Katy Trail 2012: Day 1

Day 1

Sedalia to New Franklin 40 miles. Highlights: Ag fields, rain, crushed limestone Jello

Disembarking the train in Sedalia, it immediately began to rain.  OK, not immediately, but pretty much. We pulled in to the station at 12:30 and had a nice ride through Sedalia's quaint downtown.  We even stocked up at the local bike shop, Pro Velo.  We bought a few tire tubes plus a tail light for my wife and chatted up the local shopkeeper about the trail.  We pulled into a pub - a "brewpub" though they didn't make their own beer - for a hearty lunch and some liquid bread and then it started raining.

The rain just stewed over us.  The radar showed no sign of it blowing over.  We couldn't stay at the pub all day. After a few Schlafly Oatmeal Stouts I got the courage to head out despite the rain.  We donned our complete rain gear from head to toe and hit the "trail."  Here in Sedalia the normally sectioned off Katy Trail bike path passes through the town, over the now flooded streets.  It was a wild ride.

It was raining and we were miserable.  So much so that when we hit the trail we didn't even pause at the converted train station trail head.  It probably would have been a good idea to stop and fill up our water bottles, but we thought after the salty food and brews we wouldn't need it...

The Katy Trail - God bless it - is not paved.  Instead it is covered in crushed limestone, oh Joy!  Which is usually not an issue, but in the rain and wet it turns into quick sand.  It cleared up about a hour after we hit the trail and from there it was quite enjoyable.  It was at about this time that we found our water bottles nearly empty.  We were very relieved to arrive at a water station in Pilot Grove, 20 miles from Sedalia. 

 

Finally we hit Booneville.  It sneaks up on you at first.  It seemed like miles and miles of nothingness - ag fields and manure, broken up only by crossings of small highways and waterless trail heads, until - Suburbia.  I reckon Booneville is no metropolis, but like any town that establishes itself near the Missouri river, has Highway 70 feeding into it, and a one-time rail road hub it must has some money.  As we crossed the Highway the scenery changed quickly.  The limestone was more compacted and solid, the trail was decidedly downhill, and the familiar sights and sounds of driveways and basketball hoops could be seen and heard not far from the trail.  Civilization!

We exited the green canopy to the former Booneville Railroad terminal, now their Chamber of Commerce, and right around the corner was Booneville's new commercial powerhouse, The Isle of Capri Casino and Resort.  Though we did not stop there I hear their buffet is excellent.  Just passing through town, we stopped at the local In and Out for supplies - beer, tuna, and beer.  Booneville was a cute little town and I would have loved to visit for a spell, but we were already late because of rain and our campsite was on the other side of the mighty Missouri River in New Franklin.

We biked around Booneville's river front, slinking past downtown before ascending a mad hill to the foot of the river crossing bridge.  It had a dedicated pedestrian path sectioned off with concrete and fencing, but it was being used by pedestrians when we tried to cross.  The nerve of those guys!  So crossing was a little scary, but exhilarating.  We would cross the mighty river 5 times through our voyage, but the first time was the most exciting.

On the other side of Booneville the scene was similar to what it was outside of Sedalia.  Long, flat, treeless expanses of nothing.  After the bridge it took a minute to get our bearings and find the trace again.  We only had 5 or 6 more miles until our campsite for the evening at Franklin's Katy Roundhouse just outside of New Franklin.

I don't know what the cut off was for Franklin/New Franklin.  Near as I could tell New Franklin was a small town a mile or two northeast of Franklin.  We didn't see much of New Franklin, but I am told they have fine dining and and several inns.  The Roundhouse itself is in Franklin proper along with trailers and dogs and more trailers.  We weren't sure we were in the right spot.  We didn't see a soul.  We heard dogs - lots - throughout the night but never laid eyes on a person.  The only non mobile structures were old brick buildings from the railroad days and a run down blue house, The Katy Roundhouse.

