St. Francisville, LA Rest Day

Today (April 16) we are taking a much needed rest day in St. Francisville, Louisiana. It is a beautiful, historic town, full of Southern charm, big oak trees, and Spanish moss. Half of our group is housed at the St. Francisville Inn B & B (where I am staying), and the other half is housed at the Butler Plantation B and B. Both are very nice settings, and very restful after our stay in Simmsport, which was very bleak (to say the least!)

Yesterday I had a great ride, as we rode along the Mississippi Levee, crossed over a long spillway bridge, and had lots of fun on very lightly traveled roads. My biggest event of the day came as I was pursued by a dog. Let me just say that dogs can be a biker's worst nightmare and we saw some pretty vicious ones on the previous day's ride. So when this little dog began to pursue me, I sped up, and started to shout at him. However, when I saw he was so little, and only wanted to race me, I decided to have some fun. I kept saying to him, "Okay, let's go, come on!"--and he kept coming, and coming, and coming! He ran along side of me for at least half a mile, while Ellen and Phyllis, who had been riding with me dropped back, laughing in hysterics! He was not going to quit, and when a few of his buddies decided to join in the chase, he chased them off so he could be the lone runner with me. Our SAG vehicle, with Micki driving pulled in front of us, and Micki got out and got a great picture of this little race. Ellen and Phyllis pulled up and the dog was happy to stop and get some tummy rubs and hugs. Micki put the dog in the car with her, and he was happy to get a ride back to his house (on her lap!). He had had the run of his life, and we were all laughing about this cute little doggie that just wanted some fun.

Tomorrow we have a challenging day as we are planning to go 127 miles to Bogalousa, LA. Many will probably take the SAG for a portion of the ride, but several of us plan to ride the whole way. Hopefully, we will not have headwinds to deal with, or else I may SAG part of it too.