We stayed 6 miles south of Oberlin at a Days Inn last night. It was nice to sleep in a comfortable bed with clean sheets and a nice pillow. After eating breakfast at the hotel, I headed out with another rider at 07:15. When we reached Oberlin, we headed east on SR 26 for 11 miles before branching off on SR 104. As we rode along SR 104 we passed rice fields and areas that were flooded by large pumps for crawfish. As the morning wore on we saw men in boats emptying crawfish traps. Just after turning on to SR 104 we observed a crop duster aircraft spraying fields to the south of us. For a moment I thought of the scene from the movie North by Northwest.
At the day’s 36 mile mark, we reached Mamou. We rode through town looking for a cafe but didn’t have any luck. We finally found the Donut Queen. Before long, several other members of our group rolled in. As it turned out, the Donut Queen was a great place to stop. I had a coffee and an egg and cheese croissant and the price was under $4.
We carried on the another 12 miles before arriving in Ville Platte. We rode around town looking for a place to stop for a short break but didn’t find anything. The town looked like it has fallen on hard times. After riding another 8.5 miles, we arrived at Chicot State Park. Our campsites were in the south campground.
It threatened to rain all day but at the time of writing this, 2:44, it hasn’t rained on us. It has been a mix of cloud and sun all day and hot (mid eighties) and humid. We traveled 53.4 miles today.