When we arrived, the Roundhouse seemed deserted.  In fact it was, we were its only guests and the administration was out.  We wandered around the grounds which included a "beer garden" and restaurant, both of which seemed closed, and filled out the registration forms to deposit into an honor box along with $6 per person.  We registered at Campsite 18, but 12 seemed prettier so we stayed there.  

From what I gathered from the random pamphlets and memorabilia scattered about the grounds, the Roundhouse was named for this structure.  It turned the locomotives around to head to different parts of the country, hence Roundhouse.  From what I gather some folks who live around there maintain the grounds and even open up the kitchen/beer garden on the weekends during peak season.  We were passing through the first Tuesday of the start of the season in early April.

But no worries. We made dinner and polished off a six pack between the two of us - no one seemed to mind - then used the facilities.  The roundhouse is full furnished, complete with hot showers and sinks.  The bath house was locked with a key pad but the establishment had sent us the combo when we sent an email to make the reservations weeks ago.  All in all the Roundhouse was safe and comfortable and we were very pleased with it.  Although I think because it was so early in the season the ground water filter wasn't 100% so the water was a little brown.  Tasted fine though...

Katy Trail 2012 Introduction

Katy Trail 2012

200 mile trip through Missouri from Sedalia to St. Charles, MO

Usually I reserve this blog for trips around Baton Rouge Louisiana, but I have to tell you about my voyage through Missouri on the nation's longest Rails-to-Trail Pathway, the KATY Trail. To better catalog our trip I've made 7 different posts on the journey - this one, one for each day, and a reflection/epilogue.  Links to each post are at the bottom of this one.

Introduction/Preface

"Katy" is short for MKT, a railroad that ran through Missouri, Kansas, and Texas.  The line was abandoned in the 1980's, and with community support and federal funds it was converted to it's current state as a dedicated pedestrian/bike path though remnants of the railroad are scattered throughout.

It has been extended throughout the years and now covers nearly the entire east west span of the state.  From Machens, very near the meeting of the Missouri and Mississippi River to Clinton, near Kansas City at the border of the two states.

My wife and I had been planning this trip for months.  Eternal gratitude is given to the website bikekatytrail.com.  It's interactive maps and town attraction features allowed us to plan each day to the letter, even if we didn't quite follow the original plan. 

Together with our buddies who live in St. Louis we laid out our plans thusly.  We would:

• drive to St. Louis early Monday, the first day of my Spring Break, and crash at their place
• catch the first train out of St. Louis to Sedalia, MO, the western-most town with an Amtrak station
• hit the trail right after lunch and bike:
• 40 miles to camp in New Franklin
• 60 miles to Tebbets to stay in the furnished bike Hostel
• 65 miles to Augusta to camp in Klondike State Park
• 27 miles to St. Charles

We planned on traveling the trail in 4 days and from St. Charles we would make our way back to St. Louis by bike, bus, or public transit.  We had an extra day for wiggle room just in case we needed it. 

We did.

Day One: Sedalia to New Franklin

Day Two: New Franklin to Tebbetts

Day Three: Tebbetts to McKittrick/Hermann

Day Four: McKittrick to Augusta 

Day Five: Augusta to St. Charles

Reflections/Epilogue

A Visit to Your Local Library

Street Highlights: Cole Dr, Capital Heights Ave, Sevenaaks Ave, Winthrop Ave, Donmoor Ave, Esplanade Dr

Way back in August when the summertime heat beat down the population of Baton Rouge, I had a lot of free time on my hands. I had finished my summer vacation odyssey and school hadn't started yet. With a whole day on my hands and the wife at work I made a solo journey to my local library. While this journey sound innocuous and quite common place, nothing is ever that easy on two wheels in the capital city.



I have been a Baton Rouge resident since 2002, although I don't consider campus life as living in Baton Rouge. Excluding those years I've been a resident proper since 2006, but had never taken advantage of my civic right to free information for the price of one Library Card. I had no photo ID to verify my identity and place of residence. When I did renew my ID I never bothered. Now I had the time and the tools. I set out through the Mid-City area crossing Government St at the light at Hearthstone Dr. While I had to travel the wrong way down a one-way it the the best way to get across Government and leads to Cole Dr.





