Days 37 & 38: St. Francisville to Franklinton

Bait Shack in Louisiana:  Note deer looking out windows

There has been lots of talk and speculation about what happened at Perry's Bicycle Hostel night before last.  It seems clear in retrospect that Perry (a woman) was unprepared for the invasion of Bubba and his entourage.  Consider this:  We have a huge Penske truck to carry the luggage and tents.  We have a smaller Penske truck for the food and cooking equipment.  We have a sixteen passenger van towing a loaded trailer.  We have a Dodge Caravan operating as a SAG vehicle and mechanic's transport.  We have another SUV  towing a trailer.  We have Ken and Jean (massage and laundry) also towing a trailer.  We have Bubba's huge "Avalanche" truck towing an R.V.  We are 33 riders and 11 staff with 31 bicycles (two tandems).  When we descend on a location we make a big impact and lots of noise, particularly in blowing up some 40 air mattresses.  Perry operates a "warm shower" spot.  This means that she is on the Adventure Cycling maps as a place where a cyclist can get a shower and a place to tent in return for a gratuity.  She had one outdoor shower, one outdoor sink and one toilet in an outbuilding.  Most cyclists come in small groups and maintain a low profile.  Our group does anything but.  From the things people have said, Perry was overwhelmed as soon as cyclists and vehicles began to arrive, and snapped, for no apparent reason, at about 6:30.  

While Perry did not explicitly "throw us out", her behavior, particularly with regard to eliminating our toilet options, suggested that she wanted to see us gone.  One source suggests that Bubba got us out of there in order to preserve his options for future years but I can't imagine that he would ever take a group there again or that she would ever agree to host his riders.  In any case, since Bubba had planned a rest day at Perry's and since the day turned out to be rainy, it was a great thing to spend our time in a very comfortable Best Western instead. 

As instructed, we got up in the morning, packed up, and rode to Oakley Plantation.  Oakley is of  particular historic value because John James Audubon went there in 1821 and did 22 of his famous bird paintings during his stay.  He was hired as a tutor for a daughter of the house, with afternoons free for his nature studies and paintings.  The arrangement was not a huge success it seems, because he stayed only a few months, but it put Oakley on the map.  The plantation stayed in the family from 1799 until 1947 when it was sold to the state and because of that most of the furnishings are original.  It had been little modernized (no electricity for example) so did not require extensive renovation.  The tour guide was great and the house and grounds were gorgeous.  Unfortunately our walk around the grounds was cut short by rain and we still had five miles to ride to the motel.  

The cost for our luxurious night at the BW (yes, there is always a cost!) is that to get there we rode about 10 miles in the wrong direction-- in other words WEST!  That brought the mileage today up to 85 miles-- and while I was happy to make the trade in theory, the extra ten miles weighed heavily at the end of the ride.  Our route today was really great-- good roads and pastoral landscape.  The flaw (does there always have to be a flaw?), is that it rained heavily for the last forty miles. By the time John and I got here we were soaked right through to our innards.  We are now in a Baptist Church in Franklinton and what a church it is.  Although most sections of it are locked off to us, we can see that it stretches out for acres.  Our part is a gymnasium and attached locker rooms, plus common room and cooking area.  


Tomorrow we cross the line into Mississippi.