"Life is the great adventure ride. Twist the throttle hard."

July 19^th

Decided to stay one more day in

New Orleans, and then ride a little harder to get up to Uncle Tim’s later in the week. We walked around the Quarter checking out the shops and sites. Found a very cool Easy Rider poster signed by Peter Fonda, Dennis Hooper, and Jack Nicholson.

Took a swamp tour north of New Orleans in the afternoon. The bus-ride there was very interesting, as we went past miles and miles of abandoned neighbourhoods and destroyed housing complexes. With all the moisture here, some houses and streets were completely overgrown with already.

The swamp-tour was well worth it. Our guide was a nice guy, local Cajun, and the swamp was awesome and full of alligators. They feed them marshmallows to get them to come to the boat. (no pun intended)

Had Crawfish for dinner, and then watched a DVD Gettysburg.

July 20^th

Hit the road at 8:00am and rode on-and-off till 8:00 at night. Rode the 22 mile bridge that crosses lake Ponchartrain.  In the middle of it, you cannot see land anywhere. We stopped in Mobile to see the USS Alabama.

We made it to Florida! and stopped at a little burger joint for dinner.

As the sun went down, we ran head-on into a wall of rain. It was still 20 miles to a hotel, so we waited it out at a gas station till it slowed down enough to see.Â

July 17

We left Memphis this morning, to follow the ol Mississippi river south, all the way to the Gulf. We hoped for a picturesque ride winding along the river. But someone went and built a 20-foot high burm along the river, the WHOLE length of it. After riding along the river for two hours, and never seeing water, we took a little off-road adventure and rode up the levee. Even from the top of the levee we could not see water, as it was behind trees in the distance.

We ride all day along the river, passing through town’s that looked like the Duke boys in old General Lee would pass us at any time. Lots of cotton fields and lakes, and we crossed the river back into Arkansas at Greenville just to break up the day. We took a pleasant break at a lake where Grant tried to make a canal in his attempt to control the lower Mississippi river.

The ride today was fairly monotonous and by 4pm we both were ready to get off the bikes. We put on the rain gear, and beat it back across the Mississippi into Vicksburg literally 45 seconds before massive rain storms came thundering in.  Â

Stayed at the Battlefield Inn right on the grounds of the Vicksburg battlefield. (got a great discount coupon for the hotel at the Mississippi Welcome Center)

July 18

As dull of a day yesterday was, today was exhilarating. We started off with a 16-mile riding tour looping through Vicksburg Battle Field National park.

As we worked out way south, we stopped at two different plantations, having lunch and taking their tours.

This plantation is supposedly haunted by the ghosts to two children accidentally poisoned by the master’s mistress. I think Sam found the type of house he’d like:)

It was supposed to rain today, but luckily we got only a little sprinkle. It was 100 degrees as we rolled into

New Orleans (but it’s a wet heat).  It is very surreal riding through the same areas that we’ve all seen under water on TV. Right past the Superdome and into the French Quarter. Got a cheap but nice hotel in the Quarter. There are lots of tourists here, and life seems quite normal. For dinner, Sam and I had Cajun food on Bourbon Street and checked out the 20+ bands playing in the area.

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July 15

Picked up Route 66 in Eastern Kansas and into MO. It was good to see it again, and we took a break at a road-side war memorial.

Found a dead bug, and am really glad we haven’t taken one of these in the mouth yet.

Cruising through the Ozarks was fantastic. We toured around Table Rock Lake for a few hours (It has 600 miles of shore line). It is a man-made lake, and the bridge in the photo below is a new on, the old bridge is now 150 feet under water as seen in the old photo before the dam was completed.Â

July 16

Another great day of riding and good weather. We crossed Missouri, the Mississippi, and ended the day at Graceland.

I hate to admit it, but my father was right. He told me to take tools along cause “those Harleys vibrate so much, things fall off”.  For no apparent reason, the bolt holding my passenger foot peg snapped off, and the 20lb foot-rest flew off at 70MPH. We found it in a ditch, and will probably mail it home.

Not many photos today. It was a scenic day but a long one in the saddle. We took all back-roads with lots of breaks, so the little towns, stop signs, and hairpin curves kept the average speed down (310 miles in 9 hours). We have 2700 miles behind us. The trip is going well, and we both are still having a good time with it.