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4 Comments
Hi John,
I’m the guy you met in White Castle, LA, a couple of weeks ago (I work for our state’s environmental agency). I just wanted to say how much I’m enjoying your posts as you travel though our state. It’s always fun to read about how others view our area. By now, you’re probably out of Louisiana. I hope the rest of your travels are interesting, safe, and rewarding.
Don, great to hear from you! I’m in Memphis right now. I have a LOT more to write about, I promise. Keep checking the site. And you know that eye problem you saw surfacing for the first time has persisted quite a bit. I’ve never had any similar reaction before to pollen – do you know of any eye irritation associated with farm chemicals that might be applied in this area at this time of year?
Hi John, sorry about your eyes. This time of year they’re really not applying much to the fields. As you came up past Gramercy, there’s the aluminum plant that always has bauxite dust in the air, and around Donaldsonville there are some fertilizer plants that have stacks of sulfur. Maybe you’re having some sort of reaction to that. Also, this is prime ragweed season throughout the South, so you could be allergic to that. I don’t know if you have ragweed up in the Northeast.
One more thing, John. Do you wear sunglasses when you ride? When I first starting biking long distances, my eyes were straining alot due to the brightness of the road. In effect, my eyeballs were getting sunburned by the reflected UV light from the pavement. Once I starting wearing sunglasses, with full UV protection, the irritation went away.