Baton Rouge, LA (Pop. 215,112)

We rolled out of bed this morning having slept better than the previous night. Laplace just didn't have many parking options. We found a Family Dollar, so I went in and asked if it would be okay if we parked in the lot overnight. He said, "Sure, nobody's going to mess with you during the night." So we backed up toward the street and chilled for the night.

After some coffee and a bite to eat, I was ready to head out. I backtracked just over a mile and soon was on top of the levee heading north and west. I had a slight breeze at my back, which made the miles a lot easier. The ride was basically uneventful. On the one hand, uneventful is a good thing; on the other hand, it can get a bit boring. I’ll take this kind of boring. About 5 miles into the ride, I came to a "road closed" sign. I actually looked to see if there was any way I could slide through, but it was really—and I mean really—closed. So I headed north for half a mile, took a left, then a second left, and half a mile south, and soon I was on River Road heading west. That marked the end of the levee path. The rest of the day was along a four-lane highway, with a really nice shoulder. I put my head down and kept my legs moving.

We had arranged to meet at a designated place along the route. I was pretty sure that there wouldn't be much there, but maybe a small restaurant. Dana arrived there and texted me that there indeed was nothing there. I knew there was a town about 7 miles from that spot, and we could always go there to find a place for the night. We had mostly decided to get a hotel for the night, as there was some rain in the forecast for tomorrow morning. We find that staying at a hotel about once a week or so helps us reboot. We can get our laundry done and take some really nice hot showers. At heart, we are still quite spoiled.

I arrived at Dana's parking spot just after noon. I had made pretty good time and felt pretty good. I sat down, looked at the map, and said we could make it to Baton Rouge. It was only another 23 miles. At that point, I had about 48 miles and told Dana that I could handle the extra distance. I headed out with small goals. I cut the distance into small chunks, and soon I was halfway there. I entered Baton Rouge in just under 2 hours. I could have gone farther, but I’m glad I didn't have to. I ended up with 71.4 miles today and broke the 800-mile mark—all in a day's work. We found our hotel and settled in. The clothes got washed, we got cleaned up, and rested a bit. Time for dinner.

Dana asked the receptionist for recommendations for local restaurants. He suggested a local seafood establishment as it was his favorite. It was only about a mile and a half from the hotel, but I wasn’t in favor of hoofing it, so we drove. The restaurant was very rustic and looked small on the outside, but it had a lot of seating. We placed our orders and waited for the food to arrive. After a bit, a server came to bring our coleslaw. As she set it down, she looked at Dana's earrings and said she absolutely loved them. Dana and Shayla chatted about earrings for a bit and discovered that Shayla makes earrings too. She said, "Wait a minute!" After a bit, Shayla came back with a pair she had made and wanted to give them to Dana. Dana took hers off and said, "Here, you can have these. You can sanitize them and they are yours." Shayla wanted to refuse but finally accepted them. Then she said, "Can I give you a hug?" And they did. It was a random connection, but it reminded us that with just a bit of openness, there are many opportunities for us to connect with strangers.

Time to settle in for the night.

Find someone who might want to "swap earrings," and take the risk to suggest it. You never know what might happen when courage is released into a random conversation.Читать далее