Day 8 & 9: New Orleans to Mobile

In the hotel in Crowley, I hit up the free continental breakfast and then quickly got on the road. I continued thru Lafayette on the I-10 and into Baton Rouge. I was amazed to find that the highways were actually really long bridges across the swamps.



That part of Louisiana was really green and smelled like a handful of rich fertile dirt. It brought back memories of looking for nightcrawlers on the farm in Tennessee.



I was headed to New Orleans to meet up with Brent, who I had met on ADVRider. A few hours after I posted about my trip on that site, he had offered me a stay on his couch and a beer. Jason, a buddy of mine from Tennessee, was also meeting up at Brent's house. Jason is joining me for part of the trip, out to see the shuttle, some time in FL and back to Nashville. He has a blog too, at http://jgreat-moto.blogspot.com. I put Brent's address into my GPS/iPhone and it brought me into town and right to his front door. Well, actually, a few feet past it.



He had made up a welcome sign but I passed it right up. After a tour of his great place and pulling the bike into his garage, unpacking, etc, we ran out to a bike store to pick up a few things. But it was closed, I forgot it was Monday. D-oh. So we hit an athletic store and I grabbed a few new pair of socks for the trip. My feet have been pretty hot in those new Sidi waterproof boots I have, and I think the humid air and 7 days on the road were taking a toll on them. So some new thin socks were in order. We headed back home just in time to get the call from Jason that he was 20 minutes away. We made the welcome sign more visible so he wouldn't miss it like I did.




But he missed it anyway. So funny! After Jason met Brent and his lovely lady Nicole and we crammed all the bikes into the garage, it started to rain pretty hard. We busted out some beer and sat on the front porch and waited for it to stop.




The rain finally did stop and we decided to go out. Their house is in a great neighborhood, down town New Orleans, and about a block from the trolley linen. So we jumped on a trolley and headed down to the French Quarter.

We hit up the River Walk, and checked out the mouth of the mighty Mississippi. And then headed over to get some real cajun food at the Gumbo Shop. I had crawfish etufee, one of my favorite meals, and something I hadn't eaten in over 6 years. After that, we went to check out some of the sights on Burbon Street, and grabbedd a beer. Brent and Nicole were excellent hosts, shared their home, the garage & tools, took us to great food and showed us around town. I'm so greatfull to have met them and can't express enough how awesome they were. I hope they can make it to San Diego one day so I can return the favor.


After killing a giant 2" Louisiana cockroach (that just wouldn't die), I hit the sack for some much needed rest.

The next day, Jason, Brent and I headed out for a spin on the bikes. We rode across lake Pontchartrain on the Causeway, which later we found out is the longest bridge in the world. Pretty cool! Brent took us to see a statue of Ronald Reagan in Covington, where we also grabbed some coffee and lunch.



He rode with us around the north shore and split off when we got back to the I-10. Jason and I continued on the scenic route 90, on the beach thru Biloxi, Long Beach, Gulfport, Pascagoula and Mobile.



There was a neato tunnel thru Mobile, under the water I believe.



We stopped on east side of Mobile in Daphine, for dinner at Banini Bob's. Since we both had a long day and were pretty sore, we opted for a hotel instead of tents and found our way to the hot tub for an hour or so before heading off to bed.