HELLLLLLOOOO :) We've had several days with no Wifi...so this is the attempt to catch up!

Chicot State Park -> DeRidder, LA: 85 miles

We left Chicot State Park and knew we had a long day ahead of us. The day was pretty uneventful. We stopped at Oberlin for some lunch and catching up on the blog..we ended up staying for almost 2 hours! Then headed to DeRidder...about 40 miles to go still. It was our last day in Louisiana! We found the DeRidder Fire Department and they were more than happy to have us. Eric, the fire chief, said we could sleep in his office & use his private bathroom! His family came by to see him and his 3 kids were awesome! There was free coffee in the morning - we couldn't ask for much more.

DeRidder,LA -> Kirbyville,TX: 48 miles

In the morning we also had our oatmeal (of course). We were stoked to cross the border into Texas!!! Whooo! (I'm sure we will be stoked to get out of Texas in about a month haha) We made it a short day, because we had a warm showers to go to with great reviews. So it ended up being a 55 mile day and we got there at about 1pm. Debbie was a great host & cooked us a delicious dinner!

Kirbyville -> Shepherd,TX: 84 miles

In the morning we left. AND guess what we had for breakfast?? yes, joe's favorite, oatmeal. No....really...joe's favorite. So we pedaled and pedaled towards Shepard, TX. Our maps showed a campground there and it was ~80 miles away so we thought that would be a good stopping point. It ended up being the coolest place we've stayed yet! We thought we were pulling up into a campground, but there were cute bungalows and people hanging out listening to music. There were SO many antiques you couldn't even count them. We came at the best time too! Peaches was cooking a huge dinner for her friends and invited us :) Grilled eggplant, zucchini, pork, bread, fresh cucumber salad, banana bread, grilled pineapple & onions, & I know I'm missing something. Dinner was awesome! Yesterday was such a great day! We were planning on camping, but stayed in a little cabin for $20! It was the cutest thing ever, we couldn't pass it up. Anytime anyone is around Shepard, TX go check out the Shepard Sanctuary. Oh yeah and they are getting ready for their CRAZY halloween party that they only have every other year. Super cool halloween stuff everywhere. 

Shepherd,TX -> Richards: 58.3miles

We made some oatmeal w/ banana chips and honey for breakfast. Then we were on our way to Richards, TX. We were told by many many people that Austin is very hilly. We figured that out fast! First thing in the morning we had hills. & hills ever since. First stop was A+ donuts...amazing, fresh-made deliciousness! You can call us crazy, but we got one glazed, an eclair, cinnamon twist, apple fritter, old fashioned blueberry, chocolate milk & OJ. Haha oh & I learned to love the hills after that. You get a good workout biking all day (obviously) but not so much an arm or stomach workout. So, after all of those donuts I decided to bike up the hills while standing and THAT is a workout for your whole body. After figuring that one out, I don't mind the hills so much. Which is kind of odd, because it is very tiring doing that.

We went to family diner for lunch & had a delicious salad! Our plan was to stay at a campground in Richards so we called them while we were at lunch. Turns out they charge $15/ person to tent camp...which is a lot considering we stayed in a cabin last night for $20. WITH AC. Anyways joe says we should go 20 more miles past Richards so that was the plan. After lunch the roads were starting to get very hilly which was fine with me until I got thirsty and we noticed we forgot to fill our water bottles. Mine were empty and Joe had 1 half full. We had about 14 miles until water and the sun was beating on me! I'm sure I was making it harder for myself mentally...but I was thirsty!! :P  Anyways we were 3 miles out of town and I got a flat! It was very frustrating...so close to water. But Joe fixed it (like always, thanks joe!) & we were heading into town. Just before town we stopped to get water at Hatfield's Garden, an awesome little place with very nice people, delicious food, local beer, & a patio with live music! Joe even played the drums with them :D it was awesome! More people were showing up and jamming out. So cool! Terry Hatfield invited us to pop up our tent on the patio here tonight. I was stoked! Even though joe wanted to go 20 more miles, we still got our 60 in for the day. AND we were super backed up on blogging. It seemed like a great stop for the day :)

