An early start and we were quickly heading southeast from Baton Rouge along I-10 before picking up LA-70 to Donaldsonville. The loop into this quaint town passed by the Convent Refinery, the first of many refining and processing plants we would see on our route.
In Donaldsonville we stopped briefly at Ascension Catholic Church, which was founded in 1772, four years before the war of Independence started. There were several catholic institutions evident throughout Louisiana, no doubt a legacy of the original French Catholics that settled the area.
Picking up LA-70 we made good time winding down to Morgan City where we picked up LA-90 west. Along this stretch we noticed some new forms of ‘road kill’. The racoons that we encountered further north were replaced by other species. We’d seen several turtles, some actually risking a venture across the road. Also armadillos. Today, though we saw several alligators as well. Not terribly large, but surprising all the same. And finally, we nearly crushed a snake slithering across the pavement. Not sure if it was an asp, but you never know!
After Perry the roadside structures were increasingly elevated on stilts as we moved closer to the gulf coast. Not doubt a protection against storms surge from hurricanes (although there were examples where this didn’t succeed. Public structures reflected this design approach – first time we saw a high school on stilts.
At Cameron we had to stop for the ferry. A local informed us that it had been broken down for four hours and was being serviced by a mechanic. This would have required looping around via I-10 which would add an hour to our ride, however just as we were considering the detour, the horn blared indicating it was back in service.
A half hour later we were on the other side and on our way. Just west of the ferry was Holly Beach, a resort type of community right by the beach.. Everything was up on stilts.
Continuing on we had a nice stretch of 5 km or so of running just off the beach, before the road tilted inland on our route to Port Arthur. Just before crossing into Texas we passed by the massive Sabine Pass LNG plant.
Following TX-82 we rode through the heart of West Port Arthur,. passing between the Valero and Motiva refineries. Plants were spread out as far as the eye can see. A quick blast along TX-73 and we arrived at Winnie for the night.