Houston Texas
I'm less then 12 hours from meeting up
with brother in Fort Hood who recently just got back from his first
deployment in Afghanistan and I couldn't be more excited. It's
currently 11:20pm, I've been on the road for almost 12 hours, have
been torrentially soaked (my feet still look like prunes due to my
leather boots lack of airflow), I managed to loose my wallet
including all my cash, debit, and credit cards, but all in all I'm
right where I wanted to be: Houston Texas.
Oh yes my wallet you ask? Chronicling
the boneheaded things I've done so far (leaving the kick stand down
on numerous embarrassing occasions, dropping my helmet/gloves/gas cap
incessantly, running Saphira till her tanks were bone dry, stalling
at busy intersections like it was my first time using a clutch) and
of course burning my leg while stupidly where shorts, my latest feat
of boneheadedness certainly seems to jump to the front of the line.
While at a pit stop about 60 miles from the border of Texas I either:
A. Left my money clip containing all my cards, most of my ID's
(except my passport), and of course my money on the bench I was
sitting at or B. Forgot to zip my jacket packet when I drove away
depositing all of the above on I-10 at roughly 80 miles per hour.
Either way, upon racing back at speeds I only thought would improve
my chances of a happy ending all I found was nothing and a gas tank
barely able to give 10 more miles. So I continued on with no clue of
what I was going when I did run out of gas, and/or needed to find a
place to sleep for the night.
Thankfully the next exit had a blessed
Walmart. Say what you will about Walmart, but today it was a life
saver. Upon entering I remembered they normally had money wiring
abilities so after a quick call to my brother, mother, and father I
had some fresh $20 bills in pocket. What I'm going to do about
getting money after that runs out remains to be seen, but like before
I'm too happy to be at my destination and too exhausted from getting
here to really care. It can be fixed in the morning (hopefully)...
So in this sorry state with a laundry
list of bloopers, its difficult to see why I'm so happy to be in my
particular predicament. The truth of the matter is that it seems
like forever since I last saw my little brother, and I'm still in awe
at the incredible time I had in New Orleans.
Last night we made the trip from our
hostel to the mythical Bourbon Street. By the time we arrived we had
already finished the beer in the fridge and were well on our way to
an epic night. I should have got a premonition of things to come
when we stopped at the first bar and to save money (thrifty?) I
bought the 3 for 1 beer special. There I was on a balcony
overlooking one of the most lively streets in the entire US with
three bottles of Budweiser to help me escape the heat (2 seconds
later a staff member came out to yell at me for taking glass bottles
on the balcony but I'll just skip over that part).
From there the night got wild. Their
was live bands everywhere but without a doubt the highlight of the
night was the local kids brass band. It was about 15 different
trumpet, tuba, trombone, one sax and a drummer and it was amazing.
The songs they played on the street corner attracted almost everyone
in the vicinity with their mix of incredible blaring jazzy solos, and
peppy Latin beats. At one point a car tried to drive by but in the
throws of passion one man chose to instead of letting them pass,
dance with the hood of the car. This only excited the crowd more and
with the excitement of the crowd grew the passion of the musicians.
To say the band and the entire surreal scene itself was amazing would
be a total understatement; their was even a point in the night where
my beer ran out, but I couldn't bring myself to leave and didn't seem
to notice. The crowd was moving with the music, a woman was dancing
suggestively with a cone, numerous onlookers were shouting with
encouragement, and we were all having a blast.
After we left everything got a little
blurry. We went from one club to the next, one great band on to
another. At one point I made the fatal mistake of ordering a drink I
believe most of the guide books warn about (my Swedish friend had one
too so) and from then on we were as my friend Dean from Alfred puts
it: “toasted.”
With the unforgettable night that I
had, unfortunately came as it always does the unforgettable morning.
I awoke at around 10:30 with the worst headache I could remember for
years. It was so bad I thought I heard an infuriating alarm going
off for ages and finally sat straight up in bed only to realize it
was the gentle hum of the AC. Upon standing I found even less
promising results as I'd seemed to have lost my ability to withstand
light, and my balance. Not in any shape to be riding any numbers of
wheels I set myself to the task of sobering up. I drank three jugs
of water, took three different swims, ate breakfast and lunch (both
PB&J's due to my enormous bar tab that I had accumulated) and had
two things of BC powder (its a southern thing of crushed Tylenol and
caffeine that you try to swallow and keep down with a glass of
water). Three hours later I was packed and saying my goodbyes, sad
to be leaving my new friends especially Krissy and Andres, but ready
for the open road.
One thing that Krissy had said a day
ago really stuck with me. I can't remember exactly what it was but I
had been complaining about the difficulties of long distance
motorcycle travels and she every so tactfully pointed out that I
should probably change my attitude if I wanted any hopes of
completing the adventures I had planned ahead of me. I guess I took
that to heart because today's drive was incredible despite the
difficulties. I drove through the Louisiana swamps and saw some
great scenery, but even more important I was happy to be back on the
road. All day Saphira seemed exuberant to be out and about again
eating up the asphalt and the linking of us today in perfect harmony
was undeniable. I realized I was no longer thinking about turning, I
was just doing them, no longer worrying about stalling, just gently
pulling away. All in all it was a great day. Tragedy struck, but
like always my family came to the rescue.
Tomorrow I mark the completion of my
second main objective for the trip and like I said before I couldn't
be happier. I'll be spending numerous days with Ian and probably
waiting for my new cards to arrive. As a bonus, looking at the
odometer today I realized I had passed the 2000 mile mark on my trip.
Not bad for a guy whose only had a motorcycle license for exactly a
week to this day.
No comments:
Post a Comment
So what did you think?