Day 28 (Oberlin to Simmesport, LA)

Last night was a terrible night's sleep, but I have a feeling it will be much better than tonight. We got up at 6Am and got ready to go, ate a quick breakfast and father ran us from DeRidder to Oberlin so that we could get started. Karen and I hit the road about 8:15 and rode the flattest 92 miles either of us has ever ridden. We both thought that the hump and crown of one of the crossroads was the biggest climb of the day. When we were about 25 miles in today, we saw another bicyclist heading westbound. As we slowed to say "Hi!" and share some road experiences, a pack of three or four dogs came charging and barking out of a driveway on our right. The other cyclist took off, as did we, and we never got a chance to talk to him. Somewhere around Cottonport we saw another traveller headed westbound. His name was John, and he said he has been on the road for 33 days, coming from either New York (Karen thinks) or Boston.

This was supposed to be an 83 mile day, but that would have put us in a campground only town, and we needed a motel, so we pushed on to Simmesport. That was not a good idea. The one motel in town (the Sportsmans Inn) has a reversible sign with Holiday Inn Express on the other side. (First warning bell?) We had to register in a convenience store, (second warning) and the room we were given had filthy towels and stained and dirty sheets (third warning). All of the rooms smelled of cigarette smoke, even though we requested a nonsmoking room.  Karen went to the desk and got a different room, which at least had cleaner sheets. The housekeeper, a big black woman in her 40's, got in Karen's face for complaining about the room and linens. I guess she didn't realize what Karen has been doing for the past 4 weeks, and that Karen is not about to put up with anyone's garbage. She dressed down the housekeeper and sent her away.

The room is terrible, the shower is the worst we have seen, and the migrant Mexicans staying in the other rooms sound like they are ready to party all night. If we can get a little sleep, we will start as early as we can to get out of this dump. Then we will call Holiday Inn and report this place for their use of the Holiday Inn logos, signs, and room keys.

We were chased by dogs several times today, and we are finding that Karen's dollar store air horns are very handy for stopping the dogs. We don't have to worry about which way the wind is blowing, or about aiming them. We just yell "no" or "stop" at the dogs then hit the horns (which are mounted on our fanny packs) and the dogs stop chasing and go home.

It is now a couple of minutes before nine local time, and the first train of the evening just went by with it's horn blowing. It's gonna be a great night!

Map and numbers for today-

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/235395368#.UINYJfQmDsk.blogger

Beautiful home, note the double winding staircase framing the entry.