2003 NEW ORLEANS BIKE TRIP

The trip started out weird. I was forced to work late Wednesday night May 7th to catch up on a busy day and didn't get home till about 9PM. By the time I packed a few things and fell asleep it was after 11PM. At 2AM the Highway Patrol called with a Pickup/Horse Trailer accident south of Wapanucka. I went out and pretty much gave the horse last rites as he had a broken neck. It turned out the guy driving the truck had gone to grade school with me a longgggggggg time ago. As I got home a thunderstorm was brewing so I turned on the TV and the weatherman was predicting the probability of possible tornadoes right over our house. I stayed up to watch the weather, and finally just said the heck with it and started getting ready to leave for the trip.

Catherine and I met Jana Black, who is our Executive Secretary at the Oklahoma Veterinary Medical Association, and her husband Jim in Durant at 7AM. They ride a 95th Anniversary Road King and had never been on a long road trip strictly on bikes before. The storms had blown over and the weather looked great, so we headed south. We stayed on Hwy 75 to Denison, and then took Hwy 69 southeast through Greenville, TX to Mineola, then got on Hwy 80 going east. We probably would have been better off getting on I-20 and going to Shreveport, because 80 is busy and has lots of longgggggg towns that take forever to get through. If I do it again, I will probably take 69 on down toward Lufkin and then meander over east toward Louisiana. Anyway, we finally got to Shreveport, LA and headed south on Hwy 171, which on Rand McNally's map shows to be a scenic highway. Well, it is, but it's the same damn scene for 150 miles. It also has a lot of traffic and is rough. So my advice is to find another route if you're riding to New Orleans. Next time I will find some smaller state highways that may not be as busy.

One good thing about Hwy 171 was that it took us to Grand Cane, LA around lunch time. Grand Cane is a little wide spot in the road with a little cafe in an old building. It has a few small tables and a few long tables and a lot of old antiques and pictures. When we walked in some local people eating lunch volunteered that everything was good, and everything we had was good. The only negative about it was they didn't serve beer. If you're ever down that way, stop in at Grand Cane.

We continued south on Hwy 171, then at DeRidder, I cut off on Hwy 27 to try to find a road that wasn't as rough and crowded. Hwy 27 was a lot better, but still not as good as some of our OK roads, or for sure not like some of the ones in New Mexico. We hit I-10 about 10 miles west of Lake Charles, LA, and rode on in and found a little motel for the night. After cleaning up we asked the clerk, who was an old man, where to find Papa's which we had heard was the place to go for food in Lake Charles. He gave us directions and also told us of a couple bars we might like. He went into great detail about a bar that played music and brewed their beer on the premises. He told us he had never tried the beer, but he thought it might be good.

We went to Papa's, which we thought would be a big restaurant. It turned out to be a cafe/deli on one side and a little bar on the other side. We decided to eat there anyway, and it was good. We all had different Cajun and seafood, and it was all good. We met some nice people there and chatted awhile. It seemed like everyone we talked to on the trip had heard of the tornadoes that had hit OKC the night before and had to ask us where we lived and all. After leaving Papa's, we rode to Rikenjaks Brewing Co and tried a couple of their beers. The band was ok, but a little loud for us, and we had had a long day in the saddle, riding 470 miles. Before we left, I told the bartender about the little man who advised us to come here and that I'd like to take some beer samples to him. She drew cups of 3 beers, light, medium, and dark, and with Jana riding behind Jim and holding two beers and one stowed in the tour pack of the Road King, we made it back to the motel. The desk clerk was still on duty and about had kittens when we brought the beer in. At first he insisted he couldn't have them inside, and then he decided he could hide them and drink them when he got off work. My guess is they were gone within 5 minutes of us going to our rooms.

We were up and gone early the next morning and headed back west on I-10 to Hwy 27 south. This loop is called the Creole Nature Trail Scenic Byway. It is where we first got into the swamps. It is a pretty little road with not much traffic and lots of swamp and live oak trees with Spanish moss. We also saw a lot of boats and fishing type stuff. I turned in on what I thought was a road that went somewhere and it turned out to be a fishing pier type thing on one of the canals. Two guys were there just beginning to fish for crabs, so we stayed and watched and helped them for awhile. They tied pieces of meat, chicken or beef mostly, to long pieces of string and tossed it into the water, then after awhile pulled it in gently and a crab would be hanging to it. That was kind of neat to watch. Catherine pulled up a couple and thought she was a crab catcher extraordinaire.

