New Orleans, LA / Tammany Trace (12/29/22 - 1/1/23)

After leaving Florida post-Christmas, we traveled to New Orleans to visit with my Step Mom Trudy and to ride the Hall of Fame trail Tammany Trace the week of New Years. We stayed in Slidell at an RV park that was near the trail head and accessible to Arabi where Trudy lives and the boys stayed.

The trail is all-paved, 27 miles long and in great shape. It seemed quite rural/peaceful and mostly in a swamp-like nature setting. Along the trail were several towns with both public and commercial amenities.

One thing we did learn is to check the website for any closings that may impact your ride. Just so happens, this trail closes trail facilities 5 times a year and New Years Eve was one of them. Closed bathrooms was one issue but many commercial options made that less of a concern. The big issue we found was that the manned draw bridge was closed in the up position! Look to the left in the picture above to see the bridge. There was no detour to get over the bayou.

Once we overcame riding back to the beginning of the trail to get in the car and drive to the other side of the bridge, we kept riding towards the north and west.

Along the trail near Covington is the well-known Abita Brewing Tasting Room. A very nice place with a good variety of beers. Personally, I like the IPAs with a good amount of hops while Michelle prefers the much less hoppy wheat beers. Both of our preferences were satisfied.

As usual, we were fed abundant amounts of our favorite dishes by Momma Trudy including my favorite Gulf seafood (crabs/shrimp). I'm glad I was able to get in a long ride in to at least cut into some of those calories! While I was here, I was also able to help Trudy with going through the challenge of "cutting the cord" with cable TV.

This is where the family road trip ended and Kyle and Zack hopped a flight back to frozen Iowa while Michelle and I headed for the Texas beaches in our home on wheels...