When I got up this morning I looked outside and it hadn’t rained last night; thirty minutes later, it was raining. I turned on the news and what it looks like today is pop-up showers between here and Jackson, Mississippi with worse weather to follow moving up from the Gulf of Mexico. I finished packing the bike and it was time to decide about the rain gear, I hate putting that stuff on & it looks more clear to the northeast so I figure I’ll start without it.I know my general direction is northeast so I’m just picking a road that looks like it goes northeast or north or east and where the sky is brightest, and it’s working out pretty well. This trying to stay dry thing is a game for me on these rides. It’s like a maze that I need to find my way through or something and my reward for success is that I don’t have to wear the rain gear.  Maybe that’s why I don’t like putting it on – it means that I’m admitting defeat. On the way back you can’t out run it because it’s coming at you. So, you just pick a weak spot in the line, put your head down, and go for it – kinda like Red Rover.

When you cross the border from Texas into Louisiana you can “feel” it.  First, it’s time to put that helmet back on, second the roads are WAY worse, and third – it’s just different. I did have to laugh very shortly after I got across the border.  Last night I stayed in Nacogdoches, Texas; well, I guess those Indians were over here too but I can’t help you with the pronunciation this time. I wonder how the Indians spelled it – Ha ha…..I already mentioned the condition of the roads.  Along with that, goes the speed limit.  All the way across the state of Louisiana the speed limit was 55 mph – UGH. What in Texas was a fun, exciting and sometimes challenging ride at 75 mph, in Louisiana turns into a boring and dull clop along at 55 mph. I think they just never changed the signs from back in 1974 – when 55 was the national speed limit, remember that?? Forgive me for doing the math for you but a 300 mile ride at 75 takes 4 hours; at 55 it takes an hour and forty five minutes longer. SO – I don’t go 55 mph, I ride between 63 and 68 mph. That adds to the fun, but now the challenge is to not get a ticket, which is a different kind of excitement I guess.  But the state of Louisiana has turned me into a criminal. Take a look at this road – Fifty Five miles per hour….. Really!!  I thought I was going to get some “professional help” (law enforcement) with my speed when I noticed a highway patrol car in the median – the cruise control was set at 69. His brake lights came on, then the lights on top, and I started looking for a place to pull over.  Guess he got someone going the other way because I never saw him again.  I dropped down to 63 for the rest of my Louisiana experience.

I missed my old bike a lot today. That bike was the best I’ve ever had when it comes to dusting off some dick head. Twist the throttle and two seconds later – adios. This bike will do it but it just takes a little longer and that doesn’t quite put the exclamation point on it that I’d like to.  It’s a bold period – but I like the exclamation point.  Enjoy it Lester…

Mississippi is still a helmet law state but the speed limit kicked up to 65 – Great!  Come to find out, speed limits in Mississippi must just be a suggestion, because at 73 mph people were flying by me like I was stopped!!  It started on the bridge over the Mississippi River, I thought there must be a high speed chase or something – 50 mph speed limit over the bridge and this guy was going at least 80. Imagine how the Mississippi residents must feel when they have to go into Louisiana.One thing that both states have in common is pulpwood trucks, but they say pup-wud. They haul cut down trees but you can’t call them logging trucks because the trees are too small to be called logs. The trucks do however shed bark, mud, rocks, etc. It’s time to be alert whenever you are near one of these trucks. I was passing one and a piece of bark came off like the driver had been waiting for just the right time to release it; missed me but barely. The trees are ground up into pulp and used to make paper and other stuff.

I started looking for a place to stay 45 miles south of Jacksonville because I didn’t like the way the sky looked to the north and I didn’t want to have to lose the game at the end.  That didn’t work out but I didn’t lose the game either.  It was close though, this is what it looked like when I pulled up to check in and 10 minutes later, it was raining.  That rain followed me all the way here – but I won….. this time.