TN > MS > LA > TX
hiya all
lastly in memphis tennessee there was an amazing midnight bike ride down to the river underneath the pillars of a century old wooden bridge over the mississippi where us 30 cyclists made s'mores over the bonfire and watched the barges and their floodlights roll past in the thick fog. other great stuff happened but they're small details.
memphis, like st. louis and detroit and other american cities has suffered from "white flight", the ghetto-ization of inner city that once was a thriving industrial sector based around the river port and is now home to broken glass, alcoholism and poverty
i did find some great folks to hang out with there, including 3 californian chicas cycling west - east and it was fun sharing stories from the road with other gals
we got a ride through most of mississippi the state, and ate delicious hot boiled peanuts on the roadside. they were soooooo friggin good, like edamame of the south. you suck the peanut out of it's shell, it's the texture of baked beans with hot oily salty liquid all over your chin. i wish i could eat them everyday
the weather got real damp and cold in our tent, which made for some boring miserable nights. i was reading a great book from a southern author, carson mccullers (the heart is a lonely hunter) which killed some evening hours. any chance we could get to sleep indoors we did: in a college apartment (a.k.a. pig-sty) with roaches crawling everywhere, to a preacher's 2nd quarters (possibly the old slave house?) on the back property. we've otherwise tented in trailer parks in louisiana which was, uhh, interesting and behind businesses and other random spots.
we got a lift over lake ponchitrain into new orleans , cause there is no shoulder on the bridge for cyclists, and we got taken for a tour via automobile with a nice dude. we lived in algiers for 2 nights and crossed the mississippi river a lot via ferry. there is so much to say about nola i don't know where to start.... mostly it was a sensory overload in every respect. alcohol, stilettos, booming stereos, face tattoos, pet goats, book stores, cruisers, daquiris, buskers, boats, debris, neon lights, barf, transients, food, potholes, trendy hair-doos, street cleaners, art, expensive grocery, dancing, tourists, voodoo and so much more. we stayed at a collective árt house' north of the quarter and had a chill time watching the activity of this city. classically, we ate a shrimp and oyster po boy, but i enjoyed the chicken pot pie from the 'pie lady' better. we participated in a '2nd line' which is a huge parade every sunday in various black neighbourhoods. 2 fantastic brass bands, lots of cheap alcohol and cigars, feathers and costumes, shimmies in the streets.... we paraded around with 100's of people for hours and had a riot. altho it was a short visit, nola seems to be a place of 2 extremes, the poor and the rich, the black and the white, the destruction and resurrection. there are holes where people have abandoned their lives here, and other places look like no storm every touched a roof shingle
to sum up fast, we're in austin now after ditching 1/2 my bicycle. our time together was finished, to tell the truth the last coupla days of riding i wanted to kick it to our final destination rather than ride. riding through the south wasn't like the northern part at all - there is so much civilization down here, and nothing seems wild and vast and untouched like spaces in the northern part of the country. i feel less free to go where i want on a whim but lighter: carrying 1/2 the gear i started out with. hahhh..... i need a massage....
love d
bye bye byeks
9th Ward Second Line parade....
Yes...Austin. We spent 10 hours in a car yesterday with two girls we found on Craig's list rideshare. I guess we were both just ready to be done with the cycle-touring part of this adventure and wanted to be moving at a faster pace. To be honest I think we've been done with that since Memphis.
Although it was great to have our bikes in that city. We ended up hooking up with the local bike crew for their weekly night ride. They took us all through the crazy Memphis streets, down through trails and alleys and finally to a park by the river where we locked up our bikes off the path in the bushes and continued on foot down these stone steps and over rocks and vines down to the rocky, misty shore of the Mississippi. It was a foggy night and some of the kids had made a fire pit earlier, so we had a lovely bonfire and drank beer and ate smores as the cars and trains rode past on the old bridge overhead and a huge barge floated past in the water below. It was such a magical night with so many great folks.
Afterwards we rode back, passing the Vegas-like Beale St. strip where the flashy lights are the only sign of it's former musical glory. Apparently Blues is dead in Memphis, and these days you'd have more luck catching stunning sounds at an open-mic night than some Beale St. club. Which we did - the intense and political young piano-hammering dude, the older, folksy, guitar-playing blind woman with an eerie voice and honest words, and the 4 piece 20-something band rockin out in this little coffee shop. Amazing.
