Today was the last day of my mini vacation, but there was still plenty of time to get another bike ride in. D. threw her fancy bike in her fancy car and drove up to meet me in Lacombe for a ride out to Slidell, lunch and basketball (Go State!), and then back to the cars. Before she got there, though, I did some tooling around the bayou and off the bike path to get a bit more of a sense of this little town. After out-pedaling a few dogs protecting their territory and more than a few “how you doin’?s,” I turned up Emma Street where I snapped this picture of a dilapidated mobile home. It felt a little bit weird to be looking at it up close, like I was seeing under its skin, an unearned intimacy. I don’t know if this blight is due to hurricane damage, or if this place was left to rot long before then. The street was home to a number of decaying mobile homes, including two that shared a single roof and one that had the tell-tale X on the side. At the end of the block, though, was a fancy new house under construction, seeming completely out of place with its neighbors. Nope, New Orleans most certainly doesn’t have a monopoly on wildly disparate juxtapositions of poverty and wealth. I turned around and headed back to the Trace where I met up with D. for a lovely ride in lovely weather with lovely company, a perfect end to vacation. Once back in town I was back on the bike, this time Rhoda, and off to the bookstore to browse books on long distance cycling and the Natchez Trace. Time to dream!