Day Two – Saturday April 11, 2009

Up at 5am to get packed up and ready to roll. The bad weather has subsided and the skies are clear. I have a long journey to New Orleans ahead of me today. It’s about 750 miles and takes about 11 hours in a car. It took me about 13 hours on my bike. When you have to stop every 2 hours for gas, not to mention sitting on a motorcycle doing 80mph for that long you need take a few breaks. Not much else to say about the ride down….just a lot of riding.

Just after reaching Louisiana I had to stop to clean the bugs off my face and my glasses. I got pelted by a dragon fly and let’s just say he didn’t make it and he remains were all over my face. There are so many bugs through the south and I ate a few. When I was pulled off the side of the road cleaning off my glasses a guy on crotch rocket passed me going the other directions. About 5 minutes later he pulled up behind me. He said “hey bro, is everything alright?” I proceeded to tell him that I was just cleaning off the bugs. He laughed and said “dude, you need to put that full face on down here with all the bugs down here.” I laughed and said that I was a glutton for punishment. I thanked him for stopping to check on me and his response was “he bro, it can be a lonely place out here on a bike when you’re by yourself and I am just doing my duty by checking on a fellow biker.”

There is something truly special about riding. You have a whole new family. It is truly a lifestyle and a culture. Bikers almost always wave at each other when passing by out of respect. There is so much to more to riding a bike than just the thrill. I am truly grateful to be a part of such a great culture.

Upon stopping for one more tank of gas to get me to my final destination I met about seven guys on Harleys filling up at the same station. One of the guys asked me where I was headed with all that gear. I told him I was going to New Orleans then off to the west coast. He said they were from New Orleans and heading back that direction. They offered to ride with me in to town and they would show me where my hotel was. Of course I was thrilled about this. I got a nice escort to my hotel by 7 other Harley guys! That was freaking cool! That was a fantastic finish to a long day of riding.

Upon checking in to the hotel I went to the bar for a drink and some food before even heading off to my room. After relaxing with a couple cocktails and some good food, I went off to get showered up and ready to hit up Bourbon Street.

Bourbon Street was fun. I pretty much started at the beginning and walked down one side and then back up the other side stopping in to places that peaked my interest. Mostly I went in to the bars that had live music. I’m a sucker for live music. I did notice however that there where a lot of performers and not actual bands. Basically they had all the regular instruments set up, but the where actually playing the songs on a sound system and there were a couple of guys up there singing the lyrics. Some of the singers were actually pretty good, but the whole thing was kind of disappointing. Aside from that it was a good time and there were lots of other “real” bands playing that were really good.

After leaving Bourbon Street on my walk back to the hotel I stopped Harrah’s Casino for a little action. I won a little money at black jack and roulette. Then it was on to hit the sack, I was exhausted and I have a long day of riding ahead of me tomorrow.

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