Cycle 40 Miles Tammany Trace Trail to North of I-12

Monday, March 29, I'm up at 7:00 to a low of 50 degrees. It gets to 71 today. I walk, stretch and we have a hearty breakfast with slim pork chops. We load the bikes and hit the trail at 10:50. We cycle out 20 miles just past I-12 to the Trail Head at Caboose Kids Playground Connection.

This must be a popular spot to hold kids' birthday parties. This sign indicates more than one Mom tried to use the facility on the same day. It is crowded today and a big bunch of balloons hanging up by the caboose indicates someone is celebrating a birthday today. We take a brief rest and cycle back to Kickstand Cafe. A 'speed racer', as we call the guys on the racing bikes left his Roadway fancy bike in the stairwell. He must not have a lock to lock it up to the bike stand outside. It seems to be an expensive bike, all graphite construction. He is inside eating and is in excellent physical shape. Of course he's at least 30 years younger than we are. He has one of those camel backpacks for his water supply.



The Cafe has closed the grill already at 1:50. Seems early since they don't close until 3:00. I order the Koop Turkey sandwich on 7-grain bread (turkey, cream cheese, jellied cranberry and spinach.) Bob has the tuna salad sandwich. All of the sandwiches are huge here. It's cold inside so we don't linger.



At 2:30 we head back. We take extra rests on the way back. We made it out here to Mandeville in 1 hour and 35 minutes. It takes us almost two hours on the way back. We did take an extra stop just out of Mandeville so Bob could capture a shot of this wildflower. Our ride is 40.02 miles in 5 and 1/2 hours.

We drive home, cover the bikes and read the paper. We're both pretty darn tired. What a gorgeous day. It's 6:27 p.m. and 69 degrees with 21% humidity.