Coast 2 Coast - Day 32 - Opelousas to St. Francisville

The day in Opelousas dawned with the threat of thunderstorms, but it seemed that we might be able to stay ahead of the storms through the day. So it was time to go off and head east again.

Our first surprise of the ride was a bridge over a big river. We knew that we would be crossing the Mississippi, but that would come much later in the day. This river, instead, was the Atchafalaya:

And then, on the other side of the Atchafalaya river we had to ride through its associated swamp. We detoured off of US 190, and went down to swamp level on 'Old US 190', the abandoned 2 lane road that paralleled the highway:

That got us through the swamp:

and then we went to our SAG stops, including one in New Roads LA, on the shore of the False River (an oxbow lake formed by a change in the flow of the Mississippi).

There we stopped at Satterfield's restaurant and had a feast of Eggplant Nelson, Warm Fried Crawfish Salad, and Crawfish Etouffee:

Then it was on toward the Mississippi, and the Audobon bridge for our crossing:

followed by finally going over the really big river:

But, looking back to the west, the storm clouds were following us:

But we made it into our camp in St. Francisville for the evening, and then, shortly after dinner, the lightning and rain came while we were safely under cover:

Overall we rode for 69.0 miles at an average speed of 12.3 mph and a maximum of 29 mph, with no flats.