Desperate Times Call for Desperate Measures

Bass Haven Resort, AR – Shreveport, LA – Carthage, TX

After a nice 55-ish mile ride across the border and into Shreveport yesterday, we turned our afternoon/evening into one of those Diana’s Days Off – meaning that rather than collapse at the hotel we went through a laundry list of activities:

• Rhino Coffee Shop for an afternoon snack (This one was driven by me. As we have established before, Diana doesn’t run on food)
• Southern University Museum of Art – impressive array of African art
• Artspace Gallery – featuring exhibits of Louisiana artists

• Marlene Yu Museum – don’t know who she is/was, but it turned out to be closed (still counts because we had to bike through the heat to get there)
• Fat Calf Brasserie – Diana somehow figured out that, according to USA Today, one of the top 47 restaurants in the country was in an out-of-the-way neighborhood in Shreveport – and she managed to procure reservations. We ended up going early because, despite the mid-afternoon snack, we were ready for dinner at 5. (My Pimsleur Spanish lessons tell me that Latinos tend to eat dinner late – we might be swimming against the tide on that one. Of course, swimming against the tide is better than swimming in alligator-infested waters, as several readers have reminded us since yesterday . . .). Anyway, going early turned out to be a good idea – because happy hour hors d’ouerves specials lasted until 6 – so we ended up eating an all-hors-d’ouerves dinner, headlined by French Onion soup (which seems kind of Louisiana with the “French” part and everything).

• Bally’s Casino – There is quite a casino scene in Shreveport – like a little Las Vegas. Diana started asking this older guy at the craps table about his gambling. Last year there was a day when he made $30K between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. He’s from Waco, Texas and when it comes to gambling he doesn’t like to waste time; he spends 21 hours per day in the casinos. (He makes Diana and I look like total slackers; we only spend like 5-6 hours/day on our bikes.) He was explaining how craps work – we both still have no idea – when the lady next to him angrily told us to get lost. Or at least that’s what we gleaned from her attitude; we couldn’t actually understand much of anything she said what with her thick Louisiana accent. Something about how she was here to do some serious gambling – not jabbering . . . I played a few hands of blackjack at the $10 minimum table and managed to break even despite a few miscues. Cheap entertainment – as long as you only play for a few minutes . . . (No word on what the old guy has “netted” over the past year . . .)

• Red River Revel Music & Art Festival – We missed Jefferson Airplane by a few days, but this was really cool. Like the Uptown Art Fair + the Basilica Block Party + the State Fair all rolled into one – but for $5 each. And, actually, Diana didn’t have to pay because, despite her sabbatical she apparently counts as a first responder – and first responders are free. Which is fair. I totally think if I were attacked by alligators she would come to save me . . . 

All told we ended up with about a 63 mile day – once you add the biking around town to the ride into Shreveport . . .

We had been thinking about potentially staying two nights in Shreveport, but we felt like we covered the highlights yesterday so we pushed on to Carthage, Texas today. 

The concierge at the Southern Museum of Art told us about a private zoo-like thing on the way out of town called Gators and Friends. They have like 30 types of alligators or something and you get to help feed them I guess. After her big swim the other day I think Diana thinks of herself as an alligator whisperer of sorts – so she was pretty excited about this opportunity.

Between Gators and Friends and the Southern heat today, we decided to get an early start. Sadly, the day didn’t quite go as we expected. (I guess we should be used to that by now – none of these days seem to go as expected exactly . . .)

On our way out of Shreveport we encountered not one, but two different idling trains. Like idling right across the road. The first time we just figured out a different route. No big deal. Just a minute or two out of our way. 

The second time was a bit different. We were now well out of town and there were no other obvious roads that would allow us to avoid the train. 

At first it seemed pretty hopeful. The train was moving back and forth a little and it seemed like it would be just a few minutes and we would be on our way. Was actually somewhat of a good thing because Gators and Friends didn’t open until 10 and it was like 9:35. Wait now, or wait later – what’s the difference? 

Eventually I pulled my bike off the road and started working on my bike improvement project. I’m not sure I’ve told you about this yet. This is a little convoluted, but bear with me. It all makes perfect sense once you follow the small breadcrumbs of logic . . .

Remember the butter problem? Generally you can only buy one pound blocks of butter. Which is fine if you have a refrigerator, but not so good when you’re biking in 90+ degree heat. Well, we’ve also recently decided to make more of a commitment to eating breakfast at the campgrounds – helps us get an earlier start so that we can beat the heat. That means buying yogurt and some type of dairy product for cereal (We’ve been buying half-and-half because you get more bang for your buck calory-wise and, let’s face it, it tastes amazing!). Put all this together and we needed some type of refrigerator solution. 

First step. We purchased one of those freezer bag type things. 

Are you with me so far? All makes perfect sense . . .

It turns out that the freezer bags are okay, but without more you will just have butter that stayed cold for a little while, but eventually got warm and melted. Doesn’t really help that it stayed cold for a few hours . . .

This is where things start getting more complicated . . .

You see, we don’t have electricity, so the next layer of refrigeration technology when biking is insulation. It turns out we have plenty of insulation-type material: the mooshed-together tent and our sleeping pad. So if we put the freezer bag into the pannier between the tent and the sleeping pad, now we have a solution that can keep stuff reasonably cold most of the day. Add in some free ice that is easily found at most convenience store pop dispensers and you can potentially keep butter and half-and-half for days . . .

