Month: August 2015

35

Cannot really say that I had a good night’s sleep, but then again I will not complain. I had a roof over my head and a shower. Also had the lights on all night long same as TV and some occasional visitors as the lounge is situated on the route towards WC. Now I know how it’s like to spend a night at a truck stop. As with everything in life, there are pluses and minuses.
Morning comes at 4:45. Last night just before I had fallen asleep a security guard came. She warned me that I have to take my bicycle out of the lounge and I have to be awake before 5:30 when the boss comes in and the boss does not really supports people sleeping in the lounge, let alone having a bicycle there.
After I took Lou out I poured some coffee and the cashier did not want to charge me for it. For breakfast I had two pieces of fried fish from yesterday. I ate one and offered the second one to this girl in her early twenties that has also spent the night here. Yesterday she left the rehab clinic and since she does not have any money to go home she has stopped here and some as me used the luxury of one of the two couches.
After breakfast I went outside to say hello to the new day and to watch and admire a beautiful sunrise. Mornings are so quiet, serene and fresh.
Soon Bobby, the trucker from yesterday comes. We stand outside having our cigarettes and we continue the conversation from yesterday. Topics are still personal so I will not get into the details. Just not meant to be published.
Around 7h there is enough daylight for me to feel that I’m visible enough on the road so I hit the road. To take advantage of the morning freshness and to enjoy the day to its fullest.
I’m still surrounded by fields of sugarcane, full of birds and occasionally interrupted by tree lined bayous which gives the whole scenery a swampy feeling.
Today for the first time in a long period (I think actually from Kentucky) it happens that a cyclist with panniers comes my way. The guy, Rob is training for cycling the Natchez Trace, a route most of which I have cycled over on my tour, with his friend in September. We share some advices, information and say goodbye and good luck. We cycle onwards, each in his own direction.
Good half an hour later a pick-up catches up with me. Rob is behind the wheel and he offers me to come to his place to take a shower, a cold drink and grab something to eat. I gladly accept the offer and together we load up Lou into his pick-up while I sit in the front in a nicely air conditioned cabin.
About an hour later finds me freshly showered, refreshed by a cold drink and well fed. Rob offers to give me a lift past the point where he has picked me up and since yesterday I was held back by the rain, I happily take his offer.
Louisiana is still flat and if it would not have been for the heat it would be ideally for cycling. Well, it is, just not in this time of the year. Clouds are filling the sky and storms start to appear all around me. One is actually chasing me and I’m doing my best to reach the next town before it actually starts pouring down. I managed to outrun it and I stop at a McDonalds for an ice cream. Instead of a birthday cake.
While there I check my e-mails and Facebook. I try to reply to all the happy birthday wishes but I’m restless and cannot really focus on my replies. I feel that I have to go back to the road and to the next town so that I can in time (even thou I have enough time and I’m aware of it) find a place to sleep. It’s not uncommon for me that around 15-16h I start to occupy myself with thinking where will I spend the night. Will I manage to find a location for pitching my tent before the nightfall and where will that be? Will the location be safe or hidden enough not to attract unwanted attention? And here in the South I also try to find a location that does not require setting up my tent. The humidity in the air makes the whole tent and anything inside wet in the morning whether it rains or not. And since I’m quite lazy I don’t really fancy everyday packing, unpacking and drying all the soaked stuff.
What annoyed me today was the fact that I have not allowed myself to take the time to focus on all the birthday notes that I have received and so some of you got my thank you with a small delay. And I could have focused to these notes since, regardless if I spend the whole day or just the last 10 minutes thinking about where to spend the night, I have managed each and every day to find a place to do it. May it be pitching my tent behind a timber shop or sleeping in a barn. Every time there was something and that is why I find it so annoying when I worry myself unnecessarily. Especially as I firmly believe in what Paulo Coelho has written in The Alchemist about pursuing one’s Dreams (and those of you who are regular readers of this blog will inevitably in the future find myself referencing to this book several times). “When a person really desires something, all the universe conspires to help that person to realize his dream!” Affirmation of this quote I experience on a daily basis.
Upon leaving McDonalds I find myself on a straight road that seems to go into infinity. Head wind (something that I have lately rarely experienced) is picking up and the surface of the road is rough, cracked. As I “battle” the kilometers I arrive to the next town tired and without energy.
I stop at the fire station asking for a shelter for the night. Anything will do. 1×2 meters of relatively, not necessarily flat surface and a roof over my head is all that I need. Kyle, the dispatcher offers me space in the garage and I grab the offer with a sigh of relief. After I manage to somewhat replenish my energy level with a coffee and a cigarette (and a break), Kyle and his girlfriend Mary-Beth prepare dinner. Opening the doors to the fire station was already generous enough so I try to object. In return I get a lesion on Cajun culture. Kyle says: “We Cajun (local people of French origin) have the need to feed people!” There is no room for further objections.
To wrap up for the day, I look at the magic of a Southern sunset. Today I have turned 35.