I've mentioned before the convenience of Cole Dr. It's well paved, seldom traveled and leads to a crossing of another troublesome street, Acadian Thwy. A quick stint down Acadian leads to a now defunct turning lane onto the one-laned bike friendly, Capital Heights Ave.


Capital Heights is like bike mecca and its sad there are not more well-paved neighborhood streets friendly and accessible to bikers. Take for instance Claycut Rd, just south of Capital Heights. I had the misfortune of having to use Claycut to get around a stupid fucking Golf Course. Claycut is a neighborhood road that doesn't have a sidewalk! It has lovely houses and nice people, but they are slaves to the constant traffic that passes through. So any resident who wishes to go for a stroll, take the dog for a walk or what have you, has to leave their neighborhood and head for the safety of Capital Heights. Not just Claycut, but all neighboring streets without a sidewalk flee to Capital Heights. This creates a lot of pedestrian traffic. Pedestrians clog the bike lanes making them almost pointless. I am all for sharing the road, but completed sidewalks could alleviate much of the problems across neighborhood lines.


Strides are being made to encourage neighborhood walkability. Capital Heights does end all too soon, but as I described from a recent trip making groceries, another neighborhood road fills in the gaps.




A quick loop around the Goodwood Playground takes us to my new favorite road Sevenoaks Ave. As recently as last spring a sidewalk plan has started in this neighborhood. They are finishing up now and a comprehensive sidewalk stretches from one end of Sevenoaks to the other. I stay on the road. Sidewalks are for walking. Any number of wheels belong on the road.The convenience of this road is that it connects one neighborhood to another and runs parallel to Jefferson Highway, LA 73. However, Jefferson Highway has nothing to do with this trip. My voyage takes me further down Sevenoaks to another imposing street Lobdell Ave.





Lobdell is an up-and-coming cross section. It connect roads that would otherwise have nothing to do with each other. It stems off of Jefferson Highway and passes through Goodwood Ave, Government St, up to Florida Blvd and even runs parallel to Highway 61, Airline Hwy, before terminating at Greenwell Springs Road in the northern parts of the city. It is wide and well paved. I had the misfortune of using Lobdell's very nice sidewalk to travel from Govenment St to Florida on some Errant Errand, and I believe they are building a water park somewhere on this stretch.




Be that as it may Lobdell is a dangerous street and taking a left onto it is not easy. There is a sort-of bike lane. A small red shoulder is on either side of the road so I take that, but as I near the library on Goodwood Blvd the shoulder disappears into a turning lane. I must admit that rather than trying to merge into traffic at a stop light, all of whom are gunning to take a right, I get onto the sidewalk and take a right myself onto Goodwood Blvd.







Goodwood is a long stretch of road. It is the designated biking street through that part of town, but being single-laned most of the way makes it quite treacherous. I opt for my Guerrilla paths. Sevenoaks is so nice and quite and it runs parallel to Goodwood so why wouldn't I take it.

What is baffling to me is that Goodwood abuts on of the nicest parks in the city, Independence Park. It is filled with soccer fields, baseball fields, a community Theatre, and even a botanical garden. For all its niceties its one flaw is that it is totally inaccessible. I've already mentioned the troubles traversing Goodwood on the south side, but to the north is Government St. Not only is Government impassable, but where Government meets Lobdell is one of the strangest most complicated intersections in all of Baton Rouge. Government changes its name to Independence Blvd and the roads swerve in some complicated hyperbolic pattern making it nigh impossible to cross. In addition to a lack of safe passage the entire park is surrounded by fencing. I could be at the Library checking out a book, but if I wanted to read it in the park I'd need to get back in my car and drive until I found a break in the fencing, even though the library is attached to the park! It's unnerving.

