"You may all go to hell, and I will go to Texas." - Davy Crockett

Oh boy has it been a while. I assure you I'm not dead. Time just flies when you're having fun, and lately that's all I'm doing. That and stressing about my dwindling funds.

Ah, New Orleans, a city with soul. New Orleans is a very cool place. You're never far from music, alcohol, or good food down in New Orleans. I was staying in the spare apartment of one Dr. Simonson, a friend of my aunt and uncle's who was out of town anyway. So I regrettably didn't even get to meet my host, but I did meet some very cool people who let me crash at their place for the second night since it was in New Orleans proper and Dr. Simonson's apartment was on the westbank in nearby Marrero.

The first place I went was City Park for the botanical and sculpture gardens. On the way, I stopped for a real nectar cream flavored New Orleans sno-ball. It's kind of a cross between a sno-cone and a slushy:



I didn't get to the sculpture gardens in time, but I walked around city park and got some good pictures.

After city park I went over to the French quarter. Here I am on a streetcar that wasn't named "Desire":



See? I'm still alive and in one piece!

The French Quarter of New Orleans has a life of it's own. It's right on the river and extends back inland for 6 or 7 blocks.



As I was returning, I walked up Bourbon street a ways. Bourbon street is aptly named. The way it's set up is a bar, 2 or 3 daquiri places, then the pattern repeats. The music flows through the streets and the booze flows through the people. It was hot as an August night in New Orleans so I decided to look for a cheap frozen drink. I picked up a small "Ecstasy" daquiri (151, everclear, and blue curacao) for $6.50 and got a good strong frozen buzz on while I made my way back to my host's house.

The next day I met up with another very cool person (are those the only kind here?) for lunch and a couple games of pool. Afterwards I went BACK to city park to get in to the sculpture garden on time.

I think the bird makes this shot.



After the sculpture gardens I met up with a bunch of friends of one of my hosts for dinner. A fun time was had by all.

I wish I had more time and money to spend in NOLA, but the next day I headed west to Texas. It was another long ride. Parts of it were very scenic:



I spent a night, a day, and a night in Houston, and then rolled on out to Austin where I've been for the past 8 days...8 days?! Wow. Time really DOES fly. I've been hanging with some good friends of mine and lazing around for the most part. I did go to Zilker botanical gardens for more walking around taking pictures of plants and scenery. I know most people find pictures without people boring, but they're the kind of pictures I like to take. So rather than take up the limited space in my flikr photostream, I've posted the New Orleans and Texas pictures to my photobucket here


As I was returning from Zilker (a 15 minute ride) my bike's temperature light came on and coolant sprayed out of the radiator cap luckily not burning my leg through my pants. So at this very moment my bike is in a shop.
[Update: It's just the radiator cap! Hooray for cheap, do-it-yourself fixes!]

There's a Vietnamese dish called Phở (pronounced "fuh"), and as I was riding around I saw a Vietnamese restaurant that I had to go in to:



We ate at the Phở King restaurant. The food wasn't just good, it was Phở King good. My friend even took home a Phở King menu.

I'm going to hang in Austin for a bit and try to stir up some random I.T. work fixing computers so I can to offset the cost of repairs. Next up: Dallas!

Fort Walton Beach, Florida to New Orleans, Luisiana

Marathon 7 hour ride today.

I took the scenic route (Highway 98) over to Pensacola. And I am glad I did. The Pensacola Bay Bridge is beautiful, it's a shame there was no place to pull over and get a picture. Then I rode on I-10 most of the way over. In Alabama, just a few minutes outside of Mississippi, I saw a rainstorm up ahead. I really liked the way you could see exactly where the rain began so I pulled over to take a picture.



