Day 13 Port Arthur - New Orleans (310 miles)

Well, we did it!! We made it to New orleans, approx 3100 miles from San Francisco, without getting arrested, stopped for speeding, crashing (apart from Nutting's small incident) or breaking down. The final leg, the 13th day (eeek), took us via the southern state of Louisiana and close to the coast of the Gulf of Mexico through the swamps. Amazing how the scenery changes over the last few days. Suddenly boths sides of the interstate had trees rather then desert and there were plenty of bridges everywhere. We put the hammer down a little this morning, as long as Nutting was in front. When I take the lead, Trigger seems to develop a lethargy and drops back in a sulk. It's almost as if Nutting doesn't like to adopt the huskey position! Coincidence? I'll leave that up to you.

Given that we've now left Texas, Nutting was suffering from cowboy withdrawal syndrome. I'm hoping that a few drinks on Bourbon Street will put paid to that long face. Maybe he should've had a chicken and sausage gumbo for lunch at A Bears instead of his southern fried chicken. For the uninitiated, a gumbo (as explained to us by our waitress Honey) is like a stew but you eat it with a spoon rather than a fork as it's more like a soup than a stew. Anyway it was delicious and kept me going as the temperature dropped on the road. In fact as a side note, quite soon Europe will soon be taking delivery of a new eating implement which is a spoon with prongs at the top like a fork at the end for all sorts of culinary occassions. It's inspiringly called a Spork. Watch out, it's coming!!

So, New Orleans. The drive in gave us the sense of style and sophistication which was achieved in 20 minutes that the rest of the trip has been severely lacking. In fact, the architecture and atmosphere is almost European. It really is as beautiful as I had imagined, even if I only saw glimpses of it past my travelling partner's huge cowboy kit bags strapped to every inch of his bike. So, we arrived at the hotel, exhausted but happy. It has been an amazing trip with 2 very good friends and a lot of happy memories and a few less happy ones, Pismo beach and Fort Stockton spring to mind. Once in a life time? Probably. Would I ever consider doing something similar again? Maybe, but I think I'd plan it differently with my family's permission first of course. Anyway, I'm off for a well deserved beer with Roy Rogers and if anyone is interested, I'll do a wrap up tomorrow. Thanks listeners for sharing the journey and I hope you've enjoyed the trip as much as we did!! See you all soon and please add any comments or questions you may have about the blog, all are welcome, really!! Have a lovely Thursday and from Roy Rogers, Trigger and myself.