Chelsea’s Biking Adventures: The Fly

Aug 26, 2011

Since I started living in New Orleans I began riding my bike everywhere, and despite the humidity, the narrow one-way streets, and the elephant sized potholes, New Orleans has proven to be quite the biking city. I recently found myself bored, just sitting in my apartment, so me and friend decided to go on a little bike riding adventure. We started out with no real game plan, just sort of riding wherever our bikes would take us (Broadway St, and St. Charles). Being that it was close to dusk, we decided to go to the fly and check out the sunset.

The fly is right behind the Audubon Zoo, and looks out onto the Mississippi river, perfect for sunsets……and college frats to throw parties every Friday. Anyway, the sunset was pretty, a giant barge sailed right in front of us, and there were actually a lot of people there to watch it too. The only difference was most of them drove to the fly. We tried to follow the lights from the cars as we left, but it was not so easy.

Eventually there weren’t any cars in front of us anymore, and no street lights to really help. We made it to Audubon Zoo when we saw the giraffes right across from us on the other side of the fence, and it was smooth sailing from there; the giraffes are a great landmark. When we reached St. Charles, we were forced to hug the side of street as cars whizzed passed us, while riding through the college campuses, we continued on to Broadway, and made it practically home, no more than two minutes to go and it started to rain. And this was not just any rain, you felt like you were swimming on your bike, because you couldn’t see with all the water in your eyes.

We ended up making it back the house, soaking, but all in all it was a fun experience looking back. New Orleans is a beautiful city, especially for biking. Just riding along St. Charles, and seeing all the pretty houses can make for a pleasant and enjoyable time, and nothing can beat watching the sunset at the fly.