Here's where my travels get a little personal and a little embarrassing. It's no wonder people don't ride bikes here in the summer time because by the time I arrived at the Library I was pouring from all pores. My shirt had the classic pool of sweat around the clavicle area with the signature river down my breastbone. My first order of business was to obtain a Library card - remember this is my first time here. As I was filling out the paper work my sweat glands were still pumping. The Librarian's desk had pools of moisture on it and my application was soaked. I ran into my friends Mark and Cameron as well as their roommate John and Mark's first words to me were, "You rode your bike here didn't you?" Guilty. The evidence was overwhelming.

I turned in my soggy paperwork and apologized many times. The Librarian was understanding and made me feel at ease. In trips since this one I headed with traffic down Goodwood staying in the left lane and merging into the left turning lane at the light on Lobdell, much to most people's ire. I follow the same path back, but this time I had one more thing to do. Being the conscientious musician I am I needed to change the strings on my guitar, plus my friend Marty broke one. So once again I have to make my way to Florida Blvd this time to Zeagler Music.





The path I took this time I thought was inspired so I approached it more as an experiment. Zeagler is on the corner of Florida and a street called Donmoor Ave, which is a one-way heading north. If I could somehow get north of Government street and into the neighborhood I could cross Florida at the light on Donmoor into Zeagler's shopping center. The problem of course was connectivity.

Lobdell would take care of my first task, getting north of Government St. I had to navigate through that M. C. Esher inspire intersection of Lobdell and Government by using crosswalks and traveling through a firehouse parking lot on the corner, but the second task, getting into the neighborhood, seemed tricky. It seemed I'd need to head all the way up to Florida or else make a left turn onto Government, but one street did seem like a ray of hope. There is a strange little circle called Linda Ave that stems off of Lobdell then circles back around to it not connecting the neighborhood. However, thanks to Google maps, I notice part of the circle was called Wintrop Ave and it stopped at Linda, then picked back up on the other side, in the neighborhood I was after. A street shot verified what I had hoped. This road was disconnected, but not developed. The only thing separating the street was a vacant lot and poor planning I suppose.

Why? Why the deliberate separation of a road? Why the planned disconnection of a neighborhood from its intended thoroughfares? I can only imagine it was inspired by fear. Fear of crazy cars. Fear of people abusing neighborhood roads to navigate through traffic. There must be better ways. Much like fencing in Independence Park we are not liberating ourselves from fear, but caging ourselves from it breeding still yet more fear, fear of the outside.

Emboldened by one of my crazy path's success I take my rented books and off road it for a bit. This takes me through the neighborhood to Donmoor. I don't want to alarm anyone in this neighborhood, but despite your best efforts otherwise, drivers are already using your neighborhood. From Government to Florida there are not many connecting roads, but Donmoor is one of them and it has a light. I wasn't the only commuter with the idea of crossing Florida at a light, but I was the only one on two wheels. Anyway I make it to Zeagler in one piece and pick up my strings to head home. I had been gone for quite some time now and my wife was already home no doubt worried. I cross back over at Donmoor and since it is one way I duck over to the next street, Kenwood Ave.

Though Kenwood doesn't have a light I cross Government easily enough at Audubon and head down another familiar neighborhood road, Esplanade Ave. This takes me back to Goodwood Park and onto Capital Heights, which I now travel headed with traffic on my way back home. In the past few months I have seen some good things occurring in Baton Rouge. The progress is slow but is growing exponentially. We seem to have some support on our side, but when it comes to city planning it's all or nothing. Baton Rouge must branch out now and correct old problems before starting new ones.




I have been living here in the capital city for eight years now. I moved from Lafayette, LA for schooling at Louisiana State University, and shortly after graduating got a good job. I am somewhat of an anomaly here in Baton Rouge. I am a young professional homeowner who does not like football. I do not stay for school loyalty but because I see the potential of this city. I hope that with future planning it blossoms into a city we can all enjoy every part of it.





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Making Groceries

Street Highlights: Capital Heights, Seven Oaks Ave, Keed Ave.

