Last Three States: Day Five

11/03/2011 - Thursday morning, time to get up and get ready for the journey home. I woke up, got dressed and walked to Cafe du Monde on a solo mission. I had been told repeatedly that I needed to go there and enjoy a beignet. It was delicious; however, it just reminded me of a sopapilla served without honey. The clientele at 8:00 in the morning reminded me of sitting in an audience at a taping of the Oprah Winfrey show. When I got back to the Holiday Inn, the room was empty and all of the bags were gone. I momentarily thought that Dan, Kevin, and Tim ditched me. I soon received a text from Kevin that they had loaded up the car and went across the street for coffee, so I met them at PJ's Coffee Shop on Canal St. While sitting on the patio of PJ's, it started raining. I just figured that New Orleans was sad to see us go.

We left the parking garage and I was in the lead. As I've stated in the past, I'm an excellent pilot but a horrible navigator. This instance was no exception and I zigged when I should have zagged and took us out of the city the wrong way. We huddled up at a Shell station and came up with alternative route. It was still raining so I broke down and put on my rain gear and we were on the move again. We traveled the Interstates for the majority of the day trying to make up for some lost time. We only traveled about 200 miles today. There is really no easy way to get across Mississippi utilizing the back roads, but we have a plan from Jackson.

We got to Jackson, MS around 5:00 and had to decide whether or not to get a hotel or travel 90 miles to the next town that might have a hotel. We wouldn't arrive there until after dark so we decided to play it safe and get a room at the Quality Inn. Apparently their housekeeping isn't quite so quality because the room we initially got had not been serviced for the day. The beds were still in disarray and the room was filthy. We got another room that was in much better shape and set up shop.

We are staying across the street from the Jackson Coliseum which is hosting the "Mistletoe Market" which is some kind of Christmas Bazaar. I felt like all of the ladies from the Cafe du Monde followed me to Jackson.

We ate dinner at Wing Stop. It was really mediocre. As Kevin said "I could take some frozen Tyson Chicken Nuggets throw them in some Red Hot and have this at home." That was everyone's assessment of the meal. It was a far cry from last night's fine dining. A quick stop at the Shell station for some barley sodas and we were back to the Quality Inn for the evening.

Last Three States: Day Four

11/2/2011 - Left Biloxi, MS this morning. Perfect weather again. About 50 miles later, we crossed the Louisiana state line thus completing my quest to ride my motorcycle in all 48 contiguous United States. I felt quite accomplished.

New Orleans streets suck to ride on. They are almost all one way and they're never going the way that I want to go. I almost got peeled by a Nissan Armada (about 2 feet separated my front wheel from his bumper. There was copious tire squealing.)

Kevin and I met Tim and Dan at the Holiday Inn in the French Quarter. We got a room and parked the vehicles, and proceeded to go on a quick walk about on Bourbon Street. While resting our feet on the steps of the St. Louis Cathedral we were people watching. Met a homeless guy named Kevin Bennett. Tim says "Of all of the homeless people I've met, he's doable."

Interesting things we saw: Crazy drunk trio with wet asses and washcloths picked a fight with another guy drinking a can of Old English 800. Tons of strip clubs with barkers trying to pull us in with promises of the cleanest girls on Bourbon Street.

We ate dinner at the Pier 424 Seafood Market Restaurant. I had the Surf and Turf which was out of this world. After dinner we mosied back to the hotel and took a dip in the pool. It was warm as bath water and really relaxing. After swimming we really just spent the rest of the evening back out on Bourbon Street people watching. Finally I'd had enough so it was time to turn in. We leave on Thursday morning for the trek home.

Last Three States: Day Three

11/01/2011 - Day three was great riding. The weather was perfect and the roads were uncrowded. The ride from Bessemer, AL was rather uneventful. The roads AL-5 and US-43 were actually kind of boring. They were just plain straight roads through farm country; although, one advantage was being able to open up the throttle. We had a couple of opportunities to BRIEFLY hit the 100MPH mark. It was awesome. US-43 took us right into Mobile, AL where we picked up I-65 to I-10 so that we didn't have to drive into Mobile.