I am standing on dry ground looking at a rainstorm. Isn't that awesome?! I didn't see any lightning though so I was going to ride through it. As I'm putting my camera and phone in a ziplock bag, I notice the rainstorm is much closer. Just as I finish zipping the bag closed, the first drops hit me. This thing was moving FAST! By the time I saddled up, those first drops became a torrential downpour. It was raining incredibly fierce. In this heat, it was glorious. I was already pretty much soaked in the few seconds it took me to saddle up and start my bike again. It was raining so hard that traffic slowed to about 30 mph because you could only see about 400 feet in front of you. Sweet refreshment. I broke through to sunshine and the Mississippi border in about 5 minutes, cool and refreshed. Oh boy did I appreciate that rain. Of course, 40 minutes later I was completely dry save my feet and hands and starting to get hot again.

I kept on I-10 until Landon, Mississippi, where I cut down Highway 49 and got on scenic highway 90 heading west. I got on 90 in aptly named Long Beach, Mississippi. It was indeed a scenic route and a good choice. One thing I did see on 90, was an ocean that was barely moving, and miles and miles of beach...with absolutely nobody on it. Breaks my heart. Maybe I'll pick up a souvenir tarball while I'm here.

An extra day in Fort Walton Beach

Yesterday, after frantically calling around every place I could find, desperately searching for a place that can repair a motorcycle tire, I found Racetrack Powersports right here in Fort Walton Beach.

I dropped off my bike, went across the street to Thai Kitchen for lunch, and when I returned there was only a short wait before my bike was fixed up and rideable. So a big thanks to Racetrack Powersports. If they weren't there, I would have had to buy a new tire and have it installed and it would have cost me 3 times as much and at least another day.

It's 11:00 and I'm a-heading off to The Big Easy.

Out of the frying pan, into the pan-handle

So my friend in Jacksonville had a work emergency and ended up having to go in for double shifts every day for the next week. We decided it would just be easiest to catch up next time I swing by and I would continue on to my hosts in Fort Walton Beach, Florida.

I left Orlando around 4:30 in the evening and got to Fort Walton Beach at 1am. The ride was hot and uncomfortable and not a curve in the road to be seen. I got rained on for about 20 minutes but there was no lightning so I was glad to have it keeping me cool in the oppressive Florida heat. At around 9, after the sun went down it got comfortable but before that I was stopping every 50 miles to cool off and rehydrate.

Yesterday I spent on the beach. There are so few people out on the beach at 2:00 on a weekday. It was great. I love the beaches down here. Up north, you go to a beach on the hottest day of the hottest week of the year, step in the water, and it's still freezing. Down here, the ocean is warm and couldn't feel nicer.

Today I got up early, all set to head to New Orleans and avoid the highways. I pack up my stuff and bring the first pack out to my bike. My rear tire is flat. There is a brief moment of panic before I remember that I joined the AMA for the roadside assistance just before coming on this trip. I start to call around and I find Racetrack Powersports can repair a motorcycle tire so now I'm just waiting for the tow truck and hoping it's repairable.

Excitement abounds!

South Florida

Did I seriously end that last post with a piece about gloves? Yes. Yes I did. That's what happens when people say "you need to post something, anything, everyday" and I have nothing to post about.

Anyway, I'm not dead. It's just that south Florida is so boring.









The pictures I don't have yet are from more boring activities like fishing at night and water-skiing. Scuba diving was a strange and terrifying new experience, but we didn't take pictures.

Man did I have a blast. My Aunt and Uncle live on a canal that goes out into the bay so at one point me and one of my cousins dropped a kayak into the water, and paddled out to an island to just hang out on what that day amounted to a private beach. And out in Miami bay, we visited this huge sand-bar where every day there's hundreds of people out there, all with their boats, just chillin' in the water, drinking, bbq-ing (on their boats), and having a good time. It's an incredibly cool scene. Guess who didn't bring their camera.

I spent about a week staying with family in Miami, and visited more family in Parkland a couple of times.

I left Miami to head north on Tuesday. I made it to Orlando where I stopped back at my friend's place. My plan was to spend the night and head to Jacksonville the next morning. As luck would have it, this time his other friend was visiting and he works for Busch Gardens, Williamsburg, so was able to get us all in for free to Busch Gardens, Tampa. So I shifted my plans over a day and went to yet another theme park for free the next day!