We continued on and visited the Visitors Center of the Sabine National Wildlife Refuge, and took about a mile nature walk. The Visitors Center was nice and very informative. The nature trail was interesting. We saw a lot of birds and several crocodiles and a nutria. This was the only place on the whole trip that bugs were a problem, but they were terrible on the nature walk, so if you go take bug spray.

We rode on down Hwy 27 to Holly Beach which is right on the Gulf of Mexico. It has a nice sandy beach, but the water looked real muddy. There were lots of seashells and we prowled up and down the beach for a little while. We then headed back east and took a ferry ride across a shipping channel into the town of Cameron. We hadn’t eaten breakfast, so we stopped at a little motel/restaurant which claimed to have “The Best Food in Town”. Since we didn’t see another place arguing with them we ate there. It was pretty good too.

After our late breakfast / early lunch we continued east on 27 to the town of Creole. At Creole we took Hwy 82 east through the swamps. Once again, the scenery was pretty with lots of water and crocodiles and boats, but after about 20 miles it got boring. We did see a lot of flooded fields with crawfish traps in them. We followed Hwy 82 to Abbeville, and then took Hwy 14 to New Iberia. We were going to visit Avery Island, which is where Tabasco Sauce is produced, but we missed the sign off the highway somehow. By then it was getting toward late afternoon and we wanted to make New Orleans, so we just hit Hwy 90 going east and rode on into New Orleans.

During the ride today we went over several really big bridges around Lake Charles and over the Intracoastal Waterway and some of the bayous, but the bridge across the Mississippi into New Orleans was probably the biggest. People had told me how tall and long they are, but until you ride a motorcycle over one, you can’t really imagine the feeling.

We found our hotel, the Hotel St. Pierre, in the northeast corner of the French Quarter in New Orleans and checked in and cleaned up. This is an old hotel, parts of it built in 1788. The rooms were clean, but a little run down. Some people might not like it, but Catherine and I really liked our room. It had a big 4 poster bed and a big window that you crawled through to get to the balcony overlooking the French Quarter. Everything worked and the staff of the hotel, especially a guy named Kerry, was very helpful and nice. I must admit though that Jim and Jana were not as pleased with their room. We picked this place because it was one of the least expensive hotels in the French Quarter and it had a balcony, which Catherine wanted. It also had a free parking lot across the street where most hotels charged an extra charge per day to park.

Kerry recommended we eat at Ralph and Kacoos, so we walked there and had an excellent meal in a nice, fun atmosphere. We found the food to be very good pretty much everywhere we ate. We stuck with seafood and Cajun food, but other types of food were available. After eating, we walked around the French Quarter and Bourbon Street soaking up some of the nightlife. Jim and Jana went to their room around 10PM, but Catherine and I stayed out and danced and partied till 1AM. When we finally went to bed, we had ridden 310 miles and walked several more during the day and night.

The next morning we walked around the French Quarter looking at the old buildings and the different types of architecture. Once we parked our bikes at the hotel we didn’t get on them till we left for home. The French Quarter is small enough to walk everywhere if you want to. There are also cabs, mule drawn carriages, and trolleys to help get around. Parking is scarce, so we found it not worth trying to ride. The walking is fun also because there are lots of little shops that are very interesting to pop into and look at for a few minutes as you walk by. The same goes for bars. We met a group for a walking tour of the French Quarter and one of the old cemeteries. The guide gave us some interesting history of the French Quarter and New Orleans. The cemetery we visited was St. Louis #1, the oldest cemetery in New Orleans. It is called a “City of the Dead” because caskets would float out of the ground, so they started burying people in vaults above ground. They look like little concrete houses. Some are very simple; some are very large and ornate. In the days before embalming, it took about a year for a body to decompose in the concrete vault. After that the dust was pushed to the back and other member of the same family was put in it. In some of the vaults there are up to 14 or so family members buried!

