DAY 37: 10/26 New Orleans, LA to Gulfport, MS

 Day 37 10/26 New Orleans, LA 74 miles to Gulfport, MS –

Yesterday’s rest day was not a chill laid back lounge day. With 30,716 walking steps recorded, I need to rethink future rests. 

Today we considered returning to Cafe du Monde for more beignets for breakfast, but given our full day of riding ahead, we decided we needed more protein. After about 10 miles we ate eggs at Waffle House and it struck me that one of the things I appreciate about Heather is she’s just as comfortable at Waffle House, or eating leaning against a highway guardrail, as she is at a very fine restaurant in the French Quarter. 

Once out of the city, it was a spectacular ride on highway 90 with water views for much of the day. 

First we rode through the Bayou Sauvage National Wildlife Refuge near Lake Borgne

We met a solo Southern Tier cyclist, Roger, who was in his mid 60’s, and was from Montana. He was an old school, traditionalist in so much as he had no map that day, used a flip phone not a smart phone, and was mostly camping. He was super fit looking. He had my full respect and admiration. Given my pre-trip planning and obsession with keeping our equipment and panier weight as low as possible, what was even more impressive was he had a Bible weighing 4.5 pounds with him. I hope my suggestion of getting a smart phone and downloading the Bible didn’t offend him. I was awestruck by his devotion to carry it. 

Roger, a devoted cyclist

We rode together by Lake Saint Catherine, on Catherine Island. We had noticed a few randomly placed boats heaved up from the water that lay roadside. 

One of about 6 boats found roadside

The 3 of us stopped to talk with a local man on his tractor at Island Marina and Bait. We learned of the damage to the area going way back to Katrina, and more recently Ida this past August 29th resulted in the road we biked on being under water! Heather and I have seen houses on stilts before, but never seemingly so high. He informed us the new code is to build 18’ above the ground, and some old ones with less height are grandfathered in. 

One of many stilted homes

We then crossed over the Pearl River from Louisiana and entered Mississippi. I always find it to be an interesting reflection of local commercial needs to see what businesses are located at borders. Immediately over this state border, there was a “cash for car titles” office, but what stood out was the building. 

Stilted business office, note zig zag ramp for wheelchair access

Shortly after, we crossed the 2.1 mile long Bay Saint Louis Bridge, with a protected bike lane that allowed us to stop and soak in the views over the bay.

Bay Saint Louis

Amazing bike lane

Our final water views were along the beach on the Gulf of Mexico.

Our final approach to Gulfport, MS

We enjoyed an hour walk on the beach celebrating such a better day than our last rides to Baton Rouge and to NOLA.

Enjoying Gulfport beach walk

As we sat for dinner, enjoying a magnificent sunset over the Gulf, I thought back to the sunset over the Pacific that we enjoyed in San Diego. I couldn’t believe how much had happened in 5 full weeks. I also thought about what parts of our own lives were in sunset mode, and which were in sunrise mode. 

The sunset on an amazing day

© Copyright Mark Segal 2021

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