23rd
August
2008
Conn and Mass
Monday, June 29th, 2008 - My first stop today is Mystic, Connecticut. There is supposed to be a pretty cool maritime museum there, and for anyone who has seen the movie ‘Mystic Pizza’ it was filmed there.
The ride out of New York is as bad as the ride in, but at least the traffic slowly gets less as you get away from the city. Whenever I’m in a big city I wish for the ability to lane split like they can in California. It really makes sense.
posted in Wanderings | 0 Comments
Thursday, June 26th 2008 - New York, NY… It’s called by many names: The city that never sleeps, The Big Apple, Gotham, or The greatest city on earth. And now I get to find out for myself a little about this city. One thing is for certain is that it is crowded… crowded with cars, crowded with buildings, crowded with people.
Tuesday, June 24th 2008 - It’s evening as I just roll into Virginia on my way to Richmond for the night. I had planned on visiting one of the old plantations around this area, but with night settling around me and having reservations about the whole experience of touring the plantation, I decide to not worry about it. Instead I head into Williamsburg to check out the old architecture.
Monday, June 23rd 2008 - I’m heading towards the Great Smoky Mountains today, and specifically to ride ‘
And to see what all the fuss is about for this particular road.
Saturday, June 21st 2008 - The doldrums have set in as I ride towards Florida. It is hot and humid and I no longer have any particular direction my trip is taking. When I was riding in the west I knew that my destinations were the plentiful and beautiful National Parks, but after New Orleans I don’t have any particular destinations until the Smoky Mountains and Kittyhawk. This is the perils of letting the winds blow you where they may is you don’t know what to expect nor have a place to look forward to. I think I could completely adjust to this wandering travel, but it’s hard to jump straight to it from destination based travel.
New Orleans has always been on my list of places to see. With visions of Mardi Gras, revelers throwing beads, Jazz bands playing, and the French Quarter I was excited to start the days journey. Heading out of Baton Rogue along the Mississippi just enjoying the sun breaks and views, I heard the first batch of rolling thunder coming my way…
I drove so far in my stupor last night that I’m only an hour from San Antonio this morning where I have a couchsurf arranged. Since I got a motel room, I hang out and write a little then cut my hair before heading out a bit before noon. It’s a short drive and I ride around the city just checking it out.
It’s warm already as I head out the door from Russ’ house. I can tell today is going to be a hot one, and I’m heading to even hotter regions… I keep telling myself that after Death Valley it can’t be all that bad. Well, it was pretty close, and even more concerning was some areas where there wasn’t any people.
I woke with the early morning sun again at about 5am as it was warm even up on the mountain in southern Arizona, and I knew the sun would heat things up fast. As I began packing up, I was careful of possible scorpions hiding under the tent or the tarp, but there wasn’t any. A little disappointed at that! I have never held a scorpion and was looking forward to finding one.
I’ve only gone about 4500 miles so far and my back tire is almost gone!! I was expecting to get about 6000 miles out of it, but I guess it’s time to replace it before I get out of a larger city. I called around Flagstaff and found a shop that had the Pilot Power tires I wanted so took the bike in early this morning, but they’ve got a few people ahead of me… so I wait.