With a Smile, until next time!
Simon

PS
So you will not say its only text again

Road to infinity – photo was actually taken the next morning when I was more in the mood for it

Birthday dinner

Lou and the fire station

Last Day of 34

Today I got a message from one of the regular readers (still having hard time to believe that you are out there) that my texts are getting shorter. The last photo post from New Orleans contributed to this. So there are going to be not one, but two text, no photos posts. Not for the lack of topics but because there was so much going on for two days.

After eating and resting in New Orleans, I went to check the other side of the Mississippi River. Forests and hay fields by the roadside were replaced with bayous and fields of sugarcane. What did not change is the weather. Storms are an everyday occurrence and sometimes I’m lucky and they pass by me, but other times this is not the case. And on those occasions it’s nice if I manage to find some shelter to weather it out.
On Friday it started to rain at around 12:30. I was on a country road with bayous and swamps to the left and right. Initial raindrops were becoming heavier and it was obvious that I will need a place to shelter. Luckily I noticed a scrapyard to my right and there was a small shed that must have served as a guard house in the past. Meagre roof will not provide much of a shelter but better that than out in the rain. Just as I wanted to park Lou so that he gets some shelter as well, I’ve heard someone shouting in my direction. I went to check out and it turned to be the porter. It was self-explanatory what I’m looking for so he showed me a building with a large covered area behind it and I went to shelter there. Happy that I have a roof over my head I have treated myself with a cigarette and waited for the rain to stop. Just before 14h the porter tells me that they are closing the facility for today and that I will have to leave, back on the road and rain. Not really excited, but that’s how it is. Unless he could give me a lift to some other place where I could shelter. So I have asked him for a lift and he agreed. Daryl, the porter gave me a lift to truck stop that was about 30km away. There was a large gas station (with a large covered area). We said goodbye but not before he gave me his phone no. just in case I would need help.
Since it was still raining and ti showed no signs of stopping I got myself a coffee. As I was standing with my hot coffee next to Lou, a trucker started talking to me. The conversation started pretty much standardly with questions where I’m from, where I’m going, how long I’m on the road,… Once we finished smoking our cigarettes, Bobby the trucker went to the roadside restaurant next door to grab something to eat. I on the other hand focused on the rest of my coffee and writing my diary.
About half an hour later Bobby comes out of the restaurant saying: “Come here, I’ll feed you!” There was no room to object, so I did not. I follow him into the restaurant where I receive a decent portion of fried shrimps and fish.
While we eat the conversation continues into somewhat less standard direction. We talk about his work and family. It’s interesting how, when traveling, you can open up to a completely stranger that you see for the first time. You talk about very personal subjects and in a way you would, back home, talk about it only with closest friends or even maybe not even with them. There are no excessive constraints, no fears that someone would abuse your vulnerability. I think that it’s the fact that you are talking to a complete strange which is the key to being so comfortable with it. There is high level of certitude that you are talking to someone you will never see again.
Time flies by and all of a sudden it’s 17:30 when Bobby goes to his truck. I stay alone with Lou and start to think does it make sense to return to the road today. In about half an hour I should anyhow start looking for a place to pitch my tent. At the same time, here I do have a roof over my head in the trucker’s lounge. Given the fact that it has rained for a good part of the day, the decision was clear. I’ll stay!
The day started to turn into evening and less and less people come through the lounge. I treat myself with a shower and another coffee before saying goodbye to the last day I’m 34.

With a Smile, until next time!
Simon

New Orleans

After passing the 5.000 km milestone on a Saturday evening I have arrived to New Orleans. Yes, absolutely a completely different world, unique among the places I have visited so far on the route. And as it is supposed to be, I took it in as a “reward” for the 5.000 km. I’ll let the photos tell the story!

