Here is the huge bridge that we rode our bicycles over as we crossed the Mississippi River yesterday. In this lower part of Louisiana there is water all over the place in the form of bayous or swamps, rivers and streams and in the ditches, because of the rain but also because the Mississippi has so many tributaries that run out of it and wander around then go back into it again. The result is lots of bugs. Several weeks ago I wrote about the things that bicycle riders hate such as rumble strips, chip seal roads with 1 inch minus gravel, and head winds, but now there is a new number one thing that I hate, and that is bugs. Yesterday we made super good time because every time we stopped to take a break the bugs would swarm around us and make it impossible to rest more than a minute. They aren’t misquotes but these little pesky black flies. They seem to like DEET, their favorite thing is to fly into my ears, nose, and eyes, and I am constantly breathing them in while I ride and then coughing and choking  for the next mile. Hopefully as we move away from the Mississippi the bug numbers will go down.