Day 6...turn left and go East

 Day 6…Time to Go East

As I drove away from Mark and Laura’s house this morning I was more than a little humbled to have been treated so much like one of the family.  I decided to make today’s theme song, “You’ve Got A Friend”  You've Got A Friend...

How to describe today’s ride….hmmmmm.

Hot.  Oh my goodness HOT!  Humid.  There should be a law against humidity coupled with heat like that.  I should talk to President Obama about this.  Forget about gun laws…that is too divisive.  Instead let’s have a law we can all get behind…no more 95 degrees with 95% humidity!

 

I rode my BMW K1200LT to Galveston, along Seawall Blvd?, and ended up at the ferry that goes from Galveston to Port Bolivar.  That was OK.  But the line to get on the ferry was backed up and I played the creep forward 3 feet at a time game for about a half mile.  Had it been cooler or less humid it would have been fine…but by the time I got onto the ferry I was TOASTED!   Luckily the ferry has an air conditioned upper deck and I stood under the vents for a lot of the trip.

I wanted to stay off the interstate highways as much as possible, and I managed to stay off most of the way to Baton Rouge (where I type this).  Louisiana, or at least the portion I drove through is mostly very nice.  I suppose coastal living is either upscale or swept away by hurricanes and therefore a lot of the homes along the roads I drove were really nice.   There was a fair bit of sun-faded businesses and rusty tin roofs, but by and large it was an attractive drive although it does lack vertical relief. 

I saw fields of what must be rice, some spindly corn, and a crop of something that might have been beans or peanuts…it was hard to tell.  Cattle egrets, with their easily seen white plumage, are ubiquitous in the farm country.  Coastal Louisiana is wet.  Like under water wet.  I was surprised to see LONG stretches of highway built on pilings over bayous that probably held alligators as long as an ’88 Buick.

Unfortunately I had to do too much Interstate Highway driving…that close to the ocean there are too many rivers, bayous, and the concomitant critters (snakes, gators, skeeters, etc.) to put very many roads that parallel each other.  I-10 just inside Louisiana is just one step down from Indianapolis or Datona for speedway driving.  People were driving 90+ and the slow lane was going 75.

I pulled into Baton Rouge about 6PM and drove straight to the local BMW service center.  I wanted to make sure I could find it tomorrow morning.  I have an appointment to get the 12,000 mile service first thing tomorrow and it could take most of the day.

I may end up staying another full day here while I let my foot heal up a bit.   I left home with 3 stitches in my right foot from having a surgical screw removed.  My doctor looked at me like I was crazy when I told him I’d just remove them myself.  Well, today I think I may have a little infection going on and I don’t want to lose any toes…so I’ll see if I can get some antibiotics tomorrow and keep the foot elevated as much as possible.  I guess I have no one to blame but myself since I wouldn't wait for a few days before I started the trip.