permalinkTour du Rouge Day 5: Morgan City to Gonzales
May 10, 2018

After a couple days feeling less than 100%, I woke up today raring to go. I hopped in the fast group, trading pulls at 23mph until the first rest stop. From there, I fell back to the second group (I can't quite keep up that full pace all day), following a police escort at 22mph to the second rest stop. I stayed in the second group through the BBQ lunch on a historic plantation along the Mississippi River all the way to the finish to average over 20mph for the almost 90 mile ride, the fastest average speed I've ever done on a bike. Quite incredible!

Stroad. Getting to travel through and stay in these towns, one thing I've seen a lot of is stroads. A portmanteau of street and road, it accomplishes neither objective well. It's where you'll have many business you want to visit - hotels, restaurants, retail, convenience stores, and the only way to get between them is in a car going 40mph, even if they're just a few blocks away. All of our hotels have been on stroads, which makes it very difficult to get around. I've made daily excursions from the hotel - to see a movie, get some cream, find a nice chocolate milkshake - and been faced with obstacles every time - a 4 mile pedestrian detour, no sidewalks, no crosswalks. It's ridiculous there isn't the minimal infrastructure in place to enable better mobility and business growth. We can do a much better job of planning and building cities.

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