Day 3: The Road to Titusville, Part 1

The day started a little slow. After a late night (well late for me) in the French Quarter, we didn't make it out on to the road until about 11. Brent played tour guide again and rode out with us on his Suzuki Katana 600.
He took us back out across the Lake Ponchartrain Causeway to a little town called Covington. Covington boasts an interesting piece of "Classic Americana", the worlds largest Ronald Regan statue. We had to stop and get a picture for our friend Russ who's a Regan fanatic.
After seeing the statue we parked the bikes and got iced coffee and had lunch at a local grill.
I had a Fried Oyster Po-boy sandwich. It was good.

On this trip I'm stepping out of my comfort zone a bit trying to do my best "Feasting on Asphalt" impression. I'm trying not to eat at any national food chains, just local restaurants. Preferably with some local flavor.

Once we finally really hit the road Nate and I hit US90 East and Brent parted ways with us. We made a short stop at a rest area with a replica of the Lunar Lander.
For some reason I never realized how big the Lander was, It makes sense now that I think about it, but TV/pictures never really do justice to the scale of things.

Next we shot east along the Gulf coast and stopped at a beautiful beach in Long Beach, MI.
This was not at all what I expected. I had always pictured the gulf coast of Mississippi as "Bayou" swamp, not pristine white sand with hotels and casinos. Who knew? I'd live there if it didn't get wiped of the of the map every few years by some act of God.
Nate and I checked out the water. It was warm, but I was surprised at how dark the water was here. It's almost black.

After our quick stop to check out the beach and water, we powered on through to Mobile, AL. We stopped for dinner at a place called Binini Bob's. Not exactly local fare, but they had awesome deck that gave us an incredible view of the sun setting over the bay.

We decided to grab a room right next door and hit the pool and hot tub to soothe the sore muscles and beds to get a good night sleep. Maybe its not the most adventurous, but come on we're only human :)

Day 2: New Orleans

Day 2 had me powering down the interstate toward New Orleans to meet Nate and our new friends. 404 miles later I was there. This is the longest single day of riding I have ever done. My new bike handled it great, I just twisted the throttle and it ate up the miles.

On the way in I crossed the Lake Ponchartrain Causeway which at 24 miles is the longest bridge in the world.

Nate had received and offer from a guy on advrider.com to crash at his place in New Orleans. This is how we met Brent and Nicole.
They were awesome. Every so often you meet someone who you just mesh with. You just feel comfortable and can be yourself and not have to be guarded. With in minuets of meeting Brent and Nicole it was like we had been friends for years. Too cool!

They live in a awesome little 100 year old house in the "Garden District". New Orleans is interesting in the fact the the "bad" neighborhoods are intermixed with the "good" neighborhoods. So its 3 blocks of ghetto right next to 3 blocks really nice houses. They live in one of the good neighborhoods.

They played tour guide for us and took us to the famous to the French District and Bourbon Street for dinner and drinks. We took one of the street cars down to there.

We ate at the Gumbo Shop. Oh boy it was good. I had the best Bloody "Cajan" Mary that I've had in a long time. I had Chicken Andouille Gumbo with Crawfish Etouffee followed by Bread Pudding with Whiskey sauce. I was stuffed!

After dinner we strolled down Bourbon Street just checking out the scene.
Its definitely an "Adult" scene. Its a bit surreal. You can take your beer down the street with you. There are guys in front of every club trying to entice you to come inside. Strip clubs are side by side with bars and souvenir shops. There is tons of great live music pouring out on to the street.

It actually was pretty dead, since it was Monday during the off season, and had just stopped raining.

We got back just before midnight and Nate and I had a chance encounter with the Louisiana "State Bird" Big Ass Flying Cockroach. The damn thing must have been 2 inches long. Nate stepped on it and it went "POP". We left the room for a couple of minuets and wen we got back it, despite being crushed, managed to crawl its way back into a corner. Yikes!

Day 1: The Road to Southhaven, MS

After packing up all of my stuff I kissed the wife and kids good bye and set out along this route. This led me along some of the country highways and back roads instead of the boring interstate. I was glad I did. Tennessee has some beautiful country and this was no exception.

Along the way I happened to come across Shiloh Memorial Military Park.
Its the site of the Shiloh Civil War battle and a National Cemetery.
I have wanted to see it for some time. In this beautiful area many men gave their lives. The only way I can describe the experience was solemn.

Here brave men lie.



222 miles today.

Road Trip!

Here's the deal. My buddy Nate got laid off from his job (He's a Unix SA too). Bummer, but he's taking the opportunity to do something he has all ways wanted to do, take a Motorcycle trip across the country and see a Shuttle launch.

I thought that was an awesome idea. I've been wanting to do a Motorcycle trip and I've always wanted to see a shuttle launch. So I contacted him and asked if we could hook up when he made it to my neck of the woods.

Now I'm on my way to New Orleans to meet up. We're going to travel along the Gulf coast to Titusville, FL to see the June 13th shuttle mission. After that its back to TN.