: 5.000 km

: Into New Orleans

: By The Roadside 1

: By The Roadside 2

: Royal Street 1

: Royal Street 2

: Waiting For Streetcar

: Streetcar Arriving

: Inside Streetcar

: French Quarter 1

: French Quarter 2

: French Quarter 3

: French Quarter 4

: Bourbon Street

: Bourbon 1

: Bourbon 2

: Bourbon 3

: Bourbon 4

: Bourbon 5

: Bourbon 6

: PoBoy

: Muffuletta

: Red Beans and Rice

: Etouffee

: Beignets and Coffee

: Abita Amber

And as you can see, I did eat my way through New Orleans!

Night That I Spent At The Restroom

No, it is not what you think. I did not get to make acquaintances with the toilet due to ingesting something strange. But let’s start at the beginning.
Around 1:30 I was woken up by the sound of distant thunders that was becoming louder and louder. In a split second I was wide awake and went outside my tent to investigate the situation. A typical story for my US days. It’s about to rain. Luckily I made my camp next to a fire station that has a roof in front of the entrance. Great, I can relocate and keep my tent dry and also save myself from the morning packing of a wet tent with having to dry it during the midday break. It’s a done deal, I quickly take all the heavy stuff out of my tent, pick up the pegs, take the tent and move it under the roof. I also move all the rest of my equipment and also take care of Lou so that he is sheltered as well. Satisfied that I managed to make the move in time I smoke a cigarette and go inside the tent in hope of catching some sleep.
It does not take 10 minutes when I hear the first raindrops on a corrugated metal roof. They are becoming louder and louder until a loud rumble muffles them up. Since the noise does not stop I take a peek out of the tent. There is a waterfall just next to the tent. It seems that the gutter is clogged and all that water that is pouring from the sky is hitting the floor just next to my tent. In less than three minutes there is a huge puddle next to me. I have to pack, urgently! I’m saving the inner part of the tent (flysheet is already soaked) and all that is inside. As I’m rushing I begin to realize I’m losing this battle with water since it is all around me. Somehow I managed to save some stuff (liner for the sleeping bag which I use for sleeping and a thick woolen sweater that serves as a pillow). The rest is soaked apart from the water-resistant paniers for the bike.
Looking at the situation at hand I come across a brilliant idea and I start to collect rain water into my dishes. As I’m running low on water with collecting rain water I will be able to make myself coffee in the morning. At least let’s make something useful of this rain since it has already deprived me of my sleeping plans. The fact that I have managed to get something positive from this situation, I consider as a small mental victory.
As the storm passes I find myself a mere 1m2 of dry space under the whole roof. I rearrange the paniers that are all around me so that I can get an improvised rest and tired, I fall asleep. I still have about 2 hours until morning which is at 4h. And they get interrupted by another storm that takes this last m2 away from me.
I hit the road just before 7h with Lou looking like a Christmas tree with all the clothes and the tent hanging from him in order to dry out. Need to take advantage of the day while it is still cool and fresh and I can cycle.
Turning the pedals I decide that my today’s goal will be finding a fixed roof over my head to sleep and for which I will not have to pay. So I pedal and slowly but surely I aproach Kosciuskko, MS that I have set as a final destination of my today’s cycling. They have a welcome center there where I will be able to stop, unpack and spread all my stuff to dry outside while I will be in a nicely air conditioned interior enjoying some cool tap water. Afterwards we will somehow manage to find a roof over my head for the night.
At 14:30 all sweaty and exhausted from the heat, but at the same time satisfied that I have made it, I pull over in front of the welcome center. Inside there is Jerry, a man close to 70 that works as a volunteer here. We talk a little while I cool myself with some cold water and my equipment is drying outside. He provides me also with some hot water for some instant coffee which I take outside where I sit down under a fan and enjoy my cigarette. While I wait for the equipment to dry and I will be able to set off in search of a roof over my head for tonight, I sit and read a book.
Around 16h the equipment is dry and it has cooled down enough for me to go in search of a roof over my head. From reliable sources I know that sometimes a fire department is a good place to shelter for night so I go inside and ask Jerry where I can find a fire station. Obviously I explain why I’m looking for it and at the same time I ask him if he knows of any alternative place for my shelter for the night. He suggests a porch in the back of the welcome center. It looks quite decent (true, again open roof, but much bigger than last night and the floor is made of wood with cracks between the boards which means there cannot be a puddle even if the gutter is clogged). Apart from a place to sleep I also get all night access to a very clean and tidy restroom. Only Jimmy, the caretaker has to agree. I accept the offer and we wait for Jimmy (also a man close to 70) to come around 17h. He’s OK with the arrangement and in the given situation I think it would be rude to “run away” and go ask the firemen. So I stay here.
Enjoying the moment of my little triumph as I have managed to get a free roof over my head and in so achieving my morning plan, another brilliant idea crosses my mind. Since outside is nevertheless hot and humid and the restroom is nicely air conditioned and opened only for me, what if I spend the night inside? I ask Jimmy and he does not seem to find a reason why not.
So I spend a night at my own private air conditioned restroom. With a roof over my head!

