Build Day #5

This week we will be working with the St. Bernard Project, a local organization whose mission is to help rebuild homes for those living in St Bernard's and Orleans Parish. The morning kicked off with their volunteer coordinator coming to our host to discuss their organization and a little about what would be doing this week. Of the 27,000 homes touched by floodwaters 27,000 we dreamed unlivable once the waters receded and people returned to their homes.

The home we were working on belonged to a long time NOLA resident who had owned the home since the early 80s. After seeing the picture of Katrina dominating the Gulf of Mexico he decided that he needed to evacuate the city with his parents who were close to 90; this was the first time he and his parents had ever evacuated for a hurricane. The waters reached about 10 feet and after several months living with his son in Atlanta he decided to come back to rebuild his home. While bouncing around transitional housing, he was ablew to secure a contractor to help him rebuild. After completing some of the work, his contractor skipped town with his money (this is actually a common occurrence for many residents who came back to rebuild). Unfortunately he did no have any source of income because he was injured while working on the job. Eventually he was able to get hooked up with the St. Bernard Project and was accepted onto a program with the United Way which would put him through a class to become a landlord; the project is currently helping to rebuild the other side of his home which he will be able to rent out and allow him to earn a steady income.

The goal of this week is to finish up the house so we quickly set off to work. Megan and Julie KILLED the flooring in the kitchen while the rest of us worked on painting or installing baseboards or doors.

David, the guy at the saw above, and I were one of the base board teams and let me tell you we wet en the struggle team from the get go. While our orientation and directions were fine we could not seem to get othe measurements and angles down. I blame it on the lack of coffee and my recently brushed brain. There were several times we were about to turn in the towel, but the site leader assured us that things would start to fly after lunch.

Jessie's mom and dad came to the rescue during lunch with sandwiches, someone picked me up an iced coffee and I was able to get in a solid twenty minute power nap. With all of those forces combined, David and I hopped off the struggle bus and started to kill it on the baseboards.

The afternoon became very hot, very quickly and there was no shade for the people working outside. You can almost feel Marcus's desperation here.

Small world: The girl sitting on the bottom left was one of our site leaders, an AmeriCorps member and Bike and Build alumni member.

When we arrived back to the host e were treated by some amazing smells. Jessie's mom and dad graciously cooked us dinner which came complete with roasted chicken, corn on the cob and rolls. We were all in heaven, eating like we did not know when or where our next meal would come from #bikeandbuildproblems. We finished the meal off with ice cream Sundays; so much for dropping weight on the trip.

 

Day Off in NOLA aka Donation Magic Day

First another shout out to Dixie, a fellow rider's mom for being a diligent reader. Apparently if Trent continues not to call her back, she will post here to confirm that her son is alive.

This morning we were all able to sleep in until 7:30 and because it was Sunday we had to be out of the host before 8:30. We all piled into the van and headed to Cafe Du Monde for breakfast. Once we stepped outside the church and were blown away by how humid it was. The beignets were just as I remembered them - light and fluffy and covered in powdered sugar. The cafe au latte was also mind blowing - if you see their chicory in the grocery store GET IT!!! Here is Megan enjoying her first one:

After breakfast go ups started to go their own ways and a couple of us headed over to Jackson Square to check out some worko done by local artists. One of my biggest regrets from my last trip was that I did no tiring back a piece of artwork so this time it was my first stop. I got a great painting of St. Louis Cathedral for $20 and started to chat with some of the local artists. While everyone though we were crazy for biking across the country, we did get a few points of interest for out trip through Louisiana and Texas including the largest waterside in the US.

The Square was also busy because the annual memorial for firefighters, police officers and EMTs was taking place in the Catherdal. The Louisiana Marine Corps band was in attendance and played a set before things got started and then continued to play in intervals throughout the memorial.

Hot sauce is big down here and we had the opportunity to try several kinds.

Our wandering continued to the French Market where the first was a whole bunch of farriers mar ket stands and restaurants and then further backs a random mish-mosh of shirts and antiques.

