Day 29, Oberlin to Washington,La. 55 miles

After our meager breakfast purchased at the grocery store the day before, we started cycling through the backroads of Louisiana. Flooded rice fields lined the road with red wing blackbirds flying about.

We started noticing the road kill and how it has changed since Texas. Dead deer and sheep were along the road in Texas and now we see dead armidillos and possums. As these thoughts were going through our head we came upon this sign on the road left by a previous cycling group.

We also passed by many cemetaries with cement slabs because of the high water level. The tombstones had French names.

We finished early in Washington, the third oldest settlement in Louisiana. We are staying at the Country House B&B in a cabin that was the previous outside kitchen.

The owner was a true southern hostess who treated us to lemonade on the porch when we arrive and then showed us the old house filled with her paintings.

We then left to visit the local antique shops and see the 1820 steamboat warehouse which is now a celebrated restaurant, unfortunately closed on Sunday evenings.

On our way back to the B&B, we passed some folks selling jambalaya, black peas, and cole slaw. We bought a serving to supplement our Subway sandwiches that we had bought for dinner in the previous town.

We are definitely in Cajun Country. The word Cajun is derived from "Acadia", the original home district in eastern Canada of the early French settlers in Louisiana. However, the food owes more to the Indians, the Spanish, and the slave cooks of the Old South than to the salted, oily foods of "old Acadia." (Info from cycling maps)

The blogmaster hard at work on her text.

Tomorrow we are riding over a hundred miles to St. Francisville where the next lodging could be found. We need the Babes Cycling Training Camp that took place this last weekend. We have been eating huge amounts of food and talk about tapering on our food consumption. However, without the extra calories, we run out of steam.

"You all take care of yourselves, honey." A well-wisher at Subway.