Lobsters to Llamas, Maritimes to Argentina

30A is a great ride! Thanks

Angele and I lived in Vancouver for 12 years and over that time we became Seattle Seahawks fans They lost a tough one to the Detroit Lions yesterday. I watched it at the Sandbar, across the street from where I'm staying. Had one of the best club sandwiches I ever had with ham turkey and bacon and really good crinkle cut fries, I wish I had my camera with me so I could show you how good it was. The sandwich and 4 beers came to $17.00 ......In Canada the 4 beers cost more than that!

After the football game. I came back to my apartment and skyped the folks at home who were all gathered for the football game as usual. It was nice. I felt like I was home for a little while. Skype is wonderful when it works.

Then I walked to Whiskey's Saloon which is just a few hundred feet from my little apartment. They were having a jam session and they have a happy hour Canadians can only dream of.


Whiskey's





Whiskey's Happy Hour!!!!!

$5.00 pitchers

We haven't had $5.00 pitchers in Canada since the 1970's




I met the waitress, Dallas





And I hung out with a bunch of other Canadians, from Ontario, who had been in PCB for a month. They were easily identified as Canadians by their use of the word....eh!

They even participated in the jam. There were a lot of talented people in the bar. The music was very good and at one point I counted 9 people on stage. For an unrehearsed jam it was excellent.








It was fun!


Then I saw this promotion. Makes me realize there is something very wrong with Canadian beer prices. We pay $42.00 for 24 beer at home at the liquor store and $5 for a beer in a bar. Here they give away a keg at Monday night football and it's all you can drink for $10.00 during Thursday night football, many places have $2 draught and some have $1 draught.




Today it is clear and cool 7C. It's actually warmer back in Shediac. Hurricane Sandy is drawing cold air down here. When it warms up a bit I am headed West to Fora-Bama.

I took my time today riding from PCB to Gulf Shores, Alabama. I waited until 10am for the Post Office to open. I had a pair of jeans with me I decided I didn't need. They take up a lot of room and are heavy. I mailed them to friends in NH where I can pick them up later. It's surprising how much more room that made on the bike. Everything is not such a tight fit now.


Waiting until 10am was a good idea anyway. That Hurricane Sandy is sucking a lot of cold air down into Florida. It was 59 degrees here today, It's warmer back home. It is beautiful and clear and sunny but very cool for Florida. I had my heated grips on for a while this morning.


Here are a few pictures from today's ride


It was windy




I wondered the significance of the flags on the beaches, here is the key




There were untold thousands of nice places on the water, Houses, Condos and everything in between

Not to from our condo on 30A

The beach is Amazing




I rode back into Alabama




I passed the Flora-Bama Bar that straddles the border but did not go in. It seemed vvery empty as thge Gulf Coast is out of season.




I found a campsite at Gulf Shores State Park $34 bucks to put up a tent. Yikes!




I made some supper, I like beans





And because the campground has Wi-Fi I checked my email while eating supper





As soon as the sun went down this beautiful full moon slid into view




So now I'm in my tent, updating my ride report.

This campground is huge I'm in site 359, there must be 500 sites. It is all built on a bayou like setting and there are several signs, don't feed the alligators. the alligators are dangerous, don't agitate the alligators and I'm in a tent. Hope fully the alligators are too cold to move around tonight.

Here is a look at the surrounding bayou




I know there are alligators here. When Angele and I passed through here four years ago we saw a big one at another campground near here

Good Night all!

Alligators are more of an ambush predator. They won't come looking for you! At least that's what I've been told and I'm sticking to it!

Excellent RR Kedgi! You're in for an amazing trip! Subscribed.

My buddy PeeKay did a similar trip last year. He had a great experience. He still needs to catch up with his RR though - you're doing a far better job at keeping up to date!

If you'd like some help/tips when you get close to Costa Rica, send me a PM.

Bonne route!

Where are you crossing into Mexico? If you make it to Scottsdale, you've got a place to stay.

Hi Dwight!

Julia from Brooklyn here. great meeting you and hangin out at the campground. subscribed to the ride report- cant wait to hear more as the trip goes on. sure it will be fantastic!! thanks for bringing me ADV fame - nice pics! anyways, im going to message you. let me know if you need any South America tips once you get down there.

Julia

If you think the beaches are pretty now, you should have seen them in the 80's, before all this beach restoration sucking up all the not so white sand off the bottom of the Gulf. Walton County and Okaloosa County still have beautiful beaches that have that real snow white sand. By the way, it does get very chilly down here, and I have seen ice around the Bay also a -8 wind chill. Note, it was already like 29F, and then 45mph wind with it. Bottom line it gets nasty down here, and the humidity will cut you to the bone. Still, not nearly as bad as WhiteHorse.

Kedgi, I see you are using the same (good) cook burner and the same (really sucks) pots and pans I do. Don't you hate those pots and pans? I mean, paper thin or what? Can't wait till I can find some better stuff.
Toad

I guess everything is relative. I drove 30a aqnd dropped into Grayton Beach. very nice indeed. I have been there before and have heard it called the nicest beach in Florida. I have some film on my GoPro but I just haven't had the opportunity to edit it yet.

db

I love my new stove, just got it!

The pots I've had forever and I have some better ones too but, the thin ones fit my panniers better. Lucky the stove simmers well. I'm metioned you to Timothy at PCB. He said give him a call.

