10.6 mi / 11.3 mph / 85 ft. climbing
Home: Alexandra’s AirBNB

When we looked to make a reservation a few weeks ago, we found that accommodations in New Orleans during Mardi Gras season are heavily weekend-focused. So in order to get a reasonably-priced place to stay for five nights, we had to do Sunday through Thursday. That’s why we stayed in such a junky motel last night (Saturday), because we had essentially made it to New Orleans a day too early. That meant we had only a very short hop to make it to our “real” New Orleans accommodation today, which put us in a challenging time-killing position on a rainy day.

Our motel room had an overhang where we could stage the bikes in the steady rain, and we also took full advantage of the 11am checkout time. But then there was nothing left to do but head out in the rain. Rett had turned out onto the road and was waiting while I was dropping off the key, and before I could get through traffic to join her, a terrible driver nearly took her out. He kept coming up from behind, refusing to move into the completely empty left lane, and then hit a giant puddle that sent sheets of water into the sky. I don’t know if it was the drag of water that slowed him down or if he finally found his brake pedal, but he came to a stop just before hitting and/or drenching Rett, and then finally went around her.

US-90 had more traffic that I was expecting for a Sunday morning, but we completed our big climb up over the Industrial Canal connecting Lake Pontchartrain to the Mississippi River without further terror. Then it was down to the mostly-empty railyard roads befitting the name “Industrial Canal” to take us to the Bywater neighborhood. It seemed we hadn’t quite escaped the apocalypse blast zone we were riding through yesterday.

Parleaux Beer Lab didn’t open until noon, so I had researched options for us to kill time in a bit of shelter (under overpasses, or in a notorious abandoned Navy complex, like the homeless people we are!), but Rett decided to just go straight to the brewery and stand in the rain until they took pity on us and opened their doors.

By the time I got back from my excursion, the guy at the brewery had in fact let Rett in early, and I parked our bikes under one of their shelters out back. I thought it would be difficult to dawdle for three hours at a place that only had beer, but somehow before I’d even finished the last sip from our flight we got the notification from our host that the AirBNB was ready.

We’d heard some pretty heavy rain pounding on the roof while we drank, and it was definitely coming down harder when we left than when we’d arrived. But we were still able to enjoy our ride across New Orleans, through the narrow streets of the French Quarter, across Downtown, and then onto Magazine Street into the Garden District where our AirBNB sits. If we had stuck with our original plan and had already done 30 miles in the rain (instead of 5), we likely wouldn’t have been feeling anything besides sorrow for ourselves at this point!

Arriving to our AirBNB in the rain meant that we had tons of wet stuff to spread out and dry, mopping up puddles as we went. Once we got somewhat organized, we walked back out to Walmart to pick up groceries. I couldn’t stop pointing out cool New Orleans elements like architecture or Mardi Gras decorations, and that frustrated Rett because she just wanted to keep her head down and face out of the blowing rain. But at least we know that we’re in a cool neighborhood!

We wanted to get everything prepped at our space because Josh is joining us! It’s a bit more planned than the last time we coincidentally crossed paths in Dillon, Colorado: Rett has been telling Josh for a year that he needs to fly from Arizona to meet us whenever we made it to New Orleans, but it’s still awesome that it’s actually happening. And “lucky” timing is still a factor: Josh’s beloved dog Leela departed the world just a couple weeks ago, so they figured a Mardi Gras meetup could be a good distraction from sadness, and a rare opportunity for support. And the rain should be done for the week!