Kansas City, Missouri
Little Rock, Arkansas
New Orleans, Louisiana
Panama City Beach, Florida
Atlanta, Georgia
We’ve had a fantastic last week. This week's been much more about the people than the scenery. The Midwest of America is mostly flat with slight rolling hills; some dry and brown; some green and full of small spring flowers. Kansas’ eastern prairies brought us rain and into Missouri with whispers of pea-sized hail, that luckily missed us as we drove through Kansas City rush-hour traffic to our long-time friend, Brenda B’s house. There we lounged, slept-late, caught up, played with their gorgeous kids, ate our fill of some of the best Bar B Que we’d ever had, and drank a few too many tangerine margaritas. Luckily the Texas Hold’em we played was not for money…! We’ve missed this branch of our tribe and it was soul-filling to give and receive these hugs.
When it was time to head out, Monday early morning brought us a chill to the bone that felt like the coldest weather we’d ridden in yet. It was so cold, we pulled over within minutes to thaw out at a Waffle House. Getting back on the road, we headed for Little Rock, Arkansas to meet up with Ben’s Uncle Don’s kids: Suzy and Jack. Ben hadn’t seen these two in something like twenty years. On the way we drove through the Ozark Mountains, which aren’t really mountains at all, but quite a nice change of scenery. The Ozarks are gorgeous green rolling hills and mature growth trees. Refreshingly the best scenery we’d seen since Colorado. Along the way we ate some amazing southern-style fried chicken at a little mom (used to be ‘and pop’) shop. Such a pleasure to finally meet up with Suzy and Jack and Jack's lovely girlfriend, who we're hoping will be visiting Tonga before too long. After the break in Little Rock, we got back on the bike and made for the Arkansas-Louisiana border south of Pine Bluff.
That evening, after about 12 hours of being on the road we pulled into New Orleans, Louisiana. Luckier than we realized at the time (as AT turned out to be a world-class tour guide of New Orleans), we were invited in by good friends we met while cruising, Cuyler and Anne Teague from the sailing yacht Windrose who had just moved back to New Orleans four months ago. It is fantastic to reunion with fellow cruisers. We really realize just how lucky we are to be a part of such a community and to have friends spread out all over the world. So anyway, New Orleans, which most people will remember not because of its colourful history, music, and culture, but because of hurricane Katrina in August of ’05 (more later about this), is an absolutely fun and swanky city, rich with culture that feels like it’s somewhere other than the United States. AT & Cuyler walked us all over the city to see its districts and quarters, the river, its music, inside her family’s grand uptown home with all its history and southern architecture, well known restaurants, on the street cars, down Bourbon & Canal Streets, and to hang in local haunts. AT’s family has been in N.O. since 1749, and so has seen the devastation of its floods, storms, and fires and its restorations. There is very little of the original French Creole architecture left in N.O. today. Destruction years ago led to rebuilds by the Spanish, during the short time they owned the city, and their wrought iron and brick are what N.O. is architecturally known for now. Mardi Gras beads left over from February don house stoops and trees throughout the city. This city parties hard for numerous occasions during the year, including virtually every Friday night. The streets are alive each night of the week with jazz and brass bands most often in the bars, and sometimes on the street corners. While there we consumed all the local foods and drinks we could find including jambalaya, pim’s cups, dangerously tasty hurricanes, locally brewed ales, and no less than 12 lbs. of Creole-style Crawfish. We also had the pleasure of meeting AT’s sister who runs a great neighborhood coffee shop called the Sound Café and Beth’s Books in Lower Faughburg Marigny. She also started the organization www.SilenceisViolence.org after a couple of brutal and senseless murders of some locals happened. Her organization is helping to take back the streets in what can often be a dangerous city and is also working with children through music with local musicians and much more. Hats off to Baty! (and congrats to you & Lee on your soon to be coming little one!) Overall, New Orleans is now one of our favourite cities in the world. We had such a good time hangin’ out with you, AT & Cuyler, and your hospitality was first-class, thanks guys!
