Day 2
N’awlins
Good start today. A hearty Snickers bar for breakfast, and I was off and rolling by 9 am. The weather was good most of the way. I managed to skirt all of the rain promised by The Weather Channel. Debated a sidetrip to Birmingham, but I still hadn’t contacted Alabama Rick, so I cruised on by that exit (knowing full well there would be hell to pay for this…rightly so). Before I got that far though, there was the Florida I10 rest stop at mile marker 162. The exit ramp was more than a mile long. Why is this park out in the middle of nowhere? Why is a park being used as a rest stop? Who knows. From there is was on to Pensicola, and then, finally, I was out of Florida.
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Swee-tea, hon?
I stopped for lunch at one of the first exits in ‘bama. I decided to set the balance aright by eating at a Waffle House this time. It was quite respectable looking by Waffle House standards (are there really any other standards?).
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Welcome to Mississippi
One of the poorest states has one of the most impressive welcome centers I’ve ever seen. I wanted to get a room there. The lady at the desk, however, was Manhattan condescending. I thought to myself, “You’re living and working Mississippi; what do you have to be condescending about?” I never quite figured out whose insecurites were at work–too many miles to travel to worry about it.
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The Big Easy
Finally past all the river deltas and bridges and into New Orleans. An hour later than I had planned because of frequent stops. On the other hand, I gained an hour because of the time change. (I’m an hour closer to LA. Yippee.) In the meantime, the hotel I’d planned to stay at was booked because I never make a reservation because I couldn’t figure out exactly when I would be in town and I didn’t want to commit myself to a schedule that would make this whole trip seem like work. Not to worry (geek alert), my Sony Ericsson P910 is full of info I collected on my last trip. Between that and a little judicious surfing, I found a guest house I’d scouted out on that trip. Cool. Dropped off my bags, parked the bike, showered and changed.
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A Starlit Afternoon
Went out right away looking for something to eat. I chose fluid sustenance at Starlight bar. Two dollar drafts–it was love at first sight. Actually, it was second sight. I was there on my last trip. It’s a fairly neighborhoody bar. The bartender seemed to have missed all the mandatory, childhood, gender identity classes. Long hair tucked under a baseball cap, red t-shirt covering small breasts, jeans holding up a small potbelly and a man’s tenor voice. (Seems to be a theme. The bartender I had 2 years ago was much the same. He was 6’4″ or so–no potbelly here–hairy and had a deep voice. He, also, was dressed as a guy. He said he was beyond sex and gender and just looking for a man who could handle that. I realized that sentence was my cue to leave.) At any rate, by the time I left on this trip, the sun was still out. I grabbed a bite and spent an hour or two perusing the denizens of N.O.
Afterwards,
I was too tired to drink any more, so I made it an early night.
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Thought for the Day
A while back, a friend told me what he thought were the two drivers for the human race: sex and bench press. I totally agreed with “sex”; I wasn’t so sure about bench press, but I could see the logic. That was a while back. Presently, I think the drivers are probably pretty much pleasure and power.