Day 52 - October 31, 2017 - 84.06 miles, 2,018 feet ascent, 1,991 feet descent

Saint Francisville, LA to Franklinton, LA

Long day ahead of us today, so Tom R, Joe, and I got an early start out of town, riding through rolling hills of forests and farms.  We rode into historic Jackson at around 0900 (seems like every state has a town named Jackson), and bought Subway sandwiches for later in the day, as we did not anticipate any services for a very long time.

We rode through other historic towns, such as Clinton, where we elected to take the closed road along highway 10, as others who had gone this way yesterday said that we could make it through.  The road was closed because the bridge 1.5 miles away was being replaced. There was a detour, but we did not know how many more miles that would add to an already long day.  The bridge was fine - we were able to walk our bikes across a short stretch of gravel, and over the unfinished bridge, without incident.

We made our way through Darlington, which seemed nothing more than a couple houses and a grocery store, where we stopped for refreshment.  The owner, a 41 year old Vietnamese gentleman, was very glad to see us, and insisted on a group photo.  He was very talkative, and told us how he immigrated to the U.S. when he was 10, how he had worked in the shrimp boat industry in southern Louisiana, and how his brother-in-law sold him this grocery store in the middle of nowhere.  He lives in the house next door, with his wife.  He knew every customer who came in while we were there, and called them all by their first name.  Everyone is very friendly, and the grapevine is just as fast here as in any small town.  For example, a customer who came in told us that there were three other bicyclists a few miles back, and wondered why we weren't all together.  So we explained that we leave at different times, and that we all have a different pace.  It was a good visit at the Darlington Grocery.

Moving on, we rode through Tangiahoa, Bolivar, Richardson, and finally into Franlinton, our destination.  Somewhere around Bolivar, we stopped on the side of the road to remove a large branch that was blocking almost the entire road.  A driver on a quad rolled by, and said that it wasn't there 30 minutes ago, when he went the other direction.  This was our good deed for the day.  

Dinner at a Chinese Buffet, where the most important item for me was the four very large glasses of lemonade that I downed very quickly.  Seems I was a bit dehydrated!