Tuesday, April 4 - DeRidder, LA to Ville Platte, LA

 DeRidder to Ville Platte, Louisiana. 77 miles today. It doesn’t take much to get us excited these days. A box of donuts at the first rest stop did the trick. Yum. When crossing into Louisiana the roads got better. Yet the rest of what we have seen is economically more depressed than Texas, the state we had previously ridden through. We also rode through country today where there were crayfish bogs on one side of the road and rice paddies on the other side. Two good sources of food for this part of the country. We took a picture with a store owner where we had a rest stop. The people here are very nice to us and always want to talk to us. And finally, another Mexican restaurant tonight. We have had quite a bit on this trip. Can’t go wrong with beans and rice.

Monday, April 3 - Rest Day in DeRidder, LA

 On our day off here in DeRidder, Louisiana we went on a tour of a gothic jail where they performed hangings in the 1920s. It is supposed to be haunted. Ha. Anyway, it was creepy to say the least.

Sunday, April 2 - Lumberton, TX to DeRidder, LA

 Lumberton, Texas to DeRidder, Louisiana. Another day another ride. 82 miles in the books. At breakfast we met folks who were in town for the quick draw shooting competition. I guess they shoot wax bullets at targets in the quickest time. In the third picture is a couple in the competition, they were from Wisconsin of all places. In pictures below are a fantail crawfish home of sorts. They build them in ditches where water fills up after storms. They build the tubes to keep just the right amount of water in their homes. So much to learn about crawfish.…. Lol. We made it into Louisiana at mile 60 and took a picture. We were in Texas for 17 days, and it was nice to get to a new state today. We had some crawfish tails as an appetizer for supper tonight. They are very small indeed. Somewhat like tiny shrimp. Not much to get excited about in my opinion.

Saturday, April 1 - Cleveland, TX to Lumberton, TX

 Cleveland to Lumberton TX. The day started out with dense fog but ended up sunny and hot, 91 degrees. Two weeks ago, we were freezing. The weather has really changed and quickly. The terrain as well has flattened out and we only had about 900 feet of climbing over 70 miles. We had fun with a chicken roaming around a parking lot where we were taking a break. He liked us and we liked him. Not sure if he was more entertained or us. So they were doing controlled burns all day in the National Preserve we rode through. Except one part was an uncontrolled burn. Ha. There was a Ranger there observing though so I guess if it got too out of control, he could have called it in. Again, supper was great tonight with blackened red fish. Tomorrow, we arrive in Louisiana! Yay!

Friday, March 31 - Novasota, TX to Cleveland, TX

 Novasota to Cleveland TX. It’s green here and humid. We are just north of Houston, TX. It feels and looks like the east coast. Gone are the hills of the hill country. Gone are the high deserts and cactus of west Texas. Now we are in the flatter greener east Texas. We’ll be here two more days. We rode through Sam Houston National Forest and by Lake Conroe. We haven’t seen anything like this the whole trip. We will see more like this as we travel east. It’s a nice change. Yesterday at the end of the ride we went to Dairy Queen to celebrate with our new rider Shelley. Supper was shrimp and grits.