Sunday, August 17, 2003
Made it to New Orleans, after a frustrating day involving two punctures and a broken pump. I ended up riding into the French Quarter with a big foot pump strapped to the rack on the bike.
Very glad to be done – 45 days or so on the road, 2100 miles. You’re very vulnerable out there all day, and the extended stress of finding a new places to stay, new places to eat, and working out the next day’s route was beginning to get to me.
New Orleans was sultry and decadent and louche, and also beautiful and beguiling. I don’t think I could live there, but riding up and down St Charles Ave in the streetcar got to be a great habit. Good food and music too – crammed into the sweaty Preservation Hall off Bourbon Street for some wailing, straight ahead jazz was fantastic. The funeral dirge version of Just A Closer Walk With Thee ruled.
No great conclusions from the trip have bubbled to the surface yet. Unlike the first book, I’ve got to do a lot of reading and research now before I can really get stuck into the writing (last time, I had most of that done). Glad to be back in a house, and glad not to have to ride the bike every day.
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