June 12 2023 Day Ten

 June 12^th – New Orleans LA – Day 10

 

And even if it is still happy hour, it seems like a good time to write a story about today’s travel. One of those days that as long as I’m already drinkin and it’ll be a late night I can write about today’s travel and share tonight’s experience tomorrow. It might help that I’m in a place called Dejavu and it seems like Dejavu since the last time I was here in New Orleans. Oh, and before I forget, I stopped at a gas station just before getting to downtown and saw these hotties coming out of the gas station and all getting into the same pickup. I should’ve said something about not seeing so many hotties in a pickup but could only use my imagination of what kind of traveling they might be doing and when I say hotties, not the young kind, but some that even for an old man like me they might go for…I guess I can only wish.

 

Ok the day started out with thunderstorms which made me keep hunkered down in the camper because it was early enough that I had no reason to travel that early, hell New Orleans is only about 4 hours away on the fast pavement that I can take off anytime and still make it and while in the process go thru some of the devastate communities I saw last time I was thru these parts. Once I finally got up, I thought it’d just be a quick pack of the bike and hitting the road but remember I’m still in Florida so it is hotter than all hell, humid and I can’t keep from sweating that I’ll need another shower after all before hitting the road. I did get going sometime around 10:30 and because I have parts to see I checked out the forecast and sure enough severe thunderstorms in the area. I can’t wait around to see what will happen, but I started out thinking for sure I’ll need to put the rain gear on somewhere along the way.

 

Back on the fast track toward New Orleans, freeway that I can raise the speed again to 90 and pass as many people as possible on my way. I’m only hoping to get there sometime around check-in, so I have plenty of time to kill. I did have to make a stop sooner than I expected to since I crossed the border into Alabama, and it happens to be a helmet state that I’ll have the hard cap on for a while I guess. Not until I get to Texas that I can feel free again. 

 

Siri was right on it with directions to New Orleans, but that was the fast track that I knew if I wanted to compare what I saw 17 years ago I’d have to get off sooner than later. I thought 90 thru the area would get me to where I wanted to go, Biloxi being one the places that when I did stop for gas I asked, and the checkout person did say that Theodore would be my best bet for hitting 90 along the coast. It wasn’t far up the road, I believe after Mobile, and it took me straight to the road I wanted. Siri wanted me to make a uturn a number of times to get on the fast track, but I’m going to take the scenic route today and I sure wish I had more pictures to compare to what I saw 17 years ago, but right not I can say there a very few scares of Katrina still remaining.

 

One of those was just the bridge into Biloxi. This huge bridge with a curve in the middle that last time I was thru half of it was blown away that we had to take a coastal low bridge that happened to survive. Just the bridge, but everything else looked a hell of a a lot better than it did years ago. I was hating all of the stop lights now along the path I’m taking and thought a number of times of heading north to the fast track, but since I rode the coastal road along the bay before I should do the same. Again, there are very few scares of what I saw 17 years ago because there were communities, I saw then that I never thought I’d see again. Fully restored communities and it seems the stilts these new houses are on are even higher than last time I saw them which has me wondering, which is more devastating the winds of the flooding after. You put the house higher, and you’d think it has a better chance of blowing away that worrying about the flooding. Oh well, I’m sure their building them better to handle another Katrina. 

 

Ok, now about my trip to Bourbon Street. I happened to go too far West past downtown that I had to back track and Siri took me straight to Bourbon street that as soon as I turned on the street and saw Dejavu I pulled over right away which happened to be in front of a hotel. The valet guy did show me where I could pull in and they have secure parking that this might just be the place for me tonight. I did think I should check with the hotel I happened to stay at last time I was here and even with a little bit of talking (a story about the last time I was thru hoping for the same rate) they wouldn’t budge and happened to be the same rate that I might as well stay where I’m at, right on Bourbon street. Ok, I guess a little more since the room rate was the same, but valet parking even though I had to park the bike was an extra $42  night…Oh, and although I asked for cover since they are saying heavy thunderstorms coming, no cov