Wednesday September 16, 2015
Innis, LA -> Chicot State Park: 66 miles
Time on bikes: 5:56hrs

Our morning started with some oatmeal w/ trail mix. We headed towards Simmesport and the weather was perfect! The air was cool and the sun was shining through the trees :) We made a pitstop for coffee (of course) and joe spilled the coffee all over the place. We kept hearing the crop dusting plane while biking and I was hoping it would come close to us so I could get a picture! We didn't see it for a while until we saw a plane land right next to us! Joe was so stoked...like a little kid. It was awesome haha he went and talked to the pilot and the pilot said he would have taken him on a ride if there was room. After we watched the plane take off again a little kitten jumped on my bike! Ahhh it was soo cute I wanted to take it with me :) 

The rest of the day was hot hot hot! We stopped by a local seafood restaurant and had lunch. Then we headed to Chicot State Park where we got a campsite for $6. Woot woot! That's how camping should be. We got the "primitive" camping though. Which means no electric, no water...just a place to pop your tent! We do get to use the showers and bathrooms though so it's just as good as anything else. 

We took showers right away and put some bugspray on because we knew the bugs would be bad when the sun went down. Our skin was on FIRE from that stuff! We were sweating our butts off...meanwhile making our way to the campsite like a mile into the woods. I couldn't help but laugh when we were on this dirt trail. Joe was going soooo slow trying to not run into spider webs and I was getting eaten alive by mosquitos...so clearly the burning bug repellent was not working. Also our bikes do not do well off-roading with all of our gear so I just thought the situation was hilarious :P all of that was so worth it...we set up camp right by the water and the sunset was beautiful! However we forgot to get dinner so we were forced to eat peanut butter sandwiches with the 3 pieces of bread that we had left. Oh well, we do still have oatmeal left for breakfast...just delicious, plain, tasteless oatmeal :) It could be worse.  

P.s. Joe wants me to mention that he was super tired writing that last post. That's why some of it made no sense :P

Tuesday September 15, 2015

Baton Rouge, FL -> Innis: 63 miles

Average speed: 11.8mph

Time on bikes: 5:17 hrs

We left Baton Rouge in the morning and got a little lost trying to get back on our map. Once we got moving back on the ACA route we were going though a part of town with a large sholder but it had lost of debris. Of course we got another flat. At this rate as my dad had pointed out we will go through 100 tubes this year! Hopefully this will not be the case. As we left Baton Rouge we were back on route 61, a pretty busy road but with a wide shoulder. We munched fresh green beans as we passed the morning away. I spotted a horse shoe on the side of the road at one point (see below). Around noon we started toward New Roads and crossed the Mississippi River and stopped for a break in the middle. Beautiful bridge. We stopped for lunch in New Roads and cooked lunch (pasta salad) out side of a Dollar store. Sometime times on bike tours I wonder what people think we are doing with a camp stove out cooking pasta on the side walk, they most likely think we’re homeless I’m sure, but then we start talking to people and they quickly realize this is not the case. We got moving and stopped by a local vet to fill out water bottles. One of the doctors said we might be able to stay with a fire department a few towns up and gave us her name so we could say she sent us. Perfect. As we made it into Innes we crossed over some flood gates and saw an area where the river has broke through a levy and flooded a huge area of agriculture. Once we got to Innes our route took us on a few mile bend towards the river, apparently for no reason but there was small restaurant and we decided to stop. Im glad we did! We found out there was going to be free dinner for the locals and we got an invite! We said we would deffinitily come back after we found a place to set up our tent. As we went down the road Devon spotted a camp site. Only five bucks to camp in this couples back yard. We set up and I took a hose sower while Devon got invited inside to shower. Once we made it back to the restaurant for dinner we were greeted by all of the very friendly locals. Most of which had seemed to already know about “the bikers” .  We eat dinner (which was delicious) with one of the local families and after chatting with them for a while they insisted that we stay with them in the house down the road. Jason, his wife, and there two daughters couldn’t have been nicer. They let us bring our bikes into their home and sleep in one of the girls beds. We have been so lucky to meet so many great people on this trip and we have only just started!