2009 April 26th: I was rudely awakened this morning by the sound of Revelly playing from the ship that was two blocks away. I chose this hotel because it was cheap and it was close to the ship. I didn’t know that they were going to play Revelly loud enough to wake the city at the crack of dawn.
I got up and tried the internet, and it worked. I uploaded the entry for the blog from the night before and was able to finish uploading pictures to home. I also checked my email and fixed some issues on the GPS program. It was nice being up so early.
I got ready and checked with the lady at the desk to see if I could stash the luggage until I got back from my visit on the ship. The lady let me put everything in their laundry room and so I did.
I walked over to the USS Lexington Museum on the Bay, a short two block walk. I only had to wait a couple of minutes for them to open as I was just barely early.
There was a lot of activity going on and there must have been nearly a thousand boy scouts running around. Since the ship offers overnight sleepovers for large groups, I figured that's what was going on.
I started my self guided tour and went up to the flight deck first. The second tour went to the island or bridge. The third and fourth tour went below decks to the galley, quarters and other places. I found all of this very interesting. The last thing was a movie in the theater. I did all of the tours and the movie and was finished up before noon.
I walked back the hotel and got changed for riding and then I packed up the bike and headed out. I stopped for gas first and noticed that the bike needed oil, so I bought a quart and put in enough to bring it to the top of the sight window. I had oiled the chain the night before so I was ready to go.
I headed north east toward Houston, TX and I had to stop for gas before I got there.
I filled up about 40 miles south of Houston, and rode all the way through and beyond. I was looking for an RV park to camp for the night. The GPS had led me astray again. This time I followed it to a RV park and ended up in a residential neighborhood. The next one didn’t even have a driveway and the third time, it was someone’s house. I actually stopped because there was several RV’s park there.
After talking to these people, I found out that the guy next door owned a RV park just up the road, so I went next door to find out more about it. It turned out that they were right and he told me to go down there and pitch my tent any where I wanted. The guy was very nice and wouldn’t accept any money for the site. Thank You, Rodney. The other thing was that I was in Louisiana and I didn’t even know it. I had crossed a bridge a ways back which put me across the border.
I talked to several people that have been staying here and they told me that most of them are working up the road rebuilding some large facility. This area has been hit by several storms and there are large piles of debris in the front yard of most of the properties. The one place I stopped to ask about the RV Park, their RV was sitting on the slab where the house used to sit. They lost their whole house.
One of the things that I noticed today while riding was that there seemed to be a lot of homes up on stilts or pilings to put the house up high enough to avoid flood damage.
Riding today was difficult because it was very windy, but as I was riding, it occurred to me that, riding at an angle like I was, was wearing the sides of my tires and not the center. This is making the tires last longer.
Not only did I luck out with a free campsite, I was also able to get an extension cord from one of the guys here and someone has a wireless router working, so I have internet as well. Life is good, especially when you least expect it.
Now I just need to find some of this great Cajun food people keep telling me about.