Tour of New Orleans

Well Kenny's inaugural "Tour of New Orleans" ride was quite a success this morning, attracting around 25 riders for an interesting circumnavigation of the metro area. Starting off at Audubon Park, we headed up the river on the levee bike path out to Kenner. From there we abruptly left the asphalt for a ride down the grassy levee, continuing north all the way to the lake. The linear park bike path along the lake was in surprisingly good shape (I hadn't been out there in years), and we rode that east until it ended, requiring another bit of dirt riding until we crossed back over the levee and found our way to Lakeshore Drive. That took us out to Hayne Blvd. on the Giro route, but we turned off at Read, which we took to scenic Almonaster Blvd. and Mayor Morial's famous "Technology Corridor" with is primarily a bunch of auto junkyards and dumps along a 4-lane roadway in the middle of the marsh. I think we lost a few people when the pace picked up on Read. Not exactly sure where they ended up, because I didn't notice they were missing until much later. Another off-road excursion got us across the old Industrial Canal bridge and eventually to the French Quarter by way of Franklin Avenue and N. Peters along the river. A few of us ended up stopping at Puccino's on Magazine St. since we'd skipped the stop at Cafe du Monde. It was a fun 50 or 55 mile change of pace, and one we'll probably repeat once in a while. Considering the route we took, it was good that we had only one or two flats, and I really did enjoy sitting outside the coffee shop on Magazine St. telling stories. It's too bad so many of the guys couldn't hang around for that. I mean, it was just kind of anti-social, you know? I'd have some good photos, but my camera is in my jacket pocket, which is still in the custody of the U.S. Postal Service. After my recent experience with UPS I'm just hoping for the best when I try to pick it up tomorrow. Unfortunately I've got a meeting up in Baton Rouge in the morning, so that will have to wait until afternoon.