Day 38: July 9 Shreveport, Louisiana to Monroe, Louisiana: 117 miles Today was a great day on the Journey of Hope South Route. We had a long day ahead of us, but I get more excited for these rides more than an average mileage days. Century days are always so much tougher, but are also much more rewarding in the end! We got on the road around 645 and the goal was to make it to Monroe in time to go visit Duck Commander. Today I rode with Paul from Colorado and Dan from Pittsburgh. The ride early on was tough because every muscle in my body felt incredibly sore. We rode through downtown Shreveport, which was actually very cool. After the first 20 miles I felt really strong and comfortable on the bike. I havent had that feeling in a few days so it was nice to know I can still have good strong days. There are no words to describe the roads in Louisiana. Lets just say I am surprised cars can drive on these roads. Every time we ride by potholes or giant bumps in the road we just say Louisiana left or Louisiana right. I am always afraid that my tire is just going to explode or something is going to break and fall of my bike. Luckily everything was alright today, except for some sore hands at the end of the ride. The scenery today was beautiful. There were giant trees and everything was green on both sides of the road. There was one moment during the ride were the tall trees were so tall that they connected from side to side and it was a tunnel of trees. No alligators were spotted along the water or the road so that was kind of disappointing. We had lunch at mile 80 and right before it I felt like I was kind of hitting a wall. We took a short lunch break and relaxed in the shade and the motivation to finish this long day and to get to duck commander in time gave me so much energy and my pace line killed it after lunch. There was also great cloud coverage that cooled us down a lot. The sun+humidity combination is not fun to deal with at 2pm. Also along the ride today we did a quick eating challenge. This crew stop had a lot of packs of those mini powdered sugar donuts. There are 6 in each package and the challenge was eating all 6 in under a minute. Paul and I decided to do it and I finished at 1:01 and he finished at 1:09. Only 2 guys were able to finish it in under a minute. The next 10 miles were so much fun after this... We arrived to the University of Louisiana Monroe around 330 today to people cheering us in one pace line at a time. It was a cool feeling riding up to the dorms to a giant crowd of people after a long day on the bike. The century days are so tough and it is really nice seeing smiling faces as we ride in. Duck Commander closed at 5 so we showered very quickly and half the team was able to make it over there and shop around the gift shop. This was one of the things that I was really excited to do after looking at the south route itinerary. I really wanted to buy a duck call from their headquarters. I dont know if I will ever use it, but I have one now. Being a big fan of duck dynasty it was just really cool being in a place you see so much on tv. I bought so much stuff from their store and had a great idea that you will all hear about in tomorrows journal. Lets just say you will want to see the pictures from tomorrows journal!! After a short time at Duck Commander we came back to the dorms where we had a huge sponsored dinner all set up for us. We had a true Louisiana meal tonight. We ate this alligator (pictured below) and had gumbo and jumbalaya. I never knew alligator tasted so good. I am so happy that the good food streak is continuing on into Louisiana! Today was such a great day, but it is so hard to describe. The best way to say it is that it was a true Louisiana day. The feeling of finishing the ride today was unbelievable and is such a great feeling of confidence. We explored some of the city tonight and Monroe is an interesting town. Im sorry I am really tired now and I feel like this whole journal today is kind of random and spotty, but to conclude today was just an awesome day and I was really happy. Tomorrows journal will be a little different so everyone be on the lookout for that. Thank you everyone for all the support and now its time to rest up for an 80 mile ride into Mississippi tomorrow!
Posted on: Thu, 10 Jul 2014 04:57:27 +0000
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