Day 247 - 254, Charles Lake LA to Tallahassee FL (through MS and AL)

Before I write this post I want to you to know that I recently have discovered that all my fats about distances and speeds have been about 10 % less than they really were. After I had crossed Texas (900 miles) within 9 days I was a little suspicious  because according to my notes I only one day had ridden more than 160 km and I only had got one lift for about 40 km. So I checked the settings of my bicycle computer and found out that the wheel size was set 10 % less than it really is.

How and when (and who) it changed I don't know. I bought the computer in China and I am sure that I set it properly when it was new...

But who cares about exact numbers of kilometers?

Day 247, 120 km

I woke up in a field not far from Charles Lake. Although it was dark and foggy last evening I was lucky to find an unlocked backstreet to a good sleeping place. 

But everything was wet of dew, which was the first time since California.

I continued my trip along green lawns. On many places I saw strange "chimneys" about 20 cm high, in the grasslands.

I wondered who had made them and took pictures of them. Later I learned to know that there were crawfish living in the fields and they made those buildings!

Here you see one from above.
I also passed some funny signs:

In the background you can see a pile of earth.
At noon I rested and ate my lunch close to a beautiful turtle. I called him Theodor and tried to feed him. In the beginning he was shy.

 But soon he was very vivid and tried to crawl into my backpack.

He had a red spot on his cheek and later I learned to know that it was a Red Eared Turtle.
I also saw a big Snapper Turtle which had been killed by a car.

This kind of turtle is more dangerous than an alligator I learned to know. They can bite off a finger. 

I almost felt at home when I passed a road called Austria.
In a town called Scott they had a parade with many trailers. They had a lot of beats (bright necklaces in plastic) and cheap toys which they gave to people along the road.

 Finally I arrived in Lafayette, where I was invited by Jeny a member of warmshowers.

She lived with her husband and her two sons in a beautiful house.

 In the yard they had a Magnolia tree in full blossom.

For me this is a sign that spring is coming for real.
She helped me to plan my route through Louisiana and told me that it was not so easy to go across the Mississippi basin because bicycles were not allowed on most bridges.
Her parents were visiting over the weekend and for my sake they changed their plans so they did not leave on Sunday evening but on Monday morning.

Day 248, 120 km and a lift of 95 km

Jeny's dad (who knew a lot about Cypress knees, crawfish, birds and turtles), had a Honda which easily swallowed my bike with all its panniers.

 He drove me over the marshlands

Actually there were no shoulders on the bridges on the Interstate.

 Here we are almost in Baton Rouge, on the top of the bridge over the Mississippi.

He showed me a good bicycle path going on the levy along the river. I followed it leading towards New Orleans.
In the afternoon I had a shower of rain, the first one since California (one month earlier)!
Then I passed a trailer with a so called Airboat. I had seen many ads that you could make trips through the marshlands by airboat but did not understand what it was before I saw this. It is driven by a big propeller in the rear so it can go through all kind of water vegetation, occasionally even reed.

In the evening it rained a lot. I stopped at a restaurant near the airport on New Orleans and hoped the weather became better. But it never changed. The restaurant was open 24 hours and I was allowed to bring in my bike. In a corner of the tv-room I was slept in my sleeping bag.

Day 249, 145 km

I rode through the center of New Orleans. I was surprised how beautiful it was! The street looked like somewhere in Europe with big buildings everywhere. Like San Francisco they even had an old fashioned street car.

There were big churches and old trees in the parks.

But there were also interesting modern buildings.

From New Orleans I continued NE though the marshlands to Gulfport. This area had been hit most seriously by the hurricane Catherine, seven years ago. The storm pressed in a lot of water into the Mexican Gulf so the water level was about seven meters higher than normal!
All houses were built on stilts. Some of them had funny shapes. (Actually I saw several houses with this shape along the coast).

And the new houses were on much higher stilts than the old ones. 

 Actually they still were building a lot of new houses.
Close to the last bridge there was the famous Fort Pike which I had planned to visit,

 but unfortunately it was closed for visitors. Anyway, I could see it from the bridge.

In the background you can see more houses on stilts.

Finally I came to Mississippi. 

There I was invited by Barbara and Bernie in Gulfport.

 They had two houses of which I had one for myself. They even had filled the fridge with a lot of food for my sake!

