Everyone slept in a bit this morning, but we were still able to get on the road by 6:15 am. We will follow Louisiana Hwy 82 the whole way, which makes directiions pretty easy. The church was well on the way out of Grand Chenier towards Abbeville, so the route actually ended up being shorter than we had anticipated. More on this later.

Passed the Roosevelt Wildlife Refuge and went over a drawbridge. They are very common in low-lying Western Louisiana. The drawbridges have a grated area which lifts up. Riding across the grate is a little scarry for me, because I think it could be slippery. Passed lots of dwellings which are called "camps." Reminded me of the term which is also used in Maine for summer residences. When we were visiting Nancy Patterson near Ellsworth ME, she and her husband Jim lived in their "camp" on a lake all summer.

Saw lots of named camps in Pecan Island: Camp David, Woo Woo's Camp, D-Camp, and Bouse Camp were some of them. Saw signs for the "Gone Pecan Fishing Rodeo" at the Acadian Marina on Pecan Island. Check it out on www.GonePecan.org

Crossed over the Old IntracoastalWaterway. Got a call from Peggy Gayneaux, the church secretary at First Baptist Church in Abbeville. She and some of the ladies are preparing a meal for us for when we arrive. I explained that there is a "faster" group and a "slower" group. Had to revise my estimates once I found out where the "fast" group was, so called her back.

When we were in the areas that were affected so greatly by the hurricanes Rita and Ike in 2005 and 2008, it seemed like the roads were newer and smoother. We've gotten farther away from the Gulf, and the roads seem older here, more gravelly.

We crossed over the new Intracoastal Waterway.

We were moving along pretty well until we reached Esther. The weather had changed, preceeded by a nice breeze. Then all of a sudden, the rains started. Sherri and Mary Ann got caught in the rain, and got soaked very quickly. We stopped at a C-store for them to wait it out a bit. Maybe waited 5 minutes, and then they were raring to go. They continued to ride the last 9-10 miles in a bit of a rainfal, declining light $1 rain ponchos because they were already wet. They toughed it out with me driving the van (with Charlotte in it) all the way to the First Baptist Church in Abbeville.

Abbeville is the Parish seat of Vermillion Parish. Formerly called La Chapelle, the land that was to become Abbeville was purchased by founding father Pere Antoine Desire Megret, a Capuchin missionary, on July 25, 1843 for $900. There are two theories about the origin of the name "Abbeville." One theory is that it was named in a combination of "Abbe" for Abbe Megret and "ville" for town, thus being "Abbe's town) The other theory is that Pere Megret named the town after his home town in France. There seems to be more evidence of that theory. It has a number of festivals: The Daylily Festival and Garden Show, the Giant Omelette Celebration, The Louisiana Cattle Festival, the Vermillion Carousel of Arts, and Les Lumieres (lights) du Village d'Abbeville. It is just 16 ft above sea level. Abbeville is a trade center for agricultural products, especially rice and seafood and provides services for the oil and natural gas fields in the Gulf of Mexico.

The ladies of the church had a lovely luncheon prepared for us. There was crawdad fettuchini, shrimp and egg stew, carrot souffle, a seven layered salad, greenbean casserole, potatoe salad, green bean casserole, garlic bread, and pie. There were three different iced teas as well. It was a veritable feast for us road weary bicyclists. Pastor Pres said a blessing, and boy were we ready to chow down! Everything was delicious and so appreciated.

Relaxing, conversing with the church people, and showers took up much of the afternoon. We also did some needed laundry at a laundromat in town.

Today's route was shorter than expected, a mere 65.6 miles instead of the anticpated 84. Didn't find any road change today.

We are now well into our routines, after 3 days on the road. Everyone is holding up pretty well, and new friendships among the riders are forming.

With love from Cajun country,
Marie