DeRidder LA to Mamou LA

 Saturday April 16th


A good nights sleep in a hotel helps get us going in the morning.  Forecast is the same as the last few days, possibility of showers, and thunderstorm's after noon.  All of the creeks and small rivers that we crossed today are running over their banks.  Makes sense as I have read that the lower Mississippi is at flood stage.  Maybe we will get lucky and have a campsite flooded out and be forced into another hotel night. 


These are crawfish farms/bogs.  There wasn't a lot of activity, the season is winding down.  Next I believe they plant rice, then when the rice is harvested, switch back to crawfish for the fall/winter-season. I rode about 25-30 miles with crawfish ponds on both sides of the road.  


This is the crawfish harvester.  That big wheel at the rear rests on the bottom of the bog and propels the machine thru the bog, somehow scooping up the crawfish.  




 

Apparently our leader made a change in our schedule so we are staying at an RV park in Mamou Louisiana tonight.  
Today was one of the best of the trip so far.  Nice roads, light traffic (no logging trucks) and the scenery was interesting looking at the crawfish bogs and the many egrets and ibises appearing to be looking for crawfish lunches. No-one blowing their horns at the bikers.  This is not Texas.  66.3 miles today, avg speed 14.4, 690 feet of climbing and I burned 1,969 calories.  A fun ride, finished at 12:30, first in the shower, then ate my sandwich that I carried all day. We are staying at a small RV Park, our Chef Ann is off until tomorrow night.  For dinner we are having a crawfish boil and pizza.   I believe they complement each other?  Tomorrow we will cross the Mississippi, another trip milestone. 


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