Bike Ride to Delacroix

A bike ride to delacroix on a sunday football weekend. People thought they couldn't do it, people thought i was crazy, several people backed out, or only wanted to do half. I'm sorry that nothing was decided beforehand, but planning takes work, work that was largely unnecessary, thankfully. Thanks to Asher, Chad, Tom, and especially Becca for running support, and Victor for his tips. In the end, I think we had more support than riders.



I was warned that the road with no shoulder starts soon after chalmette, and the point was well taken. From phone conversations, i thought the ride was going to end up like this:



and yet, i knew this had been done by the punx, by people with serious attention to fun rather than athletics; i had ridden to Gulfport and back and braved the tossed gatorade bottles of hwy 90 into the pearl river basin, with no shoulder to swerve into; honestly, it seemed much less intimidating than attempting to ride to the northshore and hit the tammany trace from new orleans.

and it proved to be fun. I think, because of the allure of television football, there were fewer people on the road in the morning than in the afternoon. the trip was more like this:



With one jerk zipping us there, and another on the way back, both in the area outlined in red. no bottles, though.

60 miles is about how much I can do without hurting the next day. we rode about 15 miles per hour, and with breaks, rolled into delacroix in 2.5 hours. There are gas stations all the way to Bayou Rd, but we had Becca drive to meet us out there with water. Next time, I'm bringing crab traps and stopping in Reggio. or staging a night ride to Violet Park.



To start, the lower 9 after the st. claude bridge was an elegant ride, with style, in the door lane that goes to the parish line. St Bernard isn't so bad tho, until the 4 lanes become 2 east of Paris Rd. From there, the landscape gets more and more industrial, then rural--and the shoulder disappears in places.















Once we hit the turn onto Bayou Rd, the traffic stopped considerably, probably because, unlike the 4-lane, the rd is blocked in two places before Verret. these roadblocks mean that you basically own the road--only fishermen are there. Even residents seem to use the 4-lane.












and, home again.

Thanks for the StreetCar Ride!

Hey, all. just giving you the shout-out for riding the old streetcar network with us this past month. check the tour map here:



and the handout here:



We rode 50+ strong through the streets, no fuss, really. After a bit of rain, and a pause to say hey to former mayor Ray Nagin, we cruised to Plessy Park, where Homer Plessy stood up to integrate our trains.

Then we hit the Desire, transferred to the Jackson-Claiborne line, and rode the Bayou St John to the former streetcar barn at the end of Esplanade. After that break, we rode the City Park, transferred to the Canal, to see the station that still stands for the trains there.

We cheated a bit, I mean, we weren't riding on rails after all...and jumped over to the former St Charles line on Tulane Ave; then under the ever-flooded Carrollton underpass to transfer onto the Napoleon line at Washington st. From there, it was only a couple transfers from napoleon ave to the Peters line on Dryades, and then to the Louisiana line on, well, louisiana ave. We ended at the old Magazine shops, where we greased our human bearings with juice from the Breaux Mart.

Then we went to look at Darin's $1500 Sony No-Screen.

This month: Snoballs on Piety 17th September, and then...Delacroix? Westbank?