Easy Rider 2019

All time record temperatures here again today as the heat stays in the mid to high 90Fs. Today is our last full day and the group headed out for one final short ride to a New Orleans swamp boat experience. Tracey and I chose the "slow" boat (having done a "fast" air boat ride on a previous trip): We saw several alligators and learned lots of fascinating facts about them including that they have 80 teeth and when they lose one it can regrow in a day and a half. Also there is only one sure fire way to tell a male from a female (a long rubber glove required): We also learned about the unusual Louisiana Cypress trees that grow in the swamps. They are protected as the state's official tree. Henry Ford used the Spanish Moss that hangs off them, that is neither Spanish nor moss, as the stuffing in Model T seats and that led to the first ever auto recall as it was discovered that it provides a great home to bugs! He also used the wood from the trees t...

The final day of our journey celebrating the 50th anniversary of Easy Rider and we continued east out of Lake Charles once again in sunny and humid conditions. Our mid morning coffee stop was at an old bank building now the Java Square Café in the town of Opelousas before riding on to Krotz Springs which is (spoiler alert) where the dramatic final part of the movie was shot and where our heroes, Billy and Wyatt, met their end at the hands of two (genuine) local red necks: From there it was a short ride to the town of Morganza home to the original café where Billy and Wyatt first came to the attention of the local red necks. Amazingly we had quite a reception with a warm welcome from the local mayor and media there to record the occasion. Our leader, Alan, being interviewed: Commemorative plaque: The original café was actually demolished in the 80s but the resourceful locals, with an eye on the tourist trade, have put in place a false frontage: On then to ou...

Very little to report today as we got our heads down and rode 330 miles and finally waved goodbye to Texas as we crossed the state line into the 7th, and final, state of this trip - Louisiana. It had rained quite heavily overnight and it was feeling very humid in Austin - when we left our hotel our crash helmet visors immediately steamed up. As the day progressed it got increasingly warmer - 90F+ - and remained incredibly humid. Also, it rained again....for at least two minutes! We rode past the Austin motor race track, the Circuit of the Americas. The ride around Houston was pretty dire (memories of the M25 at its worst) albeit with a welcome break for a BBQ lunch at the Harris County Smokehouse. In the late afternoon we made it out of Texas and in to Louisiana - our overnight accommodation is in Lake Charles just a few miles over the border and home to the famous Golden Nugget entertainment venue (Doobie Brothers, The Temptations, Alison Krauss and Patti Labelled all upcoming liv...

Leaving Abiline behind we continued south and east across Texas covering a further 280 miles on roads with long sweeping curves and some variations in elevation, too. Clearly Texas is not entirely flat. We stopped for morning coffee in Comanche at a teashop reminiscent of some of those in Bexhill i.e. very twee and very English. The owner was delighted to hear our observations as, she said, that was exactly the look and feel that she was aiming for. We never did get round to finding out why she would want to do that in the middle of Texas! Next stop, for lunch, was at the River City Grille on the banks of the (other) Colorado River that begins and ends in Texas. Certainly we have had worse lunchtime views: From Marble Falls we rode the remaining 60 miles to Austin, Texas state capital, via the fabulous Texas Hill Country road and experienced rain (!), well a 5 minute shower, and the most beautiful rainbow. We arrived at our hotel, the Courtyard by Marriott on 4th Street...

We bid farewell to Route 66 - for this trip - as we left Amarillo this morning and pointed south and east as we began our 3 day ride across Texas. Texas is HUGE (nearly 270,000 square miles - by way of comparison, the entire UK is a little over 90,000 square miles), largely flat and the only things to look at are cows (LOTS of cows), wind farms and the odd "nodding donkey" drawing oil. It is also VERY hot - from mid morning the temperature steadily rose into the high 90Fs actually breaking 100F at times in the afternoon. This was the dash readout on my bike when we arrived at our hotel at 5pm after 310 miles in the sunshine: Not a great deal to report on today other than a most excellent coffee stop this morning in Briscoe where we were served by Rowdy the only blind barista in Texas and feasted on his mother's delicious pumpkin, cinnamon and choc chip muffins straight from the oven. Briscoe also has an old jailhouse as it's main tourist attraction: Furth...

Another 300 miles today and another day of contrasting terrain and temperatures. We left Taos via the Carson National Park riding twisty roads in temperatures hovering around 50F to an elevation of 9500 feet before descending some 75 miles down the road in to Las Vegas, New Mexico. Stopping for coffee before our group leader, Alan, took us on a short guided tour of the centre including the Plaza Hotel built in the late 1800s and older than the state of New Mexico: Returning to the Easy Rider theme, the street where Wyatt and Billy joined the parade and were subsequently jailed for parading without a licence: And the fire station outside which Jack Nicholson decided to go along for the ride with Billy and Wyatt after their release from prison: We then rode a further 100 miles south down the New Mexico highway with the temperature rising to the high 80Fs to rejoin Route 66 at Tucumcari where we had lunch at Kix on 66: Continuing East along I40/Route 66 we stopped fo...