The tour ended around noon, so after stopping at the Three Legged Dog for a beer we walked to Felix Oyster Bar for lunch. Once again, the food was delicious and the waitress, who was a true blue Coonass, was a hoot. After walking and shopping and browsing through shops looking at paintings and artwork we went back to the hotel and took a nap, but not before Catherine and I stopped in at the Nawlins Cookery for some bread pudding and a Cajun Martini.

We walked to Nawlins Cookery for supper, and then spent the rest of the night barhopping and dancing. A lot of the bars have live entertainment, and most of it is good. There is usually no cover charge, but they do have a one drink minimum, so I sacrificed and drank so Catherine could dance. We stopped at Pat O’Brien’s for one of their world famous Hurricanes, which was good. I also tried a Hand Grenade and a drink called a Jester, which was billed as the strongest drink in the world. I will not argue with that designation. After it hit the bottom of my stomach and bounced around a bit it started tasting pretty good. Bourbon Street was crazy. We saw several girls showing their breasts as Mardi Gras beads were showered on them, we saw a few guys showing their butts for beads, and we saw one girl showing her “bearded clam” for beads. In fact, after showing that, they had to dig her out of the pile of beads! Not really. We had a very good time, I don’t think I made too big an ass out of myself, and we were in bed by around 1AM.

We were up early again Sunday morning. A van picked us up at the hotel for a swamp tour by “Ragin Cajun Swamp Tours” and drove us about 30 miles outside New Orleans to a swamp. We went on an airboat ride and a longer tour on a large pontoon boat. The guide was really entertaining. He had grown up in the area and told us a lot of interesting things about the plants and animals. We saw lots of alligators and watched him feed them. He had three smaller ones on the boat and we got to hold them.

We ate lunch back in the French Quarter at The Gumbo Pot. I had a sausage Po Boy sandwich and it was delicious! We then walked around Jackson Square and along the River Walk by the Mississippi River. Around the French Quarter are street vendors selling food, art work, reading tarot cards, telling fortunes, dancing, singing, playing instruments, and entertaining. Most of it is for donations. We watched some of the better ones for a little while and dropped some money in their buckets. It is all very interesting and fun and adds to the “unlike Oklahoma” atmosphere. Jim and Jana took a trolley ride which they said was very interesting and entertaining. Catherine and I walked up Bourbon Street and around the French Quarter some more just looking at things. After another nap, we walked back to Jackson Square and ate supper at a restaurant on Jackson Square. After walking around a bit more, we decided to get to bed early since we were all tired and had a long way to ride the next day.

We were up early, packed, and on the road by 6:30AM. We went north across the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway, which is supposed to be the longest bridge in the world. It is about 22 miles long. We only saw one boat, so other than saying we’ve been across the longest bridge in the world it wasn’t a big deal. We hit I-10 going west and ate breakfast in Hammond, then caught Hwy 1 going north at Baton Rouge. Hwy 1 is a pretty little two lane road that sort of follows the Mississippi for awhile, and then cuts across to Alexandria. It was the best road we found the whole trip. It also goes on down toward New Orleans and I wish we had taken it instead of going across the long bridge. We got on I-49 at Alexandria and rode steady to Shreveport and stopped for lunch. Then we rode I-20 west to Hwy 69 and retraced our route home. Catherine and I were home by 7PM after riding 640 miles. Jim and Jana rode on into OKC making their day around 750 miles. At the last stop before we split up Jim exclaimed “Tell me again how much fun we’re having!!!!” They did great for their first long trip and we look forward to making some more with them.

All in all it was a great trip. The Louisiana roads aren’t as much fun to ride as a lot we’ve been on, but I loved New Orleans and the French Quarter, and would love to go back. I think knowing a little more about the roads now that I could pick out some smaller two lanes that would be a lot better for riding motorcycles or even leisurely driving in a car. Bugs were not a problem riding as I had been told. Bourbon Street is probably not a good place to take your kids as almost anything can be seen there. One end has a lot of gay bars (look for rainbow flags) and the other end has strip clubs and “live sex shows”. The middle part is just lots of bars and people acting goofy. The rest of the French Quarter is very quaint and interesting. I know there are lots of things in New Orleans and even the French Quarter we missed, but those will have to wait for another trip.

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