Day 3 – New Orleans to Lake Charles 

After checking out of the hotel we got a taxi to Eagle Rider where the bikes were waiting for us. Much to our relief they were both Triumphs, the owner having managed, as he put it, to “finagle” the second one by retrieving an ex-rental from the for-sale collection. This is the one that Mark has taken and, apart from his conviction that the clutch and brakes are not working properly, it seems to be running very well. The Rental Agent who handed the bikes over to us somewhat surprisingly confessed to a fondness for British sitcoms, particularly “Keeping up Appearances”, which he appeared to find particularly side-splitting.  This was a slightly unsettling admission from someone whose judgement we were relying on for the safety checks on the bikes.

Once we’d familiarised ourselves with the bikes and transferred the necessities for the next few days to the panniers, we set out for Interstate 10 which would take us to Lake Charles. The 10 is a six-lane road which crossses the bayous and for about 50 miles of its length is actually raised up on concrete pillars over the water. In truth it was fairly monotonous but we were able to keep up a good speed all the way. The only problem we encountered was a traffic jam in Baton Rouge where a hot, stationary bike in 30 degree outside temperatures is not the most comfortable place to be. The monotony was enlivened by numerous billboards along the way featuring pictures of smiling but cold-eyed lawyers advertising their services. One in particular popped up about every five miles to enquire, “Car Wreck?” and then, “Injured?”. One could almost sense his disappointment that we were able to respond in the negative to both those enquiries. 

About half way along we stopped at a gas station to top up the tanks. The gas station had a sign on the door  warning that admission would be refused to anyone in “Sagging Pants!”. Fortunately our pants were about the only things that weren’t sagging at that point so we were able to use their facilities. 

We had set off at about 11am and covered the 200 miles to Lake Charles in about 4 hours, arriving just after 3pm. The hotel (a Holiday Inn) boasted a lobby a rather nice curving staircase and a massive chandelier. A further somewhat unusual feature was what at first sight appeared to be a Christmas tree! On querying this we were informed that it was in fact a Memorial Day tree, placed there in preparation for Memorial Day which falls on May 29.

Lake Charles is a largish town of about 70,000 people laid out in a sprawling grid pattern that we’ve encountered in other parts of the USA. We got a taxi to take us to the central district but allowed ourselves to be persuaded by the driver’s recommendation of a “popular seafood restaurant” (voted #1 by USA Today readers apparently!) called Steamboat Bill’s. This was out in what appeared to be the middle of nowhere by the side of the Interstate. It operated the rather unusual system of making people queue at the door until you knew what you were ordering at which point you could then move to a cashier who took the order, served the (canned or bottled) drink you ordered and sent you off to choose a table to wait for your food. All the food came coated in so much batter that the high spot of the meal turned out to be playing “guess the species”. The alligator, if it actually was alligator under the batter, tasted like a rather pleasing blend of chicken and fish. I’m not an alligator aficionado and have no previous experience to compare it with but, if this was indeed my first taste of a reptile, it got my seal of approval. Elsewhere on the plate, also lurking under the batter was what appeared to be a crab shell filled with sage and onion stuffing accompanied by shrimp, oysters and catfish. 

We had planned to be setting off for Corpus Christi in Texas today but we are currently in the midst of massive thunder storms and a tornado warning, so we have been forced to stay put.

 I am writing this with the thunder rolling outside and the lights in the room flickering on and off! The next edition of the blog is therefore likely to come to you from a bar in downtown Lake Charles!