Day Four: Happy 60th There was Birthday, Gene Weaver!

Start: Budget Inn & Suites in Abbeville, Louisiana
Lunch: Atchafalaya Cafe in Morgan City, Louisiana
Dinner: Pepper's Pizzeria in Thibodaux, Louisiana
End: Deauville Motel in Thibodaux, Louisiana
Today's biking distance: 100 miles
Total biking distance: 376 miles

I'll be honest. This whole "Brennan-and-Jason-kicking-ass-by-doing-another-100-miles-today" thing is wearing me out. I took like 7 pictures today. And most of those pictures were of buildings. Buildings we ate food in. I don't even think I took a picture of Brennan today.

Today was another excellent day. Though the guys had to wait out quite a bit of rain, they were able to tackle 100 miles for the 2nd day in a row, something unprecedented when  it comes to moustache rides (come to think of it, are moustache rides in and of themselves unprecedented?). There was quite a bit of rain, which caused the guys to take a couple extra breaks that they normally would have powered through. But this turned out to be a good thing for two reasons: (#1) it gave them some much needed rest, considering the fatigue still affecting them from yesterday and (#2) they got to hang out at their 2nd hip-hop-celebrity-named convenience store -- Nelly's!

100% genuine Louisiana rain! And lots of it!

The other main highlight was on my side of things: our usual routine after lunch each day involves me driving to the town we plan to stop and finding a place to stay for the night. I've blogged about the strategy involved in this previously, but honestly, there are quite a few more readers this year, so I feel like running through our philosophy won't be wasted.

Getting an inexpensive motel has very little to do with bartering skills (which I'm notoriously bad at) and more to do with scouting. Chain h/motels are always bad news. They have set prices and because they are connected to online services like Priceline and Orbitz, they have no need to cater to your needs. The key is finding the independent motel on the outskirts of town. As I've said before, the shadier the motel looks, the better it actually is. And this year, we got better and better at this as the week went by. For our motel rooms, we paid, in this order $80, $70, $60, and finally, $50. Take that, Rachel Ray! (full disclosure...I'm not sure what Rachel Ray does, or if calling her out while discussing motel costs is even applicable).

Tent revival! Halleluiah!!

Well, we're less than 70 miles from New Orleans, so our attention and anticipation is focused on tomorrow, when Brennan and Jason will ride their bikes into the Big Easy!

We aim to be in New Orleans by early afternoon. Brennan and Jason are leaning towards taking the ferry into town. I may join them. Or I may set up on Bourbon Street somewhere to take pictures of their triumphant arrival. Either way, it'll be a glorious day when we arrive on Bourbon Street and celebrate with the rest of the crew (Dave, Aaron, Justin, and Buzz, you're moustaches better be on point. On point, I say!). And while I will try my best to get a quick blog posted tomorrow, it's more likely that I'll post the final blog after our weekend celebration in the Big Easy. You'll just have to occupy yourself with Perez Hilton or something.


Support Vehicle Music:

The Jayhawks - Rainy Day Music (in a failed attempt to keep the rain away)
Arcade Fire - The Suburbs (in a failed attempt to make this trip Grammy-worthy)
LCD Soundsystem - This Is Happening (in a failed attempt to be hip)

Day Three: Today Was a Good Day

Start: Microtel in Sulphur,Louisiana
Lunch: C'est Bon in Mermentau, Louisiana
Dinner: Dupuy's Oyster Shop in Abbeville, Louisiana
End: Budget Inn & Suites in Abbeville, Louisiana
Today's biking distance: 106 miles
Total biking distance: 276 miles

Today will live forever. You will always remember where you were when you read this blog entry. In the meager 3-year storied illustrious history of the Moustache Ride, the record for most miles ridden in a day was an even century, 100. And today, our estimates put the boys right at that mark.

But with all of our bad luck behind us, Brennan and Jason dominated the roads today. When they pulled into the motel in Abbeville, LA, Brennan's odometer was a sight to behold:

106.35 miles. It's a new moustache record!

And you wanna know what's crazy?

Do you?

I don't think you do.

Alright, you convinced me. Here's what's crazy...

Tomorrow they're gonna do it again. That's right. Back-to-back century club days!

Luckily, they'll be well-fueled, as we just finished our best meal of the trip. Usually, after the guys have cleaned up, we take a few laps around whatever town we're in and choose the most local-looking place to eat. At first, Abbeville seemed to have slim pickings when it came to eateries. Mexican joints, a Chinese restaurant (whose logo was a panda petting another panda), and of course, Chili's. But in downtown Abbeville, we found the gem:

Dupuy's Oyster Shop, as you'll see from their website, opened in 1869. To stay open that long requires excellence. And excellence came in the form of a dynamite Tuesday night special of surf n turf. Jason and I went that route, and Brennan went with the crawfish etouffee. All of it was outstanding. So to our dozen thousands of readers, if you ever find yourself in Abbeville, LA, you now know where to go for a top-notch meal.





Aside from that, the ride itself was fairly uneventful, which seems to be a good thing when it comes to riding your bike across the country. I'm sure Jason will give the rider's perspective of this record-breaking day in his blog entry. So I'll just close with some extra pictures, though, as always, you can see all the pics at our Flickr photostream.

Faster than a (parked) train!

After 106 miles, they lost control of their faces.

A cheat sheet?! What a bunch of cheaters! 106.35 should have an asterisk.

And for future reference, you can usually assess how easy/difficult our day was by the amount of music played in the support vehicle. Today only took 3 albums. Today was a good day.



Support Vehicle Music:

Fountains of Wayne - Utopia Parkway
Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
Everything, Now! - Police, Police