Day 279
The wrong side of the river
Our hero Rodney had kindly sorted us a bed for the night at his niece's house, she would be out at work but it was ours to use, just the small matter of 75 miles to get there, oh and with a head wind! For the intrepid duo of Debs and Tom though, surely it would be straightforward?
We hit the road refreshed and rested, buzzing from our time in Marksville. Five miles in Tom had yet another puncture, dear god was it ever going to end? We decided we would definitely ride an extra six miles and add in a visit to a bike shop, Red River Cyclery in Alexandria. As we were still in Louisiana they couldn’t have been more helpful. The owner spotting our slightly hungover expressions sent us off for a 2-for-1 meal of catfish whilst they looked after the bikes. It did the trick and off we went. A mile later Tom’s pedal started to make an ominous sound, instead of a quick return to the bike shop we pressed on. Five miles later the pedal fell off, oops! Still Tom pushed it back on, it squeaked madly but we hoped it would last.
The ride went on and on. As promised the relentless headwind eased a little at 6pm. By 8.00pm the sun had set, in the looming darkness, 81 miles in the bank, Tom called out 1 mile to go. The only problem was, although Komoot had brought us to where we needed to be, it was the wrong side of a very large river, and yes you guessed it, there was no bridge. Another 11 miles later, in pitch black darkness, we arrived at Keri’s. We let ourselves in to her stunning house, hugged Guinness the dog and fell into a four-poster bed.