We made a quick pit stop at Subway for lunch/dinner at 4:00 and then proceeded to hop onto US-90 for the trip across the Gulf Coast. In 20 miles we were at the Mississippi border. We stopped for a quick photo shoot and were then on our way again. At fist, US-90 sucked. It was like driving on Polaris Parkway at rush hour; however, once we got into Biloxi, MS we were right on the Gulf of Mexico riding into the sunset. In fact, it was so pretty that is where we decided to stay for the night. We got a room at the Quality Inn with a view of the ocean. It was nice not to be riding after dark for two days in a row. We spent much of the evening hanging out at the picnic table looking out on the water. Ask me about the white Honda Odyssey sometime.

So the total mileage for the day was 291 and we have 81 miles to get to the French Quarter today. As of this writing Tim and Dan are 151 miles from New Orleans. They've been driving all night and we'll all meet up later today. So I'm off to collect my last state today. I'm beyond excited.

Louisiana Road Trip: Halloween Edition

10/31/2011 - Happy Halloween! Today's spooky journey would take Kevin and I from Danville, KY to Beesmer, AL. Mother nature decided that she'd trick us rather than treat us to begin the day. As we pulled out of the Super 8 this morning we were greeted by rain. We pulled to the gas station across the street, fueled up, and donned our rain gear. We rode for about an hour in drizzle but then it cleared up around Lake Cumberland. It was just in time for us to get stuck behind a truck stacked with hay bales. That wouldn't have been so bad but it was on some of the most twisty roads we encountered today and robbed us of the chance to attack the curves at full speed. By the time we got around the truck the sun had come out and it was starting to warm up so we pulled over and stowed our rain gear.

We crossed over into Tennessee and promptly missed the turn for TN-111 and instead mistakenly continued on US-127. It wasn't that big of a mistake because they merged back together towards the bottom of the state. Maybe we can hit TN-111 on the way home to see if it is any more scenic that US-127. 127 was pretty nice. I think we hit Tennessee right at the peak of the fall colors. The trees on the mountains were gorgeous against the blue sky of the afternoon.

We finally ended up crossing into Alabama at about 5:00. We got to a town called Guntersville right about when trick-or-treat started. It was fun rolling through a small town and seeing all of the kids out in costume. The smell of campfires lingered in the air and it was very autumn like.

There wasn't a lot to see after we got through Guntersville and there was no place to stop for the evening so we rode another 90 miles after dark until we got to Birmingham. Once we got to Birmingham we hopped on the interstate for the express purpose of finding a hotel. We got off at the first exit with hotels that we found, but it was another 20ish miles away on a really crappy highway I-20/I-59. It was all chunked up and under construction. I was certain that either Kevin or I was going to get a flat tire. We finally stopped at a Comfort Inn in Bessmer, AL. After checking in and getting settled, we walked across the street and had a nice relaxing dinner at Applebee's. Exhaustion was setting in and within 15 minutes of getting back to the room Kevin was fast asleep. I banged out this blog post real quick and I'm now headed to bed myself. The adventure continues tomorrow.

The Last Three States: Day 1

October 30, 2011 - Today I started the trip to visit the last three states that I need to complete my motorcycle tour of the lower 48 United States. It's kind of bitter sweet for me because this could very well be the last long distance motorcycle trip that I am able to take. I've got one week to travel to Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana.

This trip is a little different than the other trips that I've taken because I will be accompanied by some of my very best friends: Kevin Krahel, Tim Birt, and Dan Michalec. Kevin and I departed Columbus on our motorcycles today at about 1:15. Dan and Tim will meet us in New Orleans on Wednesday travelling by car.

Since Kevin and I need to be in New Orleans by Wednesday so we decided to get a jump on our trip by actually utilizing the US Interstate system. I typically try to avoid the highways but I've been through Ohio enough that I didn't feel that we'd be missing much by getting out of the Buckeye state on I-71. We stayed on I-71 until we reached US-127 (south of the I-71/I-75 split in KY). It was nice to finally get off of the super slab and get to enjoy the fall colors on two lane roads in Kentucky.

We wanted to get off the road before it got dark because the temperature was starting to drop quickly and there's no sense in being on unknown roads after dark, that's just asking to meet an unexpected deer. We ended up stopping at a Super 8 in Danville, KY. We ended up completing about 250 miles today. The evening was quite uneventful. We got the bikes situated, ordered a pizza and watched the "animation domination" on Fox. We turned in early so that we could get a jump on things in the morning.