Thanks Martin - always appreciate your feedback and glad that I have got you thinking! We're reprising Route 66 next September if you are interested in following that, too. All the best - Chris
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...
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...
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...
Thanks for the blog Chris - as always it has given me the wanderlust.
ReplyDeleteThanks Martin - always appreciate your feedback and glad that I have got you thinking! We're reprising Route 66 next September if you are interested in following that, too. All the best - Chris
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