypothermia. I rushed inside the room, stripped off my rain gear, stuck my hands up to the heater, and started sobbing. Mike sweetly tried to console me, then began dragging my gear inside. As soon as Carol jumped out of the shower, I jumped in and cried a river.

I managed to find some dry clothes, so I'm warm now, but I will NEVER ride in the rain again. Thankfully, tomorrow is supposed to be sunny for my birthday. I'm not sure what we're doing, though, since everyone's still recovering from the day. So stay tuned as to my whereabouts tomorrow. And wish me a restful night's sleep.

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