The night in Jackson was slightly more peaceful than the previous one, broken only by a Hong Kong financial company phoning Mark at 5am to try to interest him in some investment opportunities for the Gallacher millions. They received a somewhat terse, two word reply.
We got back on the road just after 10 for the relatively short return journey to New Orleans. It turned out we had only about 180 miles to travel and it was all on the interstate. We managed to navigate our way out of Jackson without too many dramas and found the I-55. That took us across the state of Mississippi and we crossed the state line into Louisiana at just 90 miles. We stopped soon after that, at a place called Kentwood, whose only claim to fame – as far as we could see – was to be the next town along from Tangipahoa. The gas station did seem to offer a rather exotic line in snacks, but as we were on track to arrive in NO early afternoon we managed to resist the temptation and save ourselves for later.
As we left the gas station a chap asked Mark what sort of bikes we were riding and commented that he had never heard of Triumphs before although he had apparently once cleaned a BMW. As we chatted to him Mark noticed what appeared to be a bullet hole in the rear wing of his car!
There were a few other motorcyclists out today and we exchanged the occasional “low five”. For those of you new to the blog, this is the term we invented to describe the way in which motorcyclists acknowledge each other over here. It involves briefly holding the left arm out at about 45 degrees below the horizontal and splaying out the fingers of the left hand for the time it takes to cross with a bike coming from the opposite direction. Most bikers seem to do it although some Harley Davidson riders are too important to acknowledge anyone who isn’t wearing a plastic replica of a WWII German helmet while riding a bike like theirs.
Apart from that the ride was fairly uneventful. We kept up a steady 70 or so most of the way and made good time. It was rather alarming though to see how many people were cruising past us in the fast lane while texting on their phones! Mark spotted another armadillo that hadn’t quite made the crossing. As we got closer to NO the road was raised up on pilings for miles as we crossed the bayous and then Lake Pontchartrain. I googled it later and found that it is actually called the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway and at 23.83 miles is the longest continuous bridge in the world.
Shortly after that the I-55 becomes the I-10 into NO. The traffic was very heavy with big trucks passing either side of us on the 3 lane highway. This was a little unnerving as we weren’t entirely sure where we were going. However, Mark, with a little help from the satnav got us back to Eagle Rider. Had it been left to me. I suspect we’d still be out there somewhere. We finally covered 185 miles, making our total for the trip on the bikes 1370 miles. It was sad to see the bikes go back but we should be able to cover more distance in a car in the next week.
We returned the bikes and got a taxi to our hotel – a Holiday Inn Express in the centre of the town. We had to wait till 3pm to check in but found ourselves in probably the largest hotel room we’d ever been in. You could fit four double beds in here and still have room for the Band of the Coldstream Guards.
After a quick change we set off towards the French Quarter of New Orleans. Our brief foray last week hadn’t touched very much of it and we had a very pleasant mooch around looking at the historic buildings and listening to a variety of street musicians.
The house in the photo on the left above is called the Napoleon House because allegedly the then owner offered Napoleon refuge there after Waterloo. However, as far as I know, Napoleon never got anywhere near America in 1815, so this seems like rather a tenuous claim to fame. We then had a couple of beers and tried to eat our own weight in oysters. We started with some raw ones, then after a starter of calamari and shrimp we each had a fried oyster poboy. I think we may have overdone the oysters slightly but it may be at least another 12 hours till we get to eat seafood again!
On the walk back to the hotel we spotted a tram which had derailed as it tried to switch from one track to another. A number of people in fluorescent jackets were standing around it scratching their heads and looking nonplussed while a number of other trams were stopped further down the tracks. It didn’t look like anyone would be going anywhere by tram for a while. It should however enable us to tick off another song as I’m sure there must be plenty of country music that features train derailments.
Today we pick up the car and plan to get to Greenville Alabama.
Over the Hill and Far Away.......... 
Ear worm……..Judy Garland…..”Ding, Ding, ding goes the trolley” Meet Me in St. Louis
Great stuff!
Big excitement here was your kind offer to the Coldstream Guards they’re packing the convoy and heading for your king sized room even as we speak!
It’s the cuts – obviously!
The trip sound great so far!✊️😀
Got team practising low five from yaris’s on the Hagley road…….
Unfortunately don’t know any country songs about tram derailments but do know there is a poem about the Tay Bridge disaster. Not sure if it was set to music. Talking of music, very disappointed Mark that you didn’t join in the band. I think it was in your key and tempo.