It has been cold and windy the past few days, but that hasn’t kept me off my bike.  I finally recovered from Mardi Gras madness and got some long rides in this weekend.  I didn’t plan to go out today, but I was in a bit of a foul mood after work this afternoon and knew a ride on the new bike would make everything shinier.  And it did.  Sure, it’s cold and windy, but the sun is out and the levee path is smooth.  I loved just letting go and zipping up past the bridge, sharing the space with fellow bikers, runners, dog walkers, and wanderers.  Once I got past the Huey P., though, things started to smell bad.  No, not like sewage, but more like chemicals.  And plastics.  And a little bit like apple pie, though that seems incongruous, and may have been wishful thinking.  But the Mississippi river down around these parts does play host to companies like X-Chem and Petroleum Helicopters.  I couldn’t identify the smell, but I’m guessing it came from some of the chemical manufacturing in the neighborhood. I stopped and snapped this picture of an overturned garbage can, which reads, “Please reconsider, don’t litter, Louisiana.”  I abhor littering as much as the next person.  I mean, I grew up being told to take only memories and leave only footprints.  But this trash can struck me as a bit odd given the smell in the air.  I won’t litter, but that doesn’t mean the path isn’t full of garbage.