We caught a ride out of Memphis with Ashley, one of our couch-surfing hosts there. She took us the 5-hour drive to Hattiesburg, munching on the southern, delicious roadside snack of boiled peanuts along the way. She was going there to hang out with friends at an art party and took us along. So we partied with the art-school kids of MS getting tips on what to do and eat once we got to NOLA.
It was about a 3 day ride from there to NOLA. We spent a night in the old slave quarter house in the yard of "Two-Bits", Lumberton, MS's methodist preacher. A cold night in Jan's trailer park beside an abandoned trailer in Bogalusa MS. And when we got to Slidell, LA and the banks of the Ponchartrain, we strangers were not exactly turned away, but 'put up' in our tent behind Peggy's financial business. We didn't meet any swamp-folks but we did see lots of houses up on stilts.
We had to hitch a ride over the bridge to New Orleans because it was too narrow. We got picked up by Rennie who not only took us over the bridge but also gave us the grand tour of the city. Showing us still-abandoned areas that had been hit hard by katrina, the beautiful mansions of the garden district, the river-side walkway and the quaint, winding, european streets of the French quarter. He also took us out for a balcony lunch of gumbo and crawfish bisque and to the apparently infamous Cafe du Monde for beignets, a doughy roll covered in icing sugar.
Our first two nights in NOLA we stayed with Saleem Kareem a high-school English teacher who was too into partying for our tastes. But we did enjoy checking out the Bourbon St. night life with him one night - it had to be done. We had gotten a contact from a girl we met in Memphis which brought us to this huge mansion full of young artists. We were met at the door by Dave who asked few questions and led us to one of 3 empty rooms in the basement with a big matress on the floor. Despite the cockroaches it was comfy and warm for the rest of our nights in NOLA. We slowly met the other residents, all very humble, unpretentious kids just doing their thing. They had this huge tree fort and other crazy scavenged goods throughout their backyard.
A photographer who lives there, Jeremy took us out on Sunday to a "Second Line" parade in the notorious 9th ward, a poorer. less developed area of the city where people know how to party and celebrate life. Second-Lines happen every Sunday somewhere in the city and are put on by various community social-organizing clubs. There were 2 brass bands with dancers who marched and danced through the streets, collecting people along the way to join in on the dancing and drinking, which is legal on the streets of New Orleans. It was an all afternoon mobile party and by the end I was exhausted. New Orleans was exhausting in general. It was a total sensory overload of people, and music and buildings and food.
I feel a bit relieved to be at our new haven here in Austin. The Bio-squat is a small peice of land on the edge of the city where kids over the years have built a little eco-village. There's bike part sculptures and forts everywhere. We're sleeping up in a tree house platform with only a roof to cover us. The weather is so humid and mild. Cacti and air-plants are everywhere. We spent the day here alone just relaxing as people are gathering with families for the big U.S. turkey day. I look forward to exploring Austin tomorrow.
Hope all is well with all of you. Bye for now.
Love Sheri
roadkill
8 flat tires an still rollin
there be a lotta glass on tha road
hallowe en seems so long ago, but for the update i was a mime (that talked all night and danced badly). we went on a scary haunted bike ride round town, met some cool dudes that took us to 'new roots farm' fire an potluck, and turned my front wheel into schrader from presta in a pinch.
if anyone needs to go to st louis (pronounced lewis, you frenchies) i think i can give a great tour: cherokee street, the arch, ted drewe's frozen custard, the craft alliance, the waterfront, the moolah theatre, worker owned organic bakery, afghani restaurants, big thrift stores and much more... we did it.
from st. l mo. we unsuccessfully attempted to catch a boat out of kimmswick. "just missed the season" we were told... and they DIDN'T laugh at us. so apparently, it's possible.
we meandered steep ozark hills for a coupla "lost" days: windin' narrow roads without shoulders as 18-wheelers carrying coal dust barrellin down our necks. we met nice folks in towns with swastikas and anti-abortionist jargon. we were in the thick of hillbilly country when barack won the votes of middle class amerika.
earl the plumber saved our skin and drove us back to the mississippi river, where we gathered ourselves, and found a place to stay with judy in cape girardeau (remember the anglophone accent). she's a 70 year old cyclist in better shape than sheri or i who does a million cool things and lives in a mansion. in cape we went on a fast and drunk night-bicycle ride, ate free burritos and hit up the farmers market.
a few days later, biking back in to illinois, then over the big ohio river into kentucky i had my first real southern experience. i got to ride in a 'horse an buggy' an eat BBQ briskett. all i need now is some pecan pie and a porch swing. can't wait to try frogs legs and fried okra.
hey, didga know Mean Gene makes Burgers To Go? well, he does, in Wickliffe, KY.
we're in tennessee now, after a restful WARM night in a church and suffering through the morning service wasn't even all that bad (except for the "pledge allegiance to the flag" bit, and singin "god bless america"). it was worth the free things we got in return. sometimes i think this trip is all check and balance
we're goin to memphis. anybody know anything good goin on there, send it my way.