After two nights in N.O., we left and drove through the neighborhoods that were hit the hardest by the floods ensuing after hurricane Katrina. After the devastating floods subsided and order was restored in the city, each building was marked with details on the status inside. At first it was written things like '2 dead bodies in the attic', but soon after the markings became a sort of code inside of a large X or a circle denoting damages and dead bodies. Watermarks can still be seen near to roof tops and much of the destruction can still be seen. Many buildings and homes that have already been rebuilt have kept their coded X markings on the front of their buildings as a reminder. Habitat for Humanity (which AT & Cuyler have been a part of) has begun rebuilding homes in the neighborhoods where the owners can't afford to do so. H.forH. has already rebuilt 150+ homes in the eastern foughburgs of New Orleans and are to be commended for their efforts. We can't express in words the sadness we felt while driving through these very unfortunate neighborhoods. People's homes and lives were destroyed, but New Orleans is rebuilding itself again and hopefully its previous residents can find a way to move back as we get the feeling that this city's spirit will never die.
Riding on we saw the Gulf of Mexico for the first time on this trip and cruised through both southern Alabama and Mississippi. Not much to tell there, but we headed for Florida and Panama City Beach, a year-round vacation spot and very popular Spring Break mecca. Large hotels donned the skyline and made us appreciate the small island nation of Tonga with no high-rises and few tourists. Panama City is a fun town and brought back many nostalgic memories for Ben who used spend quite a bit of time there and in Daytona Beach (before MTV made it famous/infamous). After a night out on the town, lots of rum, and a sunset trip down to the beach, we spent the night camping in a State Park on the river leading to the Gulf of Mexico, surrounded by huge RV’s and campers. Doesn’t anyone camp in a tent anymore?!
From Panama City we left for Atlanta, Georgia (Lawrenceville, actually) via some pretty back roads. We had the fortune of stopping for lunch at a buffet of southern comfort food and gorged on fried okra, collard greens, fried chicken, and biscuits (American style, not cookies!) with gravy. In Lawrenceville we were to hook up with Ben’s dad, step-mom, grandma, and uncle. To our fond surprise, Ben’s other uncle, wife, and two first cousins (David & gorgeous Mary Claire) came down from Kentucky for the weekend and we all had quite the party. It’s so good to see that Ben’s almost 92-year-old grandmother is doing so well and we all had so much fun hangin’ out in our pajamas, drinking, yet again, margaritas (there seems to be a theme to this trip!) and eating BarBQued steaks from the 1/2 a cow that Vicky bought, which was raised all organically and marinated in diet-coke (a tip we heard on an XM BarBQue show while we were in Texas).
This is also where we finally have a garage to spread out in, tools, time, and a dad (who happens to have a Sammuel Clemmens thing going on these days...!) to help pull apart the bike and fix up a few things. We’ve been thinking for a while now that we might have a front bearing wearing out as when we make a turn we get a funny vibration. Bearings ordered, Ben found that the rear tire has some disturbing knots protruding all the way around it. Took it to a nearby shop and found out that it’s our own fault for not increasing the tire pressure by 8 to 10 lbs. above suggested pressure with all our extra weight (due to camping near, thank you! not the passenger, haha!) So, we’ve got our second new rear tire of the trip and we’ll test it out today to confirm that the vibration is gone and bearings no longer needed. Meanwhile, the bike is getting de-greased and cleaned up and the XM radio is being dismounted as the detachable unit itself (despite being locked on) decided to jump off the bike while we were underway on the highway last week. Bummer really, but we’re not without tunes, so never mind.
The plan is to leave on Tuesday morning, after the thunderstorms have moved away and we’ve rested up, and set course for Columbia, South Carolina to the farm of our friends Jonah and Will, who we also met while cruising from s/v Araby (which is for sale! Check out http://freejonah.blogspot.com/2007/11/thanksgiving.html for details). More soon….
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