Jefferson Highway is a force to be reckoned with. Like so many thoroughfares in Baton Rouge its origins and organization are shrouded in mystery. Also known as LA Highway 73, it extends tangentially from the side of Mid-city heading Southeast off from Government. While parts of it are tame it does eventually merge onto Highway 61 for two the worst planned and utterly disastrous miles in Baton Rouge. The two Highways run almost parallel to each other but when they collide no amount of lanes, lights, or frontage roads can direct those cars towards civility.


Fortunately we are not going too far down Jefferson. Not even so far as to call it Old Jefferson. I say we for my wife is accompanying my on this bikventure. She too has caught the two-wheeled addiction which is fortunate as I'll need her help and her rack - to haul groceries.





Those avid readers of Bicyclette Rouge will notice a pattern. When heading east I often break the law a bit and travel the wrong way down one-wayed Hearthstone Dr. to cross Government St. at the light. However, law enforcement sticklers will be happy to know when I head West towards downtown or work I go the correct one-way down Bedford Dr. like a good law abiding cyclist.

This light leads through the Westmoreland Shopping Center's parking lot right behind Catholic High School. It's used by the students but once school is out it's a concrete wasteland. I usually take it around behind CVS following Cole Dr. This leads me onto Acadian Thwy. which we cautiously traverse a short, quick block to the turning lane to bike Mecca Capital Heights.




From this now defunct turning lane on Acadian, you can get to a flat, smooth double bike-laned road, Capital Heights. I've written about it before but enough good things cannot be said about that road. It is a beacon in an otherwise dismal biking town. It will take us about half the distance of our 3.5 mile journey.


Coming out the other end of Capital Heights we have our first run in with Jefferson Hwy. At the intersection of these two very different roads is a lively shopping center and art district. Here it is tame, but often we will ride through the parking lot in front of the Compact Disc store just to be safe. We quickly cross Jefferson and do a U-turn into the Goodwood Playground which is circled by two roads, Winn/Esplanade Ave and Seven Oaks Ave.



In the past I have taken Esplanade and headed north to Florida Blvd, but my path here is southward and Seven Oaks is my chosen road. Seven Oaks is lovely. The park is shady and smooth and it lets into a quiet neighborhood with no sidewalk and very slight neighborhood traffic. It runs almost parallel to Jefferson Hwy and will deliver us safely to our destination, Whole Foods Market.


On Seven Oaks we knew we were getting close. We needed only to pick a road to ferry us across Jefferson, which at this point is a 5-laned behemoth with little to no shoulder. Our aim was a light on Jefferson near the entrance of the Corporate Blvd shopping center of which Whole Food is a part. The problem is this light does not connect to any neighborhood road. Our options were to go just east of it onto Thibodeaux Ave take a right onto Jefferson then left at the light, or to preempt the light by taking Keed Ave then left onto Jefferson and right at the light.



We opted for Keed Ave. Traffic wasn't terrible and we were able to take a left into the turning lane and merge all the way to the right to ride in the almost non-existent shoulder - single file of course. It was only a few feet to the light and since we opted to take a right we didn't have to wait for a green.

At last we arrived with our milk crates strapped to our racks and a few bags to carry things in. The trip was easy and worthwhile. We got some delicious foods, some righteous beer, and refreshing drinks all for prices we can afford simply because our gasoline bill is almost non existent. We'll do this path again and often. We'll have to. You know how organic food is. Without preservatives the produce will be wilted and the bread moldy before we get home.







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A Night at the Theatre

Street Highlights: Capital Heights, Glenmore Ave, Bankers Ave, Energy Dr

This was an altogether unpleasant ride. Everything was going smoothly until Webb Golf Course, which forced us onto College Drive. While not the main idea of this entry, a motif of fuck you Webb Golf Course will be present.

The plan seemed innocent enough. My wife and I wanted to see a movie and perhaps have a drink afterward. We went to the Citiplace Theatre in Citiplace Center followed by a fancy bottled beer joint, The Cove. The monkey-wrench in our plan was, as it always is, we wanted to bike out.