While we were wandering around we came across a rug weaving store and the owner shod us how the looms are threaded and the process of making a rug. Very cool. Unfortunately the rugs were bit outside my budget, but maybe one day.

At breakfast David researched the World Oyster Festival which was happening over by the M ississippi River (yes we finally got to see the river, but had to wait until we left Mississippi to do so). A bunch of people had tried them for the first time back in Apalachacola so we decided that we sold try to DM some oysters. Big thanks to ACME Oyster House, one of the sponsors for donating 18 raw oysters to our crew; this was my first big DM of the afternoon.

River boat on the Mississippi

With the temperature continuing to climb, or at least that is what it felt like, a bunch of us decided to head to the Audubon Aquarium go see if we could get some tickets donated. Now for those of yo neve had the pleasure of meeting yours truly I LoVe the aquarium. After speaking with several employees and a call going to the community relations department they graciously donated nine tickets to some very thankful bikers.

The aquarium was great and we got some great pictures. Jay and I decided to try the hurricane simulator. While it looks like we were dancing, we were trying to simulate being thrown about in the wind.

Penguin feeding

Shark tank

View from above the shark tank

Arden and I snapped a quick picture after touching some sting rays (very slimy feeling).

We slowly made our way back to the van to head home to the host. We were exhausted from all the day's activities, but perked up when we found out that Jessie's parents brough us some delicious homemade snacks and would be making dinner for us tomorrow night after our build day.

Bike Ride to NOLA

Biloxi to NOLA: 71.6 miles plus a van ride

Total mileage: 859.6 miles + 5 mile ferry ride

Durango unit morning route meeting we were told to check out the Friendship Tree as we headed out of town. I did grab an acorn on my way out just like the sign suggested. It is amazing that tree survived the hurricane because water and winds destroyed the University which houses the tree.

 

Then it was all aboard the pain train! Apparently the name stuck to the group who average low to mid twenties as they cruze down the road. Marcus did a great job ramping us up to a cool 25 mph and the train took turns leading. While I was not quite as fast I held my own at 23 when at the front. We were flying and coved a lot of ground in a short period of time. It was amazing to see how many empty lots there were along the route from homes which had been taken out Katrena.

Lunch stop which was along the Parkway to Space (yup the real name of the road because there is a NASA complex along the road)

From lunch we were supposed to hit the state line in less than 10 miles. A few bikers who had left a little earlier informed us that there was no sigh, but thankfully they made one for us so we could take a Louisiana state picture.

As we headed over our first bridge in Orleans Parish, I saw a fort out of the corner with my eye and since we had some time to kill until we had to be at the host I convinced my group that we should stop. Turns out that we stumbled upon Fort Pike and after chatting with the park ranger and the archeologist, I was able to DM our admission fee.

 

Joe gave us a brief run down of the fort which was build before the Civil War and could considered the first government bailout. One of the builders ran off with a large sum of the money for the project and because the other one coul don't pony up the money he was thrown in jail. It was at that point the government came in and finished the rest of the work. The plans were made by Napoleon's designer. After the Civil War the fort was no longer used and was later turned into a National Landmark. Another fun fact is that the location dates back to prehistory.

 

Before we headed in Art (remember this name as he will pop up several more times) told us that there was an alligator hanging around the mote. Some of the people in our group had never seen one before so Art started coaxing him out of the water. Tador was his name and we were all surprised he responded to his name and came to hang out for a bit.

 

A good deal of time had passed and we saw several other bikers come over the bridge. A couple had stopped by the party going on at they park so we decided to do the same before finishing the last 30 miles. Turns out that one of the local Mardi Gras float groups was hanging out and having a crawfish boil. The first group got us all invited to share in some crawfish - another Bike and Build bucket list item.

We got a full tutorial of how to eat crawfish and then got a picture with some of the members. It was great getting to hear about their lives, share with them about our trip and eat some great food. The l day poking over Ben's shoulder was AMAZING and she offered up her church as a host next year if we could not find a place. I am constantly amazed at how friendly and generous people have been in the south.

