Day 49 - New Roads, LA to Baton Rouge, LA

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​I dodged heavy rains today (for the most part) to advance 45 miles south to Baton Rouge, home of Louisiana State University. I passed over perhaps the newest bridge over the Mississippi River, the John James Audubon Bridge, which opened in 2011. Every one of the bridges is an engineering marvel and most are perilous for bicyclist. Fortunately, this new bridge includes a generous bike lane.

The “Scenic” Highway (a/k/a Business 61) through north Baton Rouge is a bicyclist’s nightmare - no shoulder, heavy traffic, incessant horrible potholes, etc. Some of it’s more scenic features include a massive oil refinery and storage tanks. The saving grace was that motorist seem to recognize the dangerous I was to cyclist and were very courteous.

Riding conditions improved greatly when I came upon trails in Baton Rouge’s central business district that led to the LSU campus south of downtown. I checked into a motel near campus and walked over to see perennial  college baseball powerhouse LSU take on a very overmatched Grambling State team.


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