Mississippi

Day 8, Wednesday, April 22, 2015

I got to bed early last night.  At 6:09 AM, CRAMP!  A cramp in my left calf got me out of bed quickly.  I stretched it out and managed to get back to sleep.  Chuck never stirred.  My alarm sounded at 6:30 AM and I got up immediately…not as fast as I did when I got the cramp.  I got dressed and packed, as did Chuck.  He woke up soon after I did.  We took a couple of things out to our Motorcycles.  As I walked out to my Motorcycle, I remembered that I didn’t cover it last night.  My Motorcycle, and the others, were wet from the humidity.  It sure made it easier to clean them!  After I packed my bags and cleaned my Motorcycle, I went in for breakfast.  Most of the guys were up and having breakfast.  We all seem to be getting up early.  We sat around talking after breakfast as we were not in any hurry to leave.  As I said, we all got up early, ate early and were ready early.  This gave us some time to sit around and talk about things.  Chuck brought his computer to the breakfast table and was doing some work on it.  One of the guys asked if he knew where we were going.  Chuck stated that he didn’t know because he had not looked at the map.  Chuck looked at the map and had a conference with C.E. and gave him the instructions.

Last night when the guys went for dinner, on the way back to the hotel, a few of the guys gassed up their Motorcycles.  This morning, five of us needed to go and gas up.  We rode to a nearby gas station and gassed up.  We left the hotel and gas station at 8:58 AM with C.E. in the lead.

C.E. led us eastbound on Highway 14, through town, and onto Highway 90.  We rode for 70 miles and at 10:02 AM, we stopped in Morgan City, LA.  We needed a pit stop.  We stopped at a gas station/mini-mart.  We bought some beverages and snacks and took a break.  As I was buying a snack and drink, I had asked the female clerk if she could tell me what city we were in.  I had to have her repeat it three times before I could understand what she was saying.  Wow!  If sure could have used C.E. to translate.  We were done with our break so we got on our Motors and left on Highway 70 at 10:31 AM. 

As C.E. led us north, we were going about 45 mph through the city.  We were riding next to a canal on our right and C.E. pointed towards the canal.  There was a 4-5 foot alligator swimming on top of the water the same direction that we were going.  Maybe he wanted to join us.  He could have ridden with C.E.  C.E. does have more room on the Trike.  We continued on Highway 70 and then turned onto Highway 69.  The sky was cloudy, the weather was nice and the road was good.  It was a good ride.  We came up on Highway 1 and turned onto it.  OK, now Highway 1 had to have been the first Highway that was numbered, so, I’m assuming that it was the first highway in Louisiana.  It sure did appear that NO maintenance had been done on it since it was numbered!  What a crappy road.  I do have to say that the longer we rode on Highway 1, the better it got.  We continued and came to a large bridge.  It was the bridge over the Mississippi River and the road transitioned to I-10.  This bridge was huge!  It was very tall and long.  I took some pictures while we were riding over the bridge.  We were now in Baton Rouge, LA.  From on top of the bridge, I saw the stadium of L.S.U.  We continued on and after riding 76 miles, we stopped for lunch at 12:00 Noon at Subway.  I know, Subway?, in Baton Rouge, how about some specialty restaurant or something with seafood or some exotic place.  Subway?  Hey, most of us have Subway cards.  It doesn’t cost us any money at the time.  Besides, it is inexpensive, healthy, easy to find and it doesn’t get us bloated!  We also don’t need to study a menu the size of a large book.  When we finished eating, C.E. topped off his gas tank.  Most of us had a half a tank left while C.E. was close to empty.  We left at 12:55 PM.

C.E. led us back on I-10 and we turned onto I-12.  We went this way because we wanted to get away from the New Orleans traffic.  We had ridden in New Orleans and we just wanted to avoid the traffic.  We had talked about riding over the bridge of Lake Pontchartrain and back, however, that would have been 52 extra miles.  We continued on I-12 until we passed Lake Pontchartrain.  I-12 then turned back into I-10.  As we were now on I-10, at 2:10 PM, we crossed over into Mississippi.  We rode for a little while and C.E. turned off of I-10 and onto Highway 607.  The signs stated that this was the exit for the Mississippi Welcome Center.  We thought that he was going there so that we could make a pit stop.  We didn’t know it, but C.E. had been on this road just a couple of weeks ago.  We continued and we got on Highway 90.  We didn’t go very far and C.E. pulled into a gas station at 2:25 PM after riding 102 miles.  We were in Waveland, MS.  We found that the gas station didn’t have premium gas and only regular with, and without ethanol.  The Goldwings filled up while the Harleys were about to go further up the road.  There was a Harley that stopped at the stop sign next to the gas station behind a Jeep.  The biker revved up its engine loudly and the next thing we saw was that the biker was smoking his tire and pulled around to the right around the Jeep and stopped.  We guessed that the biker got impatient, waiting for the Jeep to turn.  They both turned left and drove a short distance where the biker stopped in the middle of the road with the Jeep right behind it.  The biker and the driver got into a physical fight and the traffic started to back up.  Jan told me that the biker was getting his a$$ whipped.  The Harley guys left while Ken and C.E. waited for me.  There were four Police cars that stopped at the fight and took care of the situation.  The Goldwing guys then rode to where the Harley guys stopped for gas.  Everyone was ready to go and we left at 2:47 PM with Chuck in the lead.

We rode Highway 90 and rode over a large bridge over St. Louis Bay.  We rode a short way and, there it was, the Gulf of Mexico.  The sand was very white and clean.  The water appeared to go on forever.  There were cargo ships in the distance.  We were on Highway 90 and the water was to our right and large houses and businesses were on the left.  We rode through Long Beach, Gulfport and Biloxi.  We turned into an area where we saw several cars on the beach side where people were fishing.  The ground was hard, packed, white sand and one would not expect to see full dresser Motorcycles maneuver on this kind of ground.  They don’t know us!  We rode to the very end of this area and parked.  We took pictures of the area, Motorcycles and ourselves.  We were just taking it all in.  Chuck checked the internet for a nearby hotel.  He found one and off we went.  We got back on to Highway 90 and turned onto I-110 North.  We rode through some construction and eventually made it to I-10, where we turned east.  We exited at Tucker Rd. and went north to the Best Western Plus, Cypress Creek.  We had ridden 44 miles and arrived at 4:35 PM.  I went in and “made the deal” with the clerk.  It was a good price so we all checked in, took our bags to our rooms and hung around the lobby for about an hour before we went to dinner.  While we were waiting, I started this blog.  I got about half way finished when J.B. came to the break room where I was at and told me that we were leaving for dinner.  I took my computer to my room and we left for Logan’s Steakhouse.  After dinner, we returned to the hotel, parked our Motorcycles and tucked them in for the night.

Today, we rode 292 miles and went over several bridges.  We didn’t even put on our jackets today.  The weather was that nice.  Tomorrow, we will head east along the coast through Mississippi, through Alabama and into Georgia.  We don’t know where we will end up.  We shall see.  So, until tomorrow…