~lotsa southernly love, d
Memphis bound...on wheels
Well, we've been all over the place since the last time I wrote, but I think we know where we're going now.
We had a good time on Halloween! The best part was this spooky bike ride we went on with a bunch of folks all dressed up and checking out the haunted sights of St. Louis. We met this cool dude, Mark who fed us sweet persimmons soufle from marble-sized fruit he found at the park, and invited us to a pot-luck the next night at New Roots urban farm collective, where a group of folks have an empty lot in north St. Louis with a big market garden, an outdoor kitchen and a bunch of chickens...very cool.
We headed out of St. Louis to the town of Kimswick where we heard was the last gas-up for a while for boats heading south. But apparently we're a bit late in the season to catch pleasure-boaters heading south and barges aren't legally allowed to take passengers. So we were pretty bummed out to get back on our bikes, after we'd been so high on hopes. But we gathered ourselves and decided to head south-west instead towards the Ozarks and East-wind intentional community, where a group of about 80 folks all live together and run a nut-butter factory out in the hills. We'd met a couple from there at Dancing Rabbit and they invited us to come for a visit. But after a couple days into our detour as the hills got bigger, the roads narrower and the accents thicker, we were starting to question out direction. We were in Boondocks, USA where folks with thick, slow drawls were saying this like, "Kay-ni-duh...that's like a whole 'nother country, ain't it??" So after a few miles of close calls with semis and a driver screaming out the window at us, we decided no amount of free peanut butter was worth continuing, and that we'd hitch a ride back towards the river the very next day.
That morning we woke with a good start to find out that Obama had been elected! Thank goodness the election craze is over now. Our day got better when we got picked up by Earl the plumber who took us the whole two hours to Cape Girardeau in his boat car, asking our opinions about love and telling us about his four wives that all ran away. We were just glad to be out of the Ozarks in a hurry.
In the Cape he dropped us off in a parking lot that just happened to be across the street from the bicycle shop. So we headed over and met some great folks who invited us out to their wed. night ride and phoned up Judy the local bike-tourer host. She's 70 years old and puts us to shame with her level of activity. She lives alone with her yappy dog Ginger in a huge mansion that her grandmother designed and she grew up in and we stayed two nights to regroup and figure out our next plan.
That night we met the local bike geeks at Burrito-Ville. A small group of 20-somethings riding fancy fixed-gear bikes with bull-horn handles, clicking around on their clipless peddle shoes, wearing layers of lycra, nylon, and fleece with water-proof courier bags filled with cans of cheap local beer. At first we thought, 'who are these kids?' But after a few drinks we all loosened up and had a great night buzzing around the streets like a swarm of bees, shouting out "Car up!" or "car back!" to keep each other safe. With blinking red lights in the half-moon night darkness, we rode to the old bridge and looked out at the river at night, to an old fort in town and to a couple of parks. They ride fast and drink hard. We had fun.
Judy sent us on our way down the back roads through a slice of Kentucky and into Tenessee, where we've been having a true southern experience. We met some old-timers who took us on a horse and buggy right and told us to go eat BBQ at Nicky's restaurant. Well, Nicky turned out to be quite a sweet-heart. He bought our lunch and phoned up his church to let us stay for the night. We ended up helping him out at a catering gig that night too after one of his girls phoned in sick and we made $40. each. The next morning we went to service at his church and made even more money from generous folks. They just gave us cash and wished us good luck on our travels. It's been a profitable few days with about $80 each in total! That should keep us going for quite a while.
We should be in Memphis tonight or tomorrow and we're hoping to get a ride out of there on Craig's list all the way to NOLA (New Orleans, Louisiana). We're both getting a bit sick of riding and camping and small-town after small-town. We still do about 60km a day but in better time, though since the time change we have to stop sooner and sit around in the dark more. The weather is getting cold again and we're just keen to get south. Thanks for all the wishes of wind at our backs, though more often than not it's from the south.
Looking forward to a change of pace.
Take care for now.
Love Sheri
escapeHallowe'en
water, fire, earth
happy hallowe'en says mime and earth
gettin' ready
sheri gathered foliage from the backyard for her hair piece
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