May 3 Tuesday
We leave Alabama with the threat of rain again, cloudy , hot, humid and 250 plus miles of road ahead
After a short 25 mile ride, we load our bikes on the Fort Morgan Ferry, which will take us across a body of water to the other side of Alabama’s coast. As we pull up, some crazy little man in a helmet and high water jeans , tries waving us into our respective lane for entry to the ferry. He’s quickly shown his way by the attendant who then takes over the job of getting us in position to pull on to the entry ramp. We come to find out that the little man is traveling with his son on a rented HD bike. They both flew from France with a group of 20 people who somehow got ahead of them with all their luggage and money. The support team they hired to lead the group wasn’t being very supportive in guiding the group safely thru the states. After hearing that they didn’t have any cash, I offered them gas money to help insure they make it to their next hotel. We wind up chipping in $15 to give them enough money for gas and lunch if needed and offer them a spot in our line to ride with us so to insure they get to their destination okay. Hard to understand us I guess since they don’t speak much English, but they agree to ride along with us. Funny, but that lasted about 5 minutes after we left the ferry parking lot. As I pulled in to gas up, they got nervous and thought I was going the wrong way and took off in another direction. Damn French still don’t appreciate Americans and all we do for them!!! Not even a good-bye.
The ride today takes us through 3 states from, Alabama to Mississippi to Louisiana, back roads most of the way. Passing through small towns that look the same as they did 50 years ago but with no or little business. Abandoned homes and buildings line the roads for miles. Some towns have shrimp boats lined along the river banks like in the Forrest Gump movie, which happens to be one of the areas we pass through.
Coming into the New Orleans area you need to cross a lake that had to be more than 2 miles across, and the span that you need to drive over is crazy big. Four lanes across, windy and full of fast moving trucks and cars that don’t care too much about bikers. I tuck into the bike and throttle it hard to get the bike to stay steady in all the wind and pray that this long span will end soon. The town is full of ongoing construction and plays havoc on the bikes as we navigate thru it all looking for our hotel. By shear luck we happen upon it after driving in circles for 20 minutes. Our place is in the center of the French Quarter which makes it very easy to get around without a motor.
I have been looking forward to our stopover here and I am excited about the local food scene and can’t wait to eat Cajun and Creole seafood! Our first stop Bourbon Street!
Just one man’s opinion
The Regular Guy!