15.0 mi / 11.8 mph / 25 ft. climbing
Home: New Orleans KOA

Since last July (or maybe even earlier, when we were in New Zealand and decided that we would return to the United States), we knew that we would make it to New Orleans in late winter (at least that was our hope!) But that was our final target, and we’ve never added an additional one after that. Our weeks in Mobile and New Orleans with family and friends, while wonderful, hadn’t left any space for planning our own future. So now with our New Orleans AirBNB being turned over to new guests, and prices just getting even more insane as Mardi Gras season reaches its climax, we need to figure out somewhere else to go in order to figure out somewhere else to go.

The challenge is that we had unwittingly laid a perfect trap for ourselves, and rolled right into it. Geographically, New Orleans might as well be an island: Lake Pontchartrain is to the north, the Mississippi River (crossed by only two bridges) is to the south, and even if we wanted to return east, that thin ribbon of land is effectively a 60-mile bridge (and a closed one at that!) So that leaves west as the only possible direction to ride out, and while that’s broadly the direction we’d been assuming, that’s where the other dimension of the ingenious trap comes into play: Mardi Gras season.

We had booked our place in New Orleans from Sunday through Thursday precisely because prices spike dramatically on the weekends. But now we were stuck looking for a new place on a Friday night, and we simply wouldn’t be able to ride far enough out in one day to escape the well of expense we were trapped in. There were a couple of State Park campgrounds on the other side of the river, and one surprisingly had a bit of availability. But even if we stayed for their two night minimum, that wouldn’t really help us. Because there is literally nothing further in that direction besides the Beasts of the Southern Wild, so we would need to return through New Orleans anyway. And now it’s not just a weekend we need to wait out: actual Mardi Gras is on Tuesday, so prices won’t drop until six nights from now. Trapped! By both space and time!

But wait, is that Amtrak, lowering a rope into the well?! Yes, the City of New Orleans train stops in Hammond, Louisiana, a town I’d already had my eye on due to its reasonably-priced motels and a promising long-term AirBNB. And surprisingly, it’s a checked-baggage stop, unusual for a small-ish city one stop away from the route’s origin. That part is critical for being able to transport our bikes. I immediately grabbed the rope.

“Neil, wait!”, Rett exclaimed. “Can’t we grab the rope tomorrow?” The problem was that the train left at 11:45am, leaving little time on our last day with Josh. His rope (a flight back to Arizona) wouldn’t drop until Friday evening. I said, “sure, just find a non-insane-priced place for us to stay nearby”. She immediately saw the same difficulty I was having, so resigned to grabbing our rope and leaving Josh alone in the well. But I remembered the KOA campground 15 miles outside of town I had looked at still showed availability. I’d written them off because they required a minimum 5-night reservation (at $109/night for a tent site, which hopefully makes-specific the vague “insane” prices I’ve been describing!) But I told Rett that if she was really motivated to stay, she could call them and see if they’d make an exception. She did, and it turns out that now that we were already into the 5-night “weekend”, they had recently “opened up” the sites. So we get to hang out with Josh for one more day in New Orleans, far from the worst well in the world to be trapped in with an old friend!

We did nothing grand, just rumbled down a mile of streets and broken sidewalks (us walking our bikes, Josh pulling his roller bag) to Juan’s Flying Burrito on Magazine Street. It turned out to be the perfect spot, with the waitress repeatedly apologizing for her and the bar’s slowness. “No, please, take all the time you want, we’re just happy you aren’t trying to move us along!” And that’s really the whole point to being here with Josh this week anyway, to just spend time together, so we’re all glad that we were able to outsmart the trap.

Our campground was actually right near the airport, but we parted ways in opposite directions, with Josh heading east to take a bus (coincidentally leaving from the Amtrak station), and us heading west. We happened upon the west side (the start) of the parade route, made obvious by the lines of chairs (and even ladders) laid out on both sides of the street for dozens of blocks. It finally gave us more of a parade-participant perspective (rather than a parade-viewer perspective), highlighting that the kids dancing in front of the marching band are really dancing for miles, a not-insignificant athletic feat! The floats and the krewes were all lined up for this evening’s parades, and the streets were beginning to be shut down, so we were lucky to make it out as easily as we did.

At the west end of New Orleans-proper, after passing through vast Audobon Park, we rose up onto the Mississippi River Trail that rides atop the levee wall. Following the coiled bends of the river means that it’s much longer than a crow-flies route, but such a route barely exists in the street network, and certainly not one as relaxed as the trail.

At the campground, the grid of 9 tent campsites felt a bit like a New Zealand holiday park, but it seems the manager’s pricing gambit didn’t pay off, since we were the only site occupied for the night. We got a guided tour from an employee, which included him showing us the switch to turn on the lights attached to the tall wooden fence! I guess that’s what you get for a $109 tent site! After some cold days of riding from Mobile, and warm/wet nights of camping before that, today was just a beautifully comfortable evening to be outside. So hey, maybe the $40 extra we’re paying over a motel in Hammond is worth it just for putting us in the beautiful outdoors for the evening.