Friday, May 4, 2012

May 4, 2012. New Orleans to La Place, LA: 43 miles

We met for breakfast at the Ruby Slipper, a cafe not far from the hotel. After breakfast, Dianne and I posed with our leader Carol at the Woman Tour trailer in front of the hotel. Dianne and I then pedalled away, but we were all alone--the rest of the group stayed back for an "unofficial" group photo by the river.
 
On the way out of New Orleans we encountered some very nice bike lanes, some very narrow one-way and two-way roads, and Dianne called it an "obstacly" route, NOT a valid Scrabble word!
We passed through an area of "shotgun houses" so called due to the construction--narrow and deep, one room wide. One could shoot a shotgun through the front door and out the back, through every room.

At almost 6 miles into the ride we met up for our official "beginning of ride" photo. Here we all are at the entry to the bike path.
 We rode 22 miles on this lovely paved bike path on top of the levee. It was a great way to start our tour.
Yolande (from The Netherlands) was our SAG driver on this first day, and she parked next to the bike path at about mile 17. We left the stop much refreshed and with our water bottles full. Good support is one of the hallmarks of Woman Tours.

We left the bike path and rode a short distance on Rte. 48, a very busy road, then rode across the Bonnet Carre Spillway. It is high and dry right now.

In the spillway is a Radio Controlled Aircraft field. We stopped and watched them for a while--these are not the tiny planes we expected when we saw the sign!

While there I went into the conveniently located portable toilet and saw this sign.... I've seen some silly signs before, but NEVER one that said "no crashed airplanes in the toilet"!!

Just before arriving at our hotel I saw a neighborhood bar and grill, which turned out to be a good choice for lunch. We had sandwiches and cold drinks (it was near 90 and very humid today), and still arrived before our rooms were ready. I would bet that won't happen tomorrow when we are riding 96 miles!

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