That’s probably one of the least direct routes one can fathom – driving from Louisville, Kentucky to Fort Benning, Georgia, through Beaumont, Texas. There are few reasons that would drive a man to do such a thing, in any vehicle – much less a motorcycle. One reason I’m sure anyone would assume near instantly would probably be “women” – they’d be right here. A good majority of my reason for heading back home to Texas this summer was in fact a woman, my gorgeous girlfriend Amanda. Naturally, I also wanted to see my family, and as luck would have it they just so happen to be in the same place. Yay.

<3

On to the riding bit. My previous post covers the leg from Louisville to Houston pretty well, so there’s little sense rehashing that. I rested all day on Monday, not really doing anything at all. I sent my Dad on a mission to buy Garmin Mapsource City Select v7 – so I could build more awesome routes for my Garmin GPSmap 60Cx, and that’s about it. Tuesday morning rolled around, and I loaded the SV up and headed for my Aunt’s house in Port Arthur. I didn’t opt for any interesting routes to get there I just got in the HOV lane on I-10 in Houston, and headed east. I broke off of I-10 in Winnie and took HWY 73 into Port Arthur.

When I got there, I had a little chat with my Aunt Cheryl and got settled in, unpacked, and showered. I spent pretty much the rest of Tuesday with Amanda and her beautiful baby girl Madeline. Purty nifty day indeed, later on she got to meet some of my family – my parents, my brother and youngest sister, my Aunt Cheryl and Uncle Ricky, and my grandparents on my Dad’s side (Nana and Papa Doc.)

Wednesday I got up and went fishing with my Uncle Juan, my Mom, and my brother. Took a bunch of photos, and caught a fish. To be fair we caught a bunch… just not all the way. Those fiesty bastards were snapping lines left and right – usually just as we got them up to the boat. Talk about frustrating. When the fishing was all said and done we got showered and had some yummy spaghetti at my Papa Doc’s house. Amanda came to visit at my Aunt’s house and got to see how much my family loves little babies, and how much I suck at pool.

Fishing the Sabine Pass

Thursday was time for me to leave – I’d planned on being gone by noon, but that didn’t exactly happen. I spent many hours with Amanda, and before I got out of Beaumont stopped in at my Aunt Silvia’s house to visit for a few minutes and say howdy to my cousins. I finally left Beaumont around 1640hrs and set my GPS to get me back to Ft. Benning. HWY 12 through Texas and Louisiana was on the menu, only HWY 12 is closed to one lane in a few places. That gave me the wonderful opportunity to sit on asphalt, in black leather, at a complete standstill.

By around 2200hrs I was nearing St. Francisville, Louisiana – and the mosquitoes were getting ridiculous. By ridiculous, I mean I could not see out of my helmet anymore, and I’d cleaned it at least 3 times between Baton Rouge and St. Francisville. I was not amused, or in the mood to keep riding so I found the only hotel in St. Francisville, got a room, and passed out for the night. At 0830 the next morning, I rolled out on my way back the Home of the Infantry.

Somewhere in Alabama, I won’t lie and say I remember where – my bike let out an odd wobble as my chain slipped a full inch of slack out. I needed gas anyway, so I pulled into a BP station in Jackson, Alabama where I got to tighten my now rattling chain before moving out again. I managed to make it to Ft. Benning in one piece, and as my maintenence post says – my SV isn’t going anywhere until I do a tune up, and replace my chain and sprockets. My parts are all on the way though, so hopefully I’m riding again by the weekend.