April 2 Day 13 cycling Baton Rouge to Bunkie, LA

Thankfully mostly cool and mostly advantageous S wind today. Still quite humid with thunderstorms all around. Sadly one of the least fun days on a TransAm ever. The first 20 miles was the most unpleasant 20 miles of the trip so far leaving Baton Rouge on “scenic Hwy” 61 – horrible road surface, tons of debris, tons of industry. One highlight was crossing big John James Audubon Bridge over the Mississippi River! We’ve been near or along it for quite while. Good bye for now as we head west! Finally at mile 57 a lovely country road west of the Mississippi river into Simmesport with mostly a tailwind, but that only lasted about 18 miles. Then we turned on another equally bad road for 10 miles with cracks every 5-10’! We did cut off some mileage during the day by not taking a few suggested loops and stayed on the main highway. Then finally in Cottonport, 12 miles from our destination, and after 91.4 miles, 994’ elevation and off and on cloudbursts with lots of rain, I had a flat tire…. again! Crappy roads will sure do it. Brand new tube was faulty with a split in it! Didn’t have any more with us and started pouring again! I called it quits at the gas station where we had taken refuge… it was called “Y-Not Stop”! Figured that was message enough for me! Boys continued on. Jody came to my rescue… again. Thanks Jody!! Boys finished with 103 miles. We are in the very small town of Bunkie, LA in a very 2 star motel for 2 nights. My aches and pains are lessening, but my upper left leg and hip looks about the same deep purple as the LSU Tiger colors!!