The day after Busch Gardens, I bid farewell to my pals and headed north out of Orlando. An hour later in Daytona, I ran into what I can only describe as a wall of lightning. The storm was raging and lighting was just dropping out of the sky like, well, rain drops. The storm was sweeping north-east from the gulf, through Daytona, and up to Jacksonville so I turned my bike around and went right back to Orlando.

I then waited for the next 2 days for a window in the storms. Yesterday I had the window at 8pm, but couldn't get in contact with my host in Jacksonville, so I figured I'd head out anyway, and my Jacksonville friend would either get back to me before Daytona, or I would turn around again.

I got to Daytona. No word from my friend. There I was, pulled over on I-4 staring at the sign up ahead for I-95. I could either call another cousin of mine in Orlando whom I haven't seen yet on this trip and crash at his place, or I could continue on to Jacksonville anyway. If I stay another day in Orlando, the storming might pick up again and I could be stuck. But if I head up to Jacksonville, I have no place to stay and have to improvise.

I call my cousin but as soon as it starts ringing, I hang up and decide against it.

Isn't this where adventure happens? I'm neither here nor there. These in-between times are the most interesting. Not the easiest, not the most comfortable, but by far the most interesting. Stories are crafted from such nights. I stand on a precipice looking down into uncontrollable fate and I can turn around and visit my cousin, or leap with wild abandon into the future.

I look at the sign for I-95 North and turn my ignition key, a smile on my face. Then my phone rings. It's my cousin, he decided to call me back and I explained the situation. He said to come on down, I got a place on the couch, it's no problem, all that hospitality. "Ok, I'll be there in an hour." and then I turned around and headed back to Orlando to spend yet another night there.

Orlando and South Florida

It was $30 to have a cot brought up to the room at the Hard Rock Casino, but that's $30 more than I was willing to shell out. I gotta worry where my next meal is coming from, after all. I'm ok with sleeping on the floor in a heavily air-conditioned casino hotel room. I've slept in more uncomfortable conditions. But there were two extra blankets and an extra pillow in the closet, and each bed had 4 pillows on it. So my friends each took 1 or 2 pillows, then gave the rest to me, and I lined up 5 pillows on the floor to use as my mattress and used the one from the closet on top of them as my pillow. It worked great. Apparently that's called a "MacGyver Bed".

The next day was the poker tournament so I went to the pool. The Seminole Hard Rock Casino has an awesome pool. While my friends were involved in their gambling with their money, I was involved in sitting in a jacuzzi at the top of this big rocky construct that had a water slide, or floating in the cool waters of the lagoon style pool.

Guess where I got in for free the next day! I'll give you a hint:



Theme parks are great and all, but when you don't have to pay to walk through the gate, it's even better. Not paying just puts you in such a better mood. Yeah, it's hot and humid, but hey free rides! Had a great couple of days thereafter. I saw "Youth In Revolt" which is a hilarious movie. I don't think I went 2 minutes through the whole thing without laughing. I also saw "The Room" which is another hilarious movie but for completely different reasons. We also watched "Unthinkable" which is pretty good but not for the faint of heart. After that, I rode down to Miami in the uncomfortably hot Florida summer.

Now here I am in Miami, visiting family. There will be pictures and descriptions of things later.

At bike week in June, I saw a really good pair of hot weather motorcycle gloves for cheap. I thought "I almost wish I needed new hot weather gloves so I could get these." Wouldn't you know it, about two weeks ago, my gloves started to deteriorate. They've served me well for 8 years but have finally started to wear down. The right glove is coming undone on the outside of the palm near the bottom:



My left one...has also seen better days:



So I ordered a new pair of hot weather gloves. I managed to snag a pair of Yoshimura SCS gloves on clearance at about 1/2 off for under $30:



I went from perforated leather with gel-padded knuckles to mesh with carbon fiber armored knuckles. Ideally, I've upgraded both the cooling and the protection but let's hope I never have to find out just how protective they are.

There is no non sequitur for the end of this post.