Heading down to Louisiana

I haven’t been on the bike since Big Bend in SW Texas over the X-mas holidays. I was overdue for a bike trip, winter has been cold and snowy, and last night we had another big snow storm come through.



My driveway last night

Originally Mike and I were planning to meet half way between Louisiana and Illinois to ride somewhere around Tennessee or Mississippi, but the temperatures were still very cold in that area and this weekend the arctic air was moving as far south as Louisiana. The further south we went, the warmer it would be.

We decided to ride at Toledo Bend, LA, we have both been to this area before and enjoyed it. Toledo Bend Reservoir is a large man made lake on the border of Texas and Louisiana, sorrounded by dense woodland of pines and hardwoods known as the piney woods, and Spanish moss and bald cypress trees. This is a large area with many roads, paved and dirt.

So I came home from work today, finished packing up the truck and secured the bike down with the ratchet straps. It was 9 degrees outside and my hands were freezing up on me, so it took forever to get the bike secured. I was beginning to think driving to Louisiana for just a long weekend was a crazy idea, but I knew it would be totally worth it, even if the temps were in the 50's.



Truck is ready to go

By 7:15PM I was finally on the highway heading towards Louisiana, some 1000 miles away. It was only 13 degrees around North Memphis, TN where I decided to spend the night sleeping in the back seat of the pick up truck curled up in a zero degree sleeping bag.