Sunday, May 6, 2012

Day of rest

I am staying in Morganza today and not riding. My body wanted some time off so I am sitting around at the RV park in Morganza Louisiana. There are no cafes or restaurants or hotels in town. Not much to do at all. I have been talking with the locals over at the corner store and here in the park. Last night I was invited over for dinner by a Father and Son team that is here fishing for a couple of days. The son cooked up a bunch of the catfish they caught and threw in some onion rings, deviled eggs, beans, potato salad and green salad for us to eat. It was a great meal and I enjoyed their company. They were soft spoken and polite as are most of the people around here. They were also generous and interested in my ride and adventures. We talked as we ate and then I had to go to sleep after my hundred mile ride yesterday. Thundershowers were moving in as I went to bed in my tent but other than some thunder and lightning there was not much to the storm except a few drops of rain. Some of my feedback has been that I am moving too fast and not doing enough tourist type things as I travel. Like how could I just go so close to Baton Rouge or New Orleans and not go into town for a visit. Well I am not very interested in tourist things and I have already visited most of the tourist things already in previous visits plus it costs a lot of money to do things in big cities. I prefer to hang out in the tiny burgs like here in Morganza. The people are real people. They tend to be friendly and helpful. They are curious about me and why I would want to hang out in the town that they find so boring but to me it is about meeting the people not seeing the things like bridges or famous buildings. I have seen plenty of famous things in my life and they no longer impress me much. We talked about Obama and politics, the local economy, what they do on a daily basis and things like that. There is no confrontational arguing about the politics whether I agree or not I still want to know their opinion and why they hold that position. I do not find it boring. I like people. All kinds of people as long as they are basically good people. I find most people are in that class. I have met very few jerks or bad people on this trip. That renews my faith in this country. The people I meet are all basically very good generous helpful people. There seems to be a gap between that image and what the government thinks and does. I don't really understand why the government is so different from the people I meet on the street. I guess it might be because the government does not really represent the people on the street but rather some type of "upper" class of people. But such is life... I have caught up on all my computer stuff, done my laundry and straightened up my belongings. I also tried to wash off the smell of piss that is on my tent from a dog pissing on it back in La Grange TX. It hasn't been too smelly until last night when it was pretty strong smelling. I think the heat and humidity here are contributing to the increased smell. I again washed the tent off with soap and rinsed it well and am letting it bake in the hot sun today to see if it smells better tonight. If it gets any more pissy smelling I might have to get a different tent. I hope not because I don't have the cash for a new tent. Tomorrow I am riding across the Mississippi River and over to the border of Mississippi State. I am not sure if I will sleep in Louisiana or Mississippi tomorrow. Depends on how I feel once I hit the road. I am riding right on past Baton Rouge and New Orleans though for some more small villages along my way. Enjoy life while you still are able.