another hot and humid day today. we started the day 20 miles south of baton rouge, capital of louisiana and proceeded to ride through much of the city. as we approached the city, coming up from the south side, we first rode through the campus of louisiana state university (LSU). the picture below doesn't do it justice, but tiger stadium is enormous. it holds over 94,000 rabid bayou tiger fans on saturday nights.
 |
| LSU tiger stadium |
continuing through the campus and on the road bordered on either side by massive athletic facilities (wasn't there an article earlier this week in the new york times about the hugely disproportionate share of monies being spend on college athletics versus academics?), we headed into baton rouge, along the riverside. as there are a number of veterans among the ridership (from the army, navy and air force), we stopped for a photo op in front of the uss kidd, a retired navy destroyer that now houses a museum.
 |
| exxon mobile refinery in baton rouge |
for miles up to baton rouge as well as for some ways beyond downtown, we passed a number of refineries. as you can imagine, the smell wasn't the most pleasant. how the folks in town manage is beyond me.
from baton rouge, it was basically 22 miles of four-lane black top up to st. francisville, a quaint little town of 1500 folks, nestled in the northern woods of louisiana. st. francisville owes its historical moment in the sun when it was part of the questionable border of the louisiana purchase. france, spain and even great britain all clamed ownership. it was actually the capital of the "republic of west florida," a 70+ day experiment when the local landowners through out the spanish government and set up their own independent entity. months later, it officially became part of the louisiana purchase.
normally, we're all on our own for lunch each day, gathering as a collective only for breakfasts and dinners. today, however, we all got together for lunch at the magnolia cafe, a famous local joint. pretty darn good spicy shrimp po boys, downed with gallons of lemonade and cold sweet tea (a southern tradition).
 |
| that's dan koch in front of the magnolia cafe. it was dan's birthday today. |
after lunch, a bunch of us toured the historic district of st. francisville. the houses and buildings in that part of town date back to the early 1800's. we then headed farther down the street to the famous grace church and cemetery. it's a classic with wrought-iron fencing surrounding stands of live oak all dripping with spanish moss. the church was built around 1820. many of the headstones date back to that time, including a fellow who was born in north salem, new york and died here in st. francisville some fifty years later. that was a pretty long journey, even back in those days.
 |
| live oaks in grace church cemetery |
 |
| grace church in st. francisville |
 |
| spanish moss -- part of the beauty of the southland |
we also wanted to visit the equally famous rosedown plantation. however, while walking the grounds of the cemetery, the clouds darkened and claps of thunder had us all mounting our bikes and heading quickly to the motel.
one final word for the day: retirement. i'm the 3rd youngest of the 17 riders on this leg of the journey (there'll be four or five more joining us in either memphis or st. louis). with one or two exceptions, most of these guys are retired. as they know i'll be turning 60 later this year, many have peppered me with the same question, "when are you going to retire?" tonight at dinner, i turned the questions on them. i asked what they did now that they no longer worked. many, it turned out, do a lot more biking. duh! guess that should have been obvious. some even carve out three or four months of the year on rides like this one. others volunteer or just hang out. that latter option isn't something i'm looking forward to. nor even retirement for that matter.
'nuff said for tonight. tomorrow we cross into mississippi and end up in natchez.
No comments:
Post a Comment