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
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