I love living and riding in South Louisiana. Oh, I know we don’t have beautiful mountain vistas. After all, Driskill Mountain, the state’s highest point is only 535 feet above sea level and covered with trees. But some of the roads and highways that hug our rivers and bayous are just as twisty as many mountain byways.
The fact is, Louisiana is filled with incredible beauty from the swamps and bayous in the south to the rolling hills and hardwood forests in the northern part of the state. I have been riding this state from one corner to the other for nearly fifteen years and I have yet to see it all. As some of you know, I like to use Susan Sontag’s great quote, “I haven’t been everywhere, but it is on my list,” to describe my quest to see as much of this state as I can.
Perhaps the greatest thing about living and riding in Louisiana is that I can do it every month of the year. Many of you who live elsewhere have to store your bikes for the winter. Not here in the Bayou State. Now we do get rain, and if you are a fair weather rider you might want to sit out the occasional thunderstorms. Of course we also are occasionally visited by tropical storms and hurricanes and during those times we pretty much have other things on our mind.
Now I don’t normally ride when the temperature dips below fifty, but when that does happen it is usually only for a few days in a row and then it is warm again. This weekend high temperatures reached into the upper sixties and I donned my leathers, put on the heated grips (my hands get cold in the summer sometimes) and headed out on the highway.
I like riding when there is no particular place to go. I have written about it before. I call it helmet time — just me, the bike and the highway stretching out before me. Usually I just pick a general direction like north, south, east or west. Sometimes, I choose a particular highway or road. Each time it is different. Saturday I chose to ride west. My route took me primarily along Louisiana highways 16 and 22 through Livingston Parish into Tangipahoa and back again.

Since there was a chill in the air I decided I would take a lunch break for a little hot gumbo. One of the great things about riding in Louisiana, especially along Highway 16 and 22 is there are dozens of great places to pull off and enjoy a locally cooked meal featuring fresh caught Louisiana seafood. I found great gumbo and shrimp salad at Charlie’s Steak and Seafood House in Springfield, Louisiana.Charlie’s is one of my favorites and I have enjoyed many meals there.
In all I racked up about 200 miles and enjoyed a wonderful meal – making for another great riding day in Louisiana, thanks to our year-round riding season. I even made it home in time to put Red Ryder away and take the Lip Stick Bike for a spin around the neighborhood.
Life is good. Yes?

Tee

~ by larider on February 15, 2016.

Posted in Uncategorized