Day 36 - DeRidder, LA to Opelousas, LA

90.9 miles today
1912.3 total trip miles
11.3 mph average
1,450’ climbing
FF - 9
MP - 2nd oldest daughter Laurie & Her husband Keith.  Laurie was “the question girl” growing up.  She’s always been curious about everything & never afraid to explore new or interesting ideas.  That works well with Keith, who has similar interests & it will be really great for Luka, my 2nd grandson.

Well, I got up this morning about 5:30 AM & the knee felt much better, so I took the bike out in the parking lot of the hotel we were staying at.  I made 4 or 5 circles around the building & decided I would try riding today.  This was one of our longer days, with over 90 miles scheduled.  There were 3 opportunities for me to get a car ride in if I was having problems: at the 20, 40 & 60 mile marks.  Each time I evaluated the situation & decided to continue riding.

The hardest part of biking was getting started because the knee would tighten up a bit when I stopped.  I learned to do some deep knee bends before getting back on the bike after a rest.  I also avoided stopping for pictures since that would cause a restart, which was more difficult.  90 miles is a long way & although the profile was quite flat (that was good because climbing hills with the bad knee would have been hard), we did have some bad road conditions & some headwinds.  Toward the end of the day, I was pretty exhausted so I violated my no stopping plan to get a picture of our destination city sign.  Gave me a little rest & this picture.

I did get an unusual picture today at one of our rest stops.  I wonder why these wheel covers are even legal, but I saw them on a couple of cars.  Looks like a weapon to me.

I am currently icing the knee & hope that will allow me to ride again tomorrow.  I will decide in the morning.  It is a shorter day tomorrow & then we have a rest day.  

WDYLT - ILT walking on a sprained knee is much more difficult than riding a bike.