Destruction of some crawfish. We did have some help here folks

Feeling totally full we headed out to conquer the last thirty miles. Sadly on the way I got a flat tire which I had to take care of. I was almost finished and then the guys decided that they were going to take over because they could not sit still for a few more minutes longer.

The road was pretty rough and twice my tire got stuck in a crack. Thankfully I was ablew to get myself out before I went over. After a quick break I had made a comment that things happen in threes and something was going to happen before we got to NOLA. I must have been a premonition because a few moments later a crash befitting the Tour de France occurred. We had all broken the line to avoid a tree limb and when we go back together two bikers tires collided which caused the person in front of me to go down. Sadly I could not get out of his way and ran right over him landing on my temple; the rider behind me busted up his shoulder pretty well too. Two of us were pretty banged up so we called the van to come pick us up.

Now remember back to my friend Art. Well as we were sitting on the side of the road waiting for the van he drives up and says something to the effect of "y'all aren't going to make it to the west coast if you keep going this slow." It definitely helped to lighten the mood.

I was feeling okay and definitely not like I had a concussion so when I got to the host I just iced my shoulder. Unfortunately my symptoms went from zero to a million after my shower so I made the decision to go to the ER to get checked out. The trip to the ER revealed that I had a mild concussioin, but my CT scan cameo back clear which was good. The rash could not come at a better time because I will have a few days to recover until our 95 mile ride into Baton Rouge.

 

Bike Ride to Biloxi

Mobile to Biloxi, Mississippi 62.8

Total mileage: 788 miles + 5 mile ferry ride

We were all up bright and early to take on another state line this morning. One of the women from the church was in the kitchen by 5:45 making breakfast which was fantastic. Holly and I were part of the breakfast crew so we helped out. There were some extra blueberries left in the fridge so we were able to make blueberry pancakes.

The weather was much cooler than we have seen for the entire trip because of the previous night's storm. With my phone packed in a sandwich bag we were ready to hit the road. The beginning was a little rough because the air was so heavy, but after about 15 miles we came across a small farmers stand. I bought some cucumbers (mainly because there is a lack of vegetables on this trip) and were able to DM some tomatoes. The woman also threw in a flower so Benard was looking good this morning.

About twenty miles into the ride we came around a curve and were presently surprised by the Mississippi state sign. We were all pretty stoked to have hit another one and took pictures and footage for the video I am working on. As we biked away I was reminded of Tom Sawyer when he was on the river and discussing that he thought that they were in the same state because the landscape had not changed colors like it did on the map that he saw at school. This got me thinking that much of the landscape we have seen in the past few days reminds me of other parts of the country I have visited before. Much of western Florida reminded me of Cape Cod (trees, landscape, smells, etc.) and there if you told to guess here I was some days I probably would give you a northern state.

On the road we found some hella cheap gas

Biloxi is home to the Biloxi Lighthouse, the oldest lighthouse in the Gulf Coast. It was commissioned by by Congress in 1847, built in Baltimore and then brought in pieces to Biloxi where it has remained ever since. Every morning they offer tours, but sadly we will be long gone before they open so we did not get to go to the top.

As Holly and I were biking into town we saw a sign for a Trace Adkins concert so when we arrived in town we tried to hook up somew DM magic. Unfortunately the concert had been sold out for weeks and thy were not able to help us out. Because we had a couple of hours to kill before we had to be at the host we went exploring and to search for lunch. We did pass the Hard Rock casino and wandered around for a while.

Most of Biloxi was destroyed by Katrina and as they have rebuilt over the last few years the city has tried to cultivate the arts. Around the city we found some great street art

On the way to the host we came across the Ktrina Sculpture Garden which was made up of some amazing hand carved wood statues.

After a great curry dinner we piled into the van and headed for the casino to do some gambling. This afternoon was the first time that I had ever stepped in one and decided that I would try my luck on the tables. The black jack tables were a bit intimidating so Kristina and I decided to try of hand at roulette. At the beginning we were up, but just as quickly as the money came in it went back out so sadly in our case the house won.

 

Off to bed because tomorrow we hit our third state in three days and will be able to set up camp in NOLA.