With a Smile, until next time!
Simon

Nice and dry 🙂

It Is Getting Hot

Currently I do not have this feeling but then again I’m sitting in a nicely air conditioned cafe. Outside thou is 35°C and considering the humidity and all it feels like more than 40°C. But luckily for me, today I have a day off and I’m not cycling.

Temperatures are on a sure and steady rise (same as humidity) ever since I have arrived in Washington DC about a month ago (uau, has it really been that long?). But the heat has really started to affect my daily routine in the past week or so.

Lately I’m getting up at 4h when it’s still dark outside. This way I can make my breakfast and start packing my tent and all the equipment before sunrise. Additional bonus is that I can see the birth of a new day every day (how romantic). Then I hit the road and cycle until about noon when I stop for a midday rest. It’s just too hot to cycle and it also is not smart to cycle in the main heat of the day. Besides I need to stop to dry out the tent and all the sweaty clothes of the previous day. Due to all the humidity in the air, the morning dew is really intense and so every morning I wake up in a wet tent with all the clothes that were drying outside being wetter than in the evening when I hung them (how unromantic). One day I might actually incorporate a short midday nap into these stops just to compensate for the early morning rises.

By about 4 I’m ready to hit the road again and then I can cycle up until 6, 6:30 when I should start making camp for the evening as the sunset is around 8. And I’m ready to hit the bed around 9 ready to call it another day on the road.

After leaving mountainous West Virginia and hilly Kentucky I have taken the Natchez Trace in Tennessee. It’s a trail several thousand years old that connects today’s Natchez on the banks of the Mississippi with Nashville Tennessee. Long before the arrival of white people the trace was used by the Indians on their migrations. The first white settlers learned about it from the Indians and shortly they took it as their own. It enabled a relatively good way of traveling back north for the traders that travelled south on the Mississippi on boats with all their merchandise all the way to Natchez or New Orleans where they were able to sell it all along with their boats (for lumber) and then headed back north by foot.

Well, I’m following the trace due south (always trying to be special) generally for two reasons. The main reason being that since I’m already in these parts of the world I could do a small detour and treat myself with a visit New Orleans. It is not on the most direct route from Halifax where I have started to Mexico where I’m currently headed if I want to continue to South America, but then again, who says that I have to follow a direct trail. A smaller detour of a few 100km seems completely justifiable in order to visit and above all taste New Orleans.

The second reason is of more practical nature. Today this ancient trace has been transformed into a national park through which winds a 444 miles (710km) long pawed road that is off limit to commercial traffic and where cyclists have the right of way. Not only that, there are rest areas and primitive campsites organized along the way where I can camp not having to bother myself with can I camp there or where can I pitch my tent.

But this trace also has two, you might say, drawbacks. One being that, since it is a national park, you are not really passing through populated areas. There are small towns nearby but not on your road. And so I skip them more often than not and in doing so I “deprive” myself of the experience of small towns of the American South.

Second »drawback« is very light traffic on the road (being a national park that does not go from town to town and all that). Consequently there is a lot of wild animals on the road from deers to wild turkeys to squrels and all sorts of birds.

And if you take all the above (the heat, the solitude, the animals) and you experience it through a cyclists (my) eyes, then sometime midday, when the heat is at is highest, interesting associations start to emerge. One day I saw a deer with a cub and a drawing from Walt Disney – Bambi appeared in front of my eyes. A see a butterfly and in my ears I start to hear – »Metuljček cekinček, ti potepinček,…« (Slovenian children song). By the roadside I see a cow and my first thought is – STEAK!

Well travelling cyclist have one preoccupation on our minds – food!

Taking The Right Turn