Kedgi

Doing a ride report is a major commitment. It takes a lot of time. I have some GoPro film I'd like to post but haven't even had a chance to do that.

When you go a night or two without wi-fi. Things get really busy.

Thanks for the offer. I'll keep it in mind

Kedgi

Must be true Ray, the Gators never got me!

Here is a picture rich update, Gulf Shores, AL to Baton Rouge, LA.

It was cold, not chilly, cold when I left Gulf Shores Tuesday Morning, Hurricane Sandy was sucking a lot of cold air down here. I had heated grips on, long underwear on and I was cold. I thought it would warm up by mid-day but it never really did.

I took the Mobile Bay ferry to Dauphin Island

here are a lot of pictures, you can see the Dauphin Island Bridge in the distance in some of them.

The bay is littered with oil rigs











I had some time on my hands waiting for the ferry. Not the world's best pictures but they give you an idea of what Fort Morgan Alabama is like.








Barack Obama stood here.....me too!






The ferry

Dauphin Island Bridge in the distance





Landing on Dauphin Island







I took this picture just for Angele

This was a gas station "too far" on our previous trip to Alabama





After leaving Dauphin Island which I filmed on GoPro. (It's an amazing bridge)

I hung out and drank in a parking lot




I rode through Biloxi and filmed it on GoPro ( I will do the GoPro edits when I have a chance.)

Biloxi's beaches are amazing. I wish I had seen Biloxi before it was wiped out by Hurricane Katrina. In the 4 years that have passed since I was last in Biloxi some rebuilding has happened but there is a lot more to do, at least that's the feeling I get.

After Biloxi I made for Mendeville LA, on the invite and recommendation of another inmate Moto-Ray. He suggested I stay at the Fountainbleau, State Park on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain. Excellent suggestion on Ray's part. only $16.00 for a nice site and the park has hot showers for free.

I got this excellent view of the causeway to New Orleans. I had no idea, but Ray told me the causeway is 32 miles long!



Here is my humble abode in the park




and a view of my bike under the Spanish Moss on a Live Oak





Ray even came and picked me up and kindly offered to buy my supper. How nice is that? What fun to meet another inmate.

Here's Ray





Check out the awesome suppers.....darn it! I took a pictures of the suppers but I don't have it. A wonderful homemade burger for me, complete with deep fried pickle chips, which i'd never had before but are awesome and ray had a great looking beef po-boy sandwich.

Strange but my picture of the beer we had turned out. It was good too, locally made Abita. I'm serious. I don't get what happened to my picture of an awesome meal, courtesy of Ray.





Here's Ray and I after a great meal and a great chat. Two guys that love bikes having fun!






Ray dropped me off at the campground and I was asleep in minutes. I am using a new tent a Camp 2 I bought at Mountain Equipment Co-Op and so far i don't like it. I doesn't breath well. It was humid last night but look at the moisture on the inside of this tent. It was wetter inside than out




Today I got up early and headed West. Had a great ride until I passed probably only the second Kawasaki shop I've actually driven by since leaving home. I dropped in to but a quart of oil. The trusty KLR has burned half a quart since leaving Shediac.

Bought the oil, passed the time with the parts counter staff and left.

20 kms down the road the bike started to sputter, miss, backfire etc, something like it had done in the rain last week in NY. Today was dry and 77 and that bike had work flawlessly for days.

I doubled back to se if the Kawasaki shop could diagnose and hoipefully fix the problem.

It got so bad I actually stopped at a Honda shop that was closer but it seemed to run OK again in their parking lot so I continued on the Lightspeed Kawasaki in Gonzales, LA. I'm glad I did. I was treated like a king. They took my bike right in and went right to work on it and in less than a couple hours they had found and repaired yet another kinked and bare wire. Hopefully it's finally fixed.

Here is Lightspeed Kawasaki, on Airline Rd in Gonzales








Here are Richard, David and Kevin, L to R, Owner, Mechanic and Service Manager





Here is Kevin's road racer he justt returned from Daytona with a win on.








and here's my bike, apart again




















******

Get this!!!!

Kevin has always wanted to make contact with a Canadian who ice races so he can come to Canada and try it out. He even says he has two road race bikes and would give any ice racer who helps him out a chance to ride one of his horizon tilters, down here.

So if you have an ice racer Kevin can try, give a call to him at Lightspeed.

Thanks Lightspeed

Awesome!

Kedgi

In an incredible finish to the day, I left Lightspeed, got caught in incredible rush hour traffic and then I saw it, a Motel 6, right beside a FedEx*Office. I have been wanting to do some paperwork that is pressing at home. I needed somewhere that could print an email I had on legal sized paper and send it to Angele and there it was right beside a cheap hotel when I was ready for a break.

So in the end, it's all good, bike's fixed, (Richard even offered to help in any way he can with any future trouble I might have, so I'm hanging on to his card) paperwork I needed done is done, ride report is up to date!

Oh, and my wet tent led to this seen at the hotel

Pisses me off, it's not like it's a cheap tent






It didn't even rain and absolutely everything I had was soaked.

The girl cleaning rooms at the motel wanted to know what happened. I said my tent got wet to which she asked, "How did ya'll get wet? Are you with the fair?

No I'm not with the fair. It just seems like it sometimes.

I don't know how the trusty KLR knew to break down after 30,000 kms right in front of an excellent Kawasaki Shop. I'm just glad it did.

Tomorrow I hope to get to Texas. We'll see.

Kedgi