Day 250, 130 km

After a great breakfast I started at 9 am. There was a bad headwind and I was planning to catch a ferry across the Mobile Bay, from Daughin Island to Fort Morgan. At noon I checked the schedule for the ferry and found out that the last one was leaving already at 6 pm. Despite the headwind I decided to try to catch that ferry.

I passed the border to Alabama and did not take a brake for lunch. I only ate some snickers and thought the best thing to do about the headwind was just to ignore it. But on the long bridge down to Dauphin Island the wind increased a lot. At six I arrived the island but to the ferry terminal it was too far. Besides from that I had got a flat tire and was very hungry.
First I ate two big sausages and then an overfilled vegetarian Pizza.

Then I mended my flat tire. Outside a shop I met a guy called Doug who was very interested in my trip. He told me that a bad storm was coming in the night and asked me where I planned to spend it. I told him that I was a camper and that I surely would find a good place. He offered me a huge piece of warm cake and told me he was taking care of the lawn of the Fishing Rodeo place and thought I could find a shelter there. While he was investigating if I could stay at this place I ate the cake although I already had two dinners before.
At the Rodeo place (where the town once a year had a big fishing championship) we met Gene Fox, who was the manager of all events on the island. When he heard about my trip he called his wife who soon came with a wonderful homemade Lasagna. I could not eat it that day but it was good for lunch next day...

We shared some beers outside the building and had a good time. Then I was allowed to sleep inside.

The good thing was that I had a bathroom there. In the middle of the night I woke up and was very bad in my stomach. I don't know if it was because I had eaten too much, too fast or if I had overworked myself when I tried to catch the ferry. anyway, it was raining so much that I was very very happy for the bathroom!

Day 251, 60 km

Next day everything was flooded.

This is not a lake but a lawn! There was a strong northern wind and when I came to the ferry they told me that it was not going because of the wind. The good thing was that I had a lot of time to explore the famous museum of the Estuarium. I also felt very weak and had some chills, so I thought a half day in the Museum would be a good rest.

I learned a lot there about all animals, hurricanes and oil spills. 

 They even had some baby alligators which really were cute!

Outside you could make a walk and learn more. There were many oil platforms in the Mobile bay.
In the afternoon the ferry worked again and brought me over to Fort Morgan.

It was a wonderful afternoon and I took it easy. After a nap in the white sand on the beach I felt better. Now there suddenly was a tailwind which I could not resist. I used it and continued to Gulf Shores. There I slept on the beach in the Gulf State Park.


Day 252, 135 km

I had a good tailwind that day which was wonderful! I went through Pensacola and then on small roads close to the beach. There were no people at the beaches so I could swim naked.

 The houses still were built on stilts but they could be very large.

Most part of the road recently was cleaned from sand but not everywhere:

 Some kilometers I rode on white sand which almost looked like snow...

In the evening I found the last public beach before I was planning to leave the coast. Under the deck of a house closed for remodeling I could hide my tent.

Day 253, 125 km

Here you can see my sleeping place in the morning sun. The good thing was that it was very close to the waves, that there was a ramp for my bike and that there were public bathrooms, showers and tables upstairs. What else could I request?

But I had a bad headwind again that day. I chose to take route 20 to Tallahassee, which would take two days. The road was very good and there were bicycle friendly shoulders all the way. I passed some bridges from which I ould see more "knees" on cypresses (read my comment in the end of my last post).

Day 254, 120 km

The woods of NW Florida were huge and the villages rare. But I met another touring bicyclist! (the first one since California!). He had a long mustache and was called Keaton. He has a homepage called mustacheonwheels and plans to go around the US in the opposite direction as I did.

The landscape somehow reminded of Sweden with its pinewoods growing on flat sand lands. But the pines were so called "long leaved" pines. They looked very funny when they were small because they already have long "hair" (about 20 cm) when they are babies. 

In the afternoon I arrived Tallahassee and found the house Susan, Kevin and Dominick. They had a wonderful garden with huge trees covered with "spanish moss". 

 In their garden there also grew a lot of Camelia and Azalea, which is very common for the surrounding.

The bushes are 2-3 meters high!

 Kevin is architect and they lived in a wonderful house.

The special thing with the family is that they every vacation make a trip with their long bicycle. They had made it since Dominick was a toddler and they had been to Europe several times.

The bicycle can be taken apart and fits in a suitcase!