Today marks the final leg to the end of the road, and near the end of the river. As it is the weekend, a didn’t get going too early today. After a quick breakfast, I got on the road about 9:40. Again I had reviewed the route and had a list of all the highways that I would be needing to look out for. Heading south out of Vidalia, the roads more or less follow the river and the roads are up along side of or in some cases almost on the levees. So while more or less flat they are nice and winding to keep things interesting.

The cotton fields pretty much changed exclusively to sugar cane. Lots and lost of sugar cane. And the occasional other things that I could not identify. Case in point, at one point I had to let up on the gas as there was definitely something in the road ahead. Had to stop and let them turn into the field.

Otherwise it was just a slow winding trip around the levees. The list of roads held up well, except for two cases. One involved a sign associated with the Great River Road pointing down a highway that was not on my list. I took the turn and followed a few miles until it reach an intersection with dirt roads going in three directions and no clear sign – though I was pretty sure which way would be correct, I opted to backtrack and continue on my merry way. That worked and the signs returned.

The other bad luck was a missed turn as I was entering New Orleans proper and instead of making the correct turn I took the next turn which ended up being a bridge across the river. Not exactly where I wanted to end up, but in any case I just had to recalculate and probably only added a half hour to my route before I got back on track. Once through the city it was the final stretch of about 70 miles down highway 23 to Venice, LA.

And then I was there, the end of the road. Seriously, this is it?

In all honesty, I didn’t know what I was expecting. But it didn’t include a dumpster and miscellaneous equipment laying around. There is really just a whole lot of nothing once you get down here. Technically the highway 23 route ends a little early, and then you can drive a little further to reach this point. But they don’t even mark it as the start or end of the route so the whole thing is a bit anti-climactic. Maybe a little park or something with a view of the river, I don’t know. Anyway, this truly is a case where the journey is the destination.

I spotted a hotel just south of Belle Chasse on the way down and while stopped at the southern end, I booked a room there. Was about a 45 minute drive back and I got there right around 7pm. Been a long day on the road. Found a cajun\creole restaurant called Zyedeco’s just a few minutes up the road. Had their crabcakes and a side of jambalaya – yumm! Then back to the hotel and getting this writing finally up to date!

Tomorrow the trek back north starts. Will be traveling up the east bank and tomorrow’s destination is Vicksburg, MS.