All good, right? Well, not quite. You see, the pannier was already at capacity before all this. Something had to give in order to make this system work. 

And here’s the thing . . . it’s not good to have all the weight in the back of the bike anyway. So this new “problem” is just an opportunity for me to move stuff to the front. But I don’t want to add even a lot more weight with additional racks and panniers on the front of the bike. 

What we eventually figured out was that we could add a “basket” below the front pack but above the wheel on the front of the bike. We just needed a custom lightweight basket-like thing. And this is where you figure out that the world always provides what you need – you just need to look around for the earth’s bounty. Especially when you are on an Arkansas road in a part of Arkansas where they apparently don’t have garbage service or those adopt-a-highway programs to keep the roads clean.

So here I am thinking about this problem a few days ago when I see exactly what we need – in the ditch by the side of the road. We call a stop, I collect the bounty and we’re off. 

With a little engineering with my Swiss Army Knife and some zip ties we have Version 1.0 of our new basket . . .

Now, with the new basket I can store the tarp for the tent on the front of the bike, and now there is room for the freezer-bag-refrigerator in the insulated pannier. Even better, the tarp is frequently wet in the morning from dew or rain anyway – so it’s good to get it out of the pannier on that score as well – so that it doesn’t get everything else wet. We’re batting 1,000 here!

Of course, it was Version 1.0 – so there was going to be a few bugs to be worked out. Sure enough, the basket started sagging down toward the wheel. Can’t have that. So yesterday when we were at a store that inexplicably had some fishing stuff I bought a stringer and made little rabbit ears to attach to my regular front pack to hold up the basket. Basket 1.1 was born.

But I realized today that 1.1 was going to have problems because the plastic is so thin that the “rabbit ears” were likely to break the plastic – leaving the basket to collapse onto the wheel at any time – which could cause a catastrophic failure – not only of the basket, but also of the bike – like a 25-mph-to-zero – over-the-handlebars type failure. 

Which brings us back to the stopped train. The time waiting for the train was a perfect opportunity to work on Basket Version 1.2. This time I weave the string through all the way underneath the basket so that the cheap plastic is much less likely to cause the aforementioned catastrophic failure. 

I’m pretty proud of Version 1.2 now. But before I have time to celebrate Diana reminds me that we still have a lot of biking to do, and we have now waited almost an hour for the train. 

Most of the cars have vacated by now. But it’s no big deal for them to go ten miles out of the way in order to avoid waiting for this stupid train. Sadly, there are no realistic re-routing options available to us . . .

We look to see whether we can go around the train by walking along the cars until we reach the end of the train with our bikes. Looks like about a half mile of horrible walking through all kinds of yuckiness. We have a little debate (read “small argument” in the sweltering sun – when no one is happy . . .) about this, but ultimately decide there is no realistic option there either. 

Finally I go back to an idea that has been percolating in my mind ever since we arrived at this intersection . . . The train is completely stopped now – no going back and forth even . . . There are little “walking” type corridor things at the ends between the train cars. 

I guess we could take the panniers off and go across these corridor things between the train cars . . .with the bikes and the panniers and ourselves. Just have to hope the train does not start moving exactly as we pass through . . .

As we prepare to put this plan into action Diana tells me that, “I’m more scared now than I was when I went swimming in the alligator-infested lake . . .” But considering that Diana isn’t really afraid of anything – and she intentionally went swimming in those same waters – this isn’t really saying much. (See this video from reader Brad S about swimming with alligators . . .)

We proceed. 

Turns out to take about 30 seconds to cross over between the cars.

Should have done that a long time ago. Of course, then we would still be operating Basket Version 1.1 – and we might have had a catastrophic failure. 

Sadly, enough time passed that it is now getting really hot. Diana’s not feeling great – she does not do well in the heat – and we decide to skip Gators and Friends. Sad, sad, sad. 

Even worse, this is not the end of our “adventures” for the day. We decide to take the shorter, driving-without-highways, route to Carthage. The main road that we are following has lots of fast and ugly (read semis) traffic, but at least there is a big shoulder. 

Until that goes away . . . We are now riding a 4” strip of asphalt between the super-aggressive rumble-strip and the edge of the road.

So now we agree to take the bike directions – which is a bit longer but gets us off of the busy highway. Again, starts out great. But soon we find ourselves on a dirt road. Not that bad – even kind of pleasant – to start. But then it becomes gravel and we’re going by oil field type stuff (we’re in Texas now – so, of course there’s oil stuff). And then the gravel becomes baby-head type stones and we are bumping along pretty good now. (I will note that I’m pretty proud of Basket Version 1.2 – which is holding up just fine . . .). And then we’re going straight up and down on the baby-head gravel. Finally, it becomes sand. Arguably even worse than gravel – especially with our overfilled tires and overpacked bikes . . .

Diana is not amused at this point. She is not feeling good. And she points out that Google Maps had said that this bike route would be flat . . . Which it clearly is not . . . Eventually, after a few miles and a lot of oil field ugliness we emerge back into civilization. 

It is at this point that we decide to abandon the Carthage RV Park – which had no fire/dinner-making facilities in any case. 

So now we’re enjoying the air conditioning at the Super 8. All good. Only problem is that we had wanted to experience Friday Night Lights with small town football in Texas – but I guess the Carthage Bulldogs have an away game tonight . . . Drat. 

More time to work on Basket Version 1.3. I already have some ideas . . .