A Bike Ride to the State Capitol, Baton Rouge LA…

Upon leaving Breaux Bridge we thought we might stay a  few days in Baton Rouge but with temperatures peaking in the 90’s we decided to skip that stay. Instead we made the 50 drive east for a day trip to the state capitol, Baton Rouge Louisiana. They have a nice hike and bike trail along the Mississippi River that I thought would  fun for us.

The traffic going into Baton Rough was very slow but we eventually crossed the river and headed south to the Farr Equestrian Center and RV Park which is where we had planned to spend the night as they have a nice campground (fairgrounds style).  It is only $20 per night for water and electricity. We pulled into the park and parked near the bike path leading to the hike and bike trail along the river.

We rode along the Mississippi River watching tug boats slowly churning the brown river waters moving huge barges upstream on the river. They were going so slow we passed them on our bicycles even though we don’t go very fast. After a few miles we passed by the Louisiana State University campus where we could see the prominent athletic facilities. Lots of folks were already parking their RV’s on campus staking out prime spots for the tailgating at  the super regional baseball game between LSU and the University of Louisiana Lafayette. That should be a fun game to be at…

Another mile or so we passed under the Interstate 10 bridge and could now see the skyline of Baton Rouge. Next we passed a casino and the U.S.S. Kidd Memorial Destroyer. The old state capitol caught our eye so we exited the trail to ride into town to check it out. It really is a neat building but we decided to continue on to the newer state capitol. The large new capitol building is one of only a few that resemble skyscrapers. We admired the well manicured grounds as we rode to the entrance.

We parked our bikes and passed through security arriving just before the elevator to the 27th floor closed at 4 pm. We took one elevator to the 24th floor and got off to enter another that took us to the sky walk on the 27th floor. The view of the city, the river, and the capital grounds below was stunning from up that high.  After returning to the ground floor we went to the balcony of the House and checked out the ongoing session. It was neat to see all the desks cluttered with papers and senators scurrying about on the cell phones and chatting in smaller groups.

After leaving the capitol we slowly made our way back on the bike trail checking out all the birds along the edge of the very high river. We even spotted some wood ducks and black bellied whistling ducks along the water’s edge. There were occasionally gators posing as logs looking for a nice snack as well. Before we knew it we were back at the CRV and after loading our bikes we checked Sharon’s phone app which said we had biked just a bit over 11 miles which made for fun bike ride and a good workout as well. Being tired and thirsty we stopped by the Tin Roof brewery to relax and have a very tasty IPA before heading back to Breaux Bridge…