Mile 4469

I left Milton, FL this morning pretty early, as my inner clock is still ticking East Coast, but I’m one hour later here.  Anyway, the air is crisp and in no time I pass Pensacola, FL to hit into Alabama.  Immediately the song “Sweet home Alabama”, the state motto as well, comes to my mind and before I can remember all the words of this song and finish singing it, I’m in Louisiana.  I like this area, riding over all those bridges and elevated highways through the swamps, it is a great scenery.  Many birds are around, seeing many fish eagles and herons, and water fouls, and many others.  I’m reaching New Orleans, LA very early, too early for a Gumbo in Bourbon Street, a cool drink, and some good Jazz. So my iPod has to do, and I’m switching to Zydeco, the French-Creole music which developed down here in Southwest Louisiana.  I cross over some more bridges and Bayous, and have to change my music again as I’m approaching Baton Rouge, LA.  Here comes Garth Brooks with “Calling” Baton Rouge, and just as the song finishes I traveling over an 18 mile long bridge (Key West only has a 7 mile bridge) into Lafayette.  Little bit west of here we are now running out of the Bayous but with Lake Charles we have some more water around us.  Up to here I-75 and I-10 have been in immaculate condition, but this immediately changes coming into Texas.  Everything is bigger in Texas, and so are the construction sites.  It appears that I-10 is only one huge construction, and I’m happy after I have Beaumont, TX and Houston, TX behind me.  But the ride is not over yet, and at a tank stop about 70 miles east of San Antonio, TX switching off the engine my ignition switch falls in pieces.  Here I have a spring, a disk, a shaft, the knob, and have no idea on how to get that back into the steering head.  After about half an hour trial and error, I have a concoction ready to give me an ignition light and I can move on.  So all the time made up today will be spend tomorrow to find a workshop and a technician who knows how to put it properly together, If I can start the bike again 🤔.  Anyway, I also have to work on my new Schuberth helmet, as the inner anti fog visor as become detached, something which shouldn’t happen neither.  But all in all a good day, lots of nice scenery in Alabama and Louisiana, not so great in Texas.  I’m still sticking with my plan to make it to Las Cruces, NM tomorrow, we’ll see.

“You may not control all of the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.” - Maya Angelou, American poet, memoirist, and civil rights activist