Hi.  Tonight we're staying in the Hyde Park campgrounds, a step up from last night's lodging, but not a giant step.

Leaving Bogalusa this morning took us on some narrow twisting roads where the hills tended to sneak up on us.  That was compounded by pretty heavy traffic, including numerous logging trucks for the first few miles.  But soon we were directed onto a less busy road that wound through beautiful farms and meadows.

We stopped briefly for snacks at the small town of Springhill where the owner of the convenience store was offering very reasonable prices on everything with an amazing assortment of goods.   He's semi-retired and runs the store as a service to the community and cyclists passing through.

Then we continued our way along mostly pleasant roads into Franklinton for lunch.

Leaving Franklinton,  we returned to roads with no shoulders and heavy traffic.  At one point I was forced off the road by a semi and took a wild ride through the ditch for 50 yards.  Fortunately,  there were no large obstacles in my way and I was able to bring my bike under control without going down.

A mile later we were again diverted onto less used roads for several miles.  We were taking a bit of a break in the shaded lawn of a kind couple, when another rider happened upon us.  Jake is a 21 year old Agronomy student who's been working in western North Carolina and decided to take the fall off to r on the Southern Tiers route.  He's rode with us the rest of the afternoon, or shall I say we followed a half mile in his wake.  Ah the vigor of youth.

We weren't to far from our supper stop when we had an incident with Louisiana's notorious dogs.  A pack of 5 of them came out from a farmhouse and charged across the road at us.  In the confusion that followed Barb and I clipped bikes, but again neither of us went down.  The dogs mostly lost interest as we stopped and we rode away relieved that nothing more serious happened.

Maybe Kekory and Calvin knew something when they so fervently prayed for our safety.  God please watch over us as we travel.

We're camping out tonight and Jake has joined us.  Nothing luxurious, to be sure but comfortable enough for the evening.

We'll be up and continuing in the morning, either to Jackson LA or New Roads where we cross the Mississippi River and finish the 2nd of the seven mapsets.