We started early this morning and the weather was beautiful. On down the road the rain hit and we had to put on raincoats. It felt good to be cool. I am ashamed to say that I had gloves on, too. I really am high maintenance in the motorcycle world trying to be as comfortable as possible. But I would rather be comfortably warm and happy than cold and crabby. After a few hours of riding and only a couple minutes of rain, I took all but the necessary clothing you have to have on to be descent. It got hot. Not like I didn’t know it was going to happen sooner or later.

I had a brilliant idea today. The closer we got to New Orleans, the more I wanted to see it. Ed agreed to go there but he wasn’t real happy about doing it. He was going to go there for me. I was so excited I couldn’t stand it. My brilliant idea---- turned out to be a disaster. First we had to play dodgems with all the other drivers in the area trying to find the French Quarter, then every parking lot we drove up to wouldn’t let motorcycles in and add the heat factor which was rising in the air and in Ed’s mood… It turned out it wasn’t such a great idea after all. Ed was so ticked-off that we couldn’t park the bike and he was totally fed up. This place was not motorcycle friendly at all. It was too bad for New Orleans and too bad for me. I wanted to get a beignet in the worse way. I could smell the powdered sugar beignets and the chicory coffee. I could hear Jimmy Buffett singing about French bread and gumbo and I was in heaven… My mouth was watering but, but, oh no… I couldn’t get to where I wanted to go. It was the classic example of being so close but so far… It has been 33 years since I’ve been to New Orleans and I hardly remember it. I wanted to see, feel, hear, and smell it again but I guess it wasn’t meant to be. So we left New Orleans as fast as we got there. Oh well, maybe some other time.

We have crossed the Mighty Mississippi and are just outside Beautiful Baton Rouge. Baton Rouge is a lively town with a big port full of paddleboats, ore ships, barges and of course…casinos. Oh, it’s a good thing we don’t gamble. I wonder if Maverick was here back in the day???