Despite what the map says we did not bike down Acadian Thwy. Instead we took our usual route through the Westmoreland Shopping Center to Cole Dr. behind CVS and onto Acadian. We quickly merged onto the now defunct Capital Heights turning lane (pictured above). I've mentioned it before but Capital Heights is the best a biker can do in the Capital City. Its almost two miles of one-way traffic with bike lanes on either side. We didn't take it all the way this time, we headed south on Glenmore Ave.




Glenmore doesn't look like much at first, but after it crosses Claycut Rd it branches out into two separate lanes with a wide neutral ground (median) between them. Also a bike lane! So it's easy sailing. It can take you all the way to the highway and almost over it, but that's a path for another day. We headed east on Broussard St then pass the Country club onto Westdale Dr Our overall goal was to make it to Webb Golf Course and hopefully exploit its paths to cross the Coolie.




I call them coolies. In my hometown of Lafayette we all called them coolies. As I think about it now I don't know if everyone calls them coolies or if that is a Lafayette colloquialism. I guess some call it a Concrete Bayou others a plain old sewer ditch. In either case it is a concrete river in our way. If you look to the left you'll see what I mean. The blue line shows the ditch cutting us off. The only places to cross are Claycut which leads to unfriendly Foster or College Dr, which is more bike unfriendly that Claycut and Foster combined. However; while not pictured on the map, Webb Golf Course has many paths over the water and even have their own private crosswalk to pass College. Surely the nice golfers wouldn't mind sharing their paths with some friendly bikers on a Friday evening.

Welcome Golfers: All other activities are prohibited

Wrong. It became very clear that we were not welcomed on two wheels. If the sign wasn't indication enough the fencing cinched it. As we neared the end of Westdale Dr they began. They even encompassed the sidewalk on College Dr. Across their own private crosswalk, the golfers had completely enclosed their holes. Even if we could cross we would be fenced in on the other side.

Sticking with the motif of fuck you Webb Golf Course I will quickly describe a similar situation. A few days after this trek I needed to report to my work's central office right there on Foster Dr across the concrete bayou. I looked at the map on the right and Greenside Dr led to a golfer's crosswalk over the canal, but that too was fenced in. I had to double back around and cross on Claycut then bike precariously down Foster. So I can say for sure that even though Webb has half a dozen crosswalks for golfers, the only way for most folks to make their way across is the two major roads Claycut and College. Although I didn't get a photo of the College Dr fencing, below you can see where Greenside meets the park from the view point of the back of my central office. Completely fenced. Could have saved me a good mile so each ride. So Fuck You Webb Golf Course, twice now.

So my wife and I see no safe way to cross College so we double back and head through the Country Club's neighborhood. We eventually had to cross at the light on Woodside Dr (pictured below), but not before we vain-fully tried to find a better spot. Woodside goes into the neighborhood and doesn't let out south until Glenmore, yeah Glenmore taking us way back. So we turned around again and crossed into Westdale Middle School and road along the bumpy-ass sidewalk as it was Friday evening traffic and I wasn't about to get hit.




Bankers Ave turned out to be a Godsend. It's a relatively new street near the busy College-Bawell intersection. Bawell St is not such a bad street to go down except when it's busy. Although it is a designated bike lane, the roads are narrow and one-laned. If one were to go straight across the intersection, though most hang a quick right-left onto Corporate Blvd, Bawell would change names to Bankers, a common occurrence in Baton Rouge.






Bankers Ave led us to Energy Dr which had a light that could safely ferry us across Corporate Blvd. There are mostly hotels and crappy chain restaurants, a la Chili's, in this sector of the Center, but we thought surely there was a way to cross into the area with the theatre and bar, but there we go thinking again. I might have to start calling my wife Shirley. The Bestwestern Parking lot was fenced in, the Hilton was fenced in, so we once again road on the sidewalk. Fuck You Hilton and Bestwestern.


