April 22nd
Mile 2092 to mi 2345, 253 miles
We slept in and didn’t get on the road until 0800. It was cold in Mississippi this morning, high 50’s! I was cold with my seat heater on and my jacket heater. Today we start to leave the coast line behind. We headed to another round of coffee at a shop by the post office, we warmed up and had breakfast. Then shipped a box of beach stuff home. So much more room on the bike!
We rode into Louisiana and straight for downtown New Orleans. We found a parking lot right between the Mississippi River and the French Quarter. We were noticing all the “boots” on peoples car tires on our way in. A local woman came over and warned us to pay for more parking than we think we need, they don’t mess around with just tickets! You have to pay to get the boot taken off your car or you aren’t leaving!
We decided to spend as much time as we wanted walking around town and having lunch. I told Jay to have a beer or two, ensuring a leisurely walk around town. We ate a southern meal on a french style balcony overlooking the street.
Then found fresh coffee and pralines before we jumped on an historic mule drawn carriage ride around town. Our docent, Pete, was quite the character! Local retired High School teacher, gone a little rouge and sooo into history!
New Orleans history is fascinating and I’m inspired to read more about it, especially Marie Laveau.
We were in the mood for some more authentic Louisiana style food so I found a little place called Rita Mae’s Kitchen in Morgan City right off the freeway. This place was legit authentic! It was an old house converted into a restaurant. Old formica brown tables and dinning chairs, worn wooden floors stained with time and food. Only one other customer was present, but still it felt like there was a pause we walked in. We asked the woman working if we could eat dinner and she said yeah, sure. We went over the menu together and she worked real hard coming up with something gluten free for me to eat and seamed quite surprised that I could survive without it. We all chit chatted and got to know each other for a minute and Jay enjoyed his home cooked seafood gumbo.
Again we rode into the night, so much for early to bed and to hotel we found in Lafayette with a hot tub. A high priority for us! And that tub was hot! Wow, nice!
