Seeing hills now

The easy flat days are behind us now. The heat and humidity are not. The hills were gentle rollers but added up to 1700 feet. Because of road construction that restricted HWy 61 to 2 lanes with no shoulder, all bikes were loaded onto the vans and shuttled to 4.5 miles from the hotel in two trips. After a few miles we got onto some very quiet back country roads. The LA roads were just fine, but the Mississippi roads were horrendous. I think they have been paved just once with about a million patch jobs. Six of us stopped at the state line for a picture. There was no sign, just a change in pavement to mark the change. After a few miles we were back on Highway 61 and its best road conditions. We flew down the road. Our hotel was not ready for us for another couple of hours and John, Kathleen, KimMarie and I went off for some lunch. We had an enjoyable conversation and I discovered that KimMarie is also an economist. She teaches at the University of Richmond.

Day's stats: 61.1 miles, 18.0 mph, 1735 feet climbing.

A side note to yesterday. We went past the state government complex in Baton Rouge. I took a photo of a building I thought was the state capitol building. It looked like a castle. Further up the road, there was a sign for the state capitol. On researching it at the hotel, I discovered the photo was of the Old State Capitol building. Here is what Mark Twain said of it: "It is pathetic that a whitewashed castle, with turrets and things, should ever have been built in this otherwise honorable place." It did seem an odd building and I tend to agree with Mr. Twain. But I did think that the current state capitol was not much of an improvement.