At this point the sidewalks were nice and even. Naturally for Baton Rouge there were no pedestrians. So we made it to the theatre through the busy parking lot with a few minutes to spare and believe it or not we weren't the only bikers, there was one other. Afterward we had some fancy beers at the Cove. Strange, however, that they tout themselves to be a fancy beer bar though they have not a single beer on draft. Forgive me, however, I am a beer snob.





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The Lights Are Much Brighter There

I've been greatly anticipating American Craft Beer Week. Although there are few celebrations here in Baton Rouge, New Orleans has beau coup beer bashes. Tonight, however, perhaps in anticipation of Craft Beer Week, local Microbrewery, Abita, is having a celebration for the unveiling of their Summer Seasonal, Abita Wheat.

Tonight we are going to a Pub Crawl. I say Pub "Crawl", but really it's more like Pub "Cross The Street". You see Baton Rouge downtown is, for lack of a better work, suffocated. It's tiny. The planners, who seem to have had a lack of foresight or planning, have severed the ties that makes a downtown an urban centerpiece. There's the natural barrier of the Mississippi River to the west - which can actually be a boon to downtown tourism a la Chattanooga. To the south is noisy Interstate 10 - not even dive bars want to be near that behemoth. To the east is I-110 which deviates north from I-10, just after the Mississippi River bridge. To the north is our glorious capital building and the lovely Capital Lake but after that is industry, industry, and more industry. These natural and unnatural barriers confine downtown to a dozen rows and half a dozen columns. The businesses and entertainment enterprises must compete for space, and, since very few people actually live downtown, the nightlife is almost nonexistent.

Street Highlights: North Blvd, N 19th St, Laurel St

But tonight something is up - downtown. My wife and I are making a somewhat responsible decision and, rather than drink and drive, we'll drink and pedal. Really Baton Rouge has very little to offer in terms of transportation options.

This time we head north to North Blvd. It's not actually a Boulevard in our neck of the woods, but a median does appear closer to downtown. North Blvd. is the designated bike road running parallel to both Government St. and Florida Blvd, but you wouldn't know if from the way the drivers react. Admittedly, drivers are worse closer to Foster and better closer to downtown, but the road is even and there are two lanes for easy passage.



Until the Overpass.




At some point Baton Rouge planners decided that, on their commute downtown, they don't want the railroad to impede their progress. Brilliant! I Forgot to mention that earlier. Another hindrance to downtown is the railroad. It runs parallel to the Interstate for a time before turning to follow the river. North Blvd is one of the only overpasses, but - get this - it's closed to bikers and pedestrians.




I don't really mind ducking off of North Blvd - hills aren't really my thing - but it is an annoyance to some. I veer off north, right before the overpass onto N. 19th Street. This is a familiar road. When it intersects Government St., it becomes Park Blvd, which becomes Dalrymple, which ends at LSU Campus. What a plan!





We reach our destination. We need to register for the event and, most importantly, sign a waiver with the company putting on the event, Abita, that we will be responsible and not drink and drive, Scouts Honor! We all know that the majority of the people there will drive home somewhat impaired. What other choices do they have? If we drink and bike the worst damage we can do is to ourselves. Before we go crazy we sit down to a meal.


Until.


It turns out while I was packing the trunk on my wife's rack - packing it with essentials like a lock and keys, wallet, etc - I removed her purse. She has no phone, wallet, or ID. If we are to register with the crawl she'll need that purse. I fucked up and left her wallet, so I needed to correct it by speed-biking back. I made it there and back with the speed of a husband racing to make things right. I didn't clock it but I'm convinced I broke the sound barrier.


The Wheat beer was quite refreshing after that ride and my wife and I had a lovely night. We stayed out for a good many hours watching the sunset on the Mississippi. We drank a lot of water and stayed out with friends long enough to straighten up quite a bit. I guess all the sweating and movement kept us sober, so our ride home was easy and uneventful. One thing though. Make sure you have bike lights while riding in the dark. While driving I've had scares on North Blvd with cyclists. Between the over pass and Baton Roue High is very dark. We both have headlights and taillights. It's the right thing to do.



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