AZ Day 10 - A Day of Travel....

Late. Tired. Bushed. Beat.

My buddy Joe talked me out of an early start, accurately pointing out that I would only catch the worst of San Antonio and Houston traffic. And then I delayed it further by farting around the resort. My bad.

In my defense breakfast was a bit late due to some drama we fortunately missed yesterday while out riding the Hill Country. Turns the out the tempermental chef was fired after getting into a shouting match with the manager. Too bad as he was one helluva cook.



The road out of the Escondida was one of the nicest I've ridden in the Hill Country and is reason enough to visit Kerrville, TX, from the south.

Today's journey was little more than a slog down Interstate 10 from Kerrville, TX, to Baton Rouge, LA, 540 miles of tortuous pavement.

On my way out of Texas I was getting stressed by the constant drone of the road and traffic. Further delayed by construction traffic in Houston I got into a routine of taking short breaks every 75 or 80 miles to break the monotony and fatigue. Somewhere along the Louisiana border I stopped for a late lunch/early dinner at a burger joint and took a long, refreshing break.

What a burger it was!

Arriving in Louisiana I finally felt as if the end was near.

After hours upon hours on the road everything begins to blur together into a single vision of traffic and more traffic.



I had two close encounters with dangerous motorist today. A Cadillac SUV was weaving through traffic in Houston...or was it Lake Charles. Hell, they all seem to blur together. A semi pulled in front of me just as I was starting to pass it. Fortunately I'd recently taken a break and was fresh. As soon as I saw him begin to change lanes I was able to roll off the throttle and brake heavily.

One safety technique is to alway find a way out of a situation before committing to it. That usually means finding an alternate route forward, often another lane or shoulder of the road. However, due to construction much of I-10 had no shoulder and, at times, was only two lanes wide. So, in this case my route to safety was backwards. Before committing to my pass I made sure there were no vehicles behind me so I was able to hit the brakes hard and escape the truck. All I can say is I'm damn glad I held out and purchased anti-lock brakes on the Wing!

To break the monotony I played with the camera for a while.

Today's roadkill count rises to 4,327, owing largely to the 4,323 Love Bugs I killed. I'm pretty sure there's now officially more bug guts than windshield left on the Wing.

Tomorrow holds the promise of New Orleans. With a little luck I'll meet up with a buddy from Slidell, LA, after riding through the city. Hopefully the traffic will be a bit better...it sure as hell can't be worse!