Pronounced "Nack-o-dish"

Alexandria to Natchitoches 56.0 miles

We loaded up the trailer this morning, then went into the church for a wonderful breakfast that the church prepared for us. Mel and Grant were featured in an article from the Cenla newspaper, which was passed from person to person during breakfast. My favorite part was the mustache that Mel was sporting in the picture, since it had been mustache Monday! We hit the road after a short route meeting. Today was the first time hat I have biked by myself for any length of time. I had gone back to finish packing the trailer and when I was done everyone else had left so I set off on my own. It wasn't as bad as I had thought to bike by myself, but I still prefer being with other people. I figure that I have 1.5 more months to ride with these people and at least thirty years to ride by myself. I should enjoy every minute with them that I can, since I have olsuch a short time left with them already. Around mile 3 I caught up to Sonia and I spent the rest of the day with her. She stuck with me and my flat tire around mile 10. I forgot to tell y'all about my first flat tire on the longest day of my life AKA day 2 Palatka to Lake City. After surviving the heat, the desert and all of the 75 miles of craziness, I got a flat 3 miles outside of the church. So today's flat about 10 miles in wasn't that big of a deal. There were about 10 feet with massive bits of glass everywhere. I called it out to Sonia who was behind me, then said "whew! I'm glad I made it through without a flat..." to which she responded by telling me I had a flat. So we stopped to change it and got to hang out with he sweeps, Keenan and Sonja, for a little bit. It turns out that I wasn't having the worst day as far as flats go. Galen had 5 flats during the first 30 miles leading up to first lunch. We made it to lunch, then headed out. A nice headwind was developing, and by nice I mean very nasty. We also began to encounter our first hills since we left northern Florida which always adds fun. We rode past three or four antebellum mansions and plantations. They were very interesting to look at. One of my favorite bits of the ride was riding along the Grand Cane river for a majority of the time after lunch. It was very pretty. The people of Natchitoches are very quick to let you know that the movie Steel Magnolias was filmed there and the river looks just the same as in the movie. They are also very excited about being the oldest settlement in the Louisiana purchase. After arriving at the First United Methodist Church we set off to explore. We found a little Mexican restaurant and had some very good food. We also found a smoothies place and enjoyed some smoothies. I was able to call Kristen since she is now back in the USA! We got back in time to walk to dinner. Or at least start walking to dinner :) Alyssa, Mel and I got a ride from one of the men who helped to organize our dinner with the Baptist Campus Ministries. We got there a few minutes early so we were able to look at the maps on the wall and really examine our route. They had a Louisiana map and a US map which had most of our towns on it! It was amazing to realize just how far Natchitoches, LA is from Jacksonville, FL.  We had a great jumbuhlaya for dinner and chatted with some students before taking the bus back. I crashed into my bed and enjoyed some rest.