Helinox Archives - Iron Roamer

Natchez to Baton Rouge

I left Natchez to head to Baton Rouge. Baton Rouge had suffered a lot of flooding recently and I was wondering what it would be like there. The President had visited the area just a few days earlier.

Natchez

I had been to Natchez before and loved the history of the city. It one tine it was ruled by the Spanish and I passed the old Spanish Governor’s mansion.

In the 1850s, half of the millionaires in the US lived there. The result was a lot of mansions, which remained untouched during the civil war.

As I rode out of Natchez I passed many of these. I managed to get up the driveway of the Dunleith Mansion.

According to Wikipedia, the 12 room main house sits on 40 acres along with several outbuildings including a carriage house, a dairy barn, a poultry house, and a three story brick courtyard building that historically would have housed the kitchen, laundry and slave quarters. The main house has a Greek revival design and includes 26 Tuscan columns built of brick and stucco. There are porches around the entire building on the first and second floor. The first floor includes windows similar to those in Monticello which would roll up to become doorways. The 1957 film, Raintree County was partly filmed at Dunleith, as was a portion of the 1974 version of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn by Columbia Pictures, and an episode of Promised Land for CBS television in 1998.

After leaving Natchez the ride was rather non eventful.

Baton Rouge

I arrived in Baton Rouge early. It was hot! The only sign of flood damage I saw were advertising offering assistance to flood victims.

I arrived at the Motel 6 in Port Allen that I booked at around noon. They wouldn’t let me check in until 3 pm. This was the first time I have ran into this. Usually if a room is available and clean they will allow early check in. Not this time.

I passed the time by doing laundry, watching others being told they have to wait until 3 pm., and setting up my Helinox one chair in the shade to read.

By 3 pm I got my room overlooking an adult emporium and the Crazy Horse Cabaret. I had to cover my buddy’s eyes to he wouldn’t get corrupted.

Route for September 2, 2016

Great River Road Iowa Illinois Missouri

YAY! Blue sky as I ride the Great River Road through Iowa, Illinois and Missouri.

It was SOOOOO nice to wake up to blue sky. I packed my bike anticipating a long day as it was just over 500 km to St. Louis from Davenport.

The Great River Road today was a mixture of freeway away from the Mississippi River and meandering asphalt along side it.

I didn’t really mind the freeway as I had time to make in a long day.

Burlington

My first stop of the day was McDonald’s in Burlington, Iowa, for some breakfast.

As I went to get something to eat, three older gentleman (my age ha ha ha) struck up a conversation with me. When they found out I was off to Argentina, I got a question I get often – isn’t it dangerous “over there?” “What about the bandits in Mexico?”

The question came again when they learned that I had lived in Namibia and had traveled throughout Africa. “Aren’t you worried about the cannibal tribes?”

I have found that no matter where you go, the danger is always, “over there.” This is quite natural, I think, to fear the unknown or the other competing “tribe” from our ancestral days. I remember being in Africa and being asked about the danger in the United States due to all the guns.

From my experience living for a bit in Namibia and Macedonia, and traveling a lot through Africa and China, everyday people like you and I just want to fall in love, provide for their family, be productive, and enjoy some laughs with friends. We are more alike than dislike. We find this out when we get to know each other. It is only spoiled by some criminals and despot leaders.

I explained this and suggested I was in just as much danger from bandits in the bad parts of nearby St. Louis.

I have had stuff stolen in Calgary, Venice, Nairobi and Windhoek. Who knows if bandits will get me in St. Louis or Rio.

Anyways … we had a good conversation and I appreciated their support and enthusiasm for my adventure. They were even attempting to contact the local paper to do an article about me. A bit embarrassing since I really haven’t done anything.

On the way out a women approached me with the same questions. She also wanted to go for a ride as she has always enjoyed motorcycles. Sorry, my luggage takes up my passenger seat.

Taco Bell

My next stop was Taco Bell. Now, Meal Deal D at Taco Time is one of my staples ha ha ha. All this for $2.79! On a limited budget in the expensive United States, meals like this are a go to.

KOA St. Louis

After a long day I made it to the KOA.

Dinner at Denny’s for a better meal. A swim. Watch Rules of Engagement on my computer. Bed.

Route for August 21, 2016

Great River Road

I decided that I wanted to ride the Great River Road from the headwaters of the Mississippi River at Itasca State Park, to where it end in New Orleans. This would require a loop up to Itasca State Park and the start of the Mississippi River.

As I left I was crabby 🙁 The main reason was because I had to pack up a wet tent and gear. Just not a fun way to start the day.

The day did get better as it got hotter and hotter as I made my way to Itasca State Park.

Mississippi Headwaters

The Mississippi River meanders south from Itasca State Park for for 2,320 miles (3,730 km) to the Mississippi River Delta at New Orleans before emptying into the Gulf of Mexico. It is one of the world’s great rivers, and especially so in North America.

The Mississippi Headwaters is located in Itasca State Park. It cost $5 for the day to enter the park. But I had to do it. The headwaters was a milestone for the start of my Great River Road ride.

Also it would be pretty cool to see. I wasn’t the only one who thought so. The place was packed with people walking across the stones that mark the start of the great river.

The Mississippi starts it path to the Gulf of Mexico.

And I start my ride following it along the Great River Road.

Great River Road

The Great River Road National Scenic Byway follows the course of the Mississippi River for 3,000 miles from northern Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico. The scenic route passes through 10 states and hundreds of river towns.

The Great River Road is arguably the longest and most important scenic byway in America. The drive takes about 36 hours of straight driving to travel from north to south along the byway. Most people take four to 10 days to make the journey. Me? I will take as long as it takes ha ha. I also want to take a few detours to visit things along the way.

But the first step along the way is to go to the KOA at Bemidji for the night.

Route for August 17, 2016

Dawson City

The day started out pretty awesome in Dawson City. It was sunny, was chatting with the housekeeper as I sat out on The Bunkhouse veranda doing my daily journals, and had plans to tour Dawson City and in the evening see Diamond Tooth Gerties. Then it happened.

Website Crash

I finished the Top of the World daily journal and noticed that not all of it was posting to my website. I actually still have that problem. It appeared that there wasn’t enough upload room to get it to my website. The internet did not give me advice I was comfortable with to rectify the problem. So I contacted my former website instructor. He gave me the coding for a php.ini file to rectify the problem. As I was tinkering with that, somehow, still don’t know how, I deleted the wp-content file. This crashed my website.

As I recognized what happened a sinking feeling descended on me. With the help of my instructor I worked with Go Daddy to get it back. Go Daddy has excellent service. Of course this was going to cost me. At the same time I got them to do automatic backups. On the road it just isn’t possible to find reliable internet to do a complete backup, including the wp-content folder.

In any case, getting the backup wp-content was going to take a while.

Dawson City History

I had been told that a must see was Diamond Tooth Gerties and the Snake Pit bar at the Westminster Hotel.

What I really like though was touring the city and reading the plaques on buildings describing the history of them. A really cool display is put on by Parks Canada detailing the history of Dawson City. Love the old photos and then seeing the actual building right in front of you!

Snake Pit

The Snake Pit bar is an ecclectic place built in 1898 that I was told is where the locals hang out. The decor consists of old kitchen tables, local memorabilia, jokes tacked to the wall, a big canoe, paintings of local legends, and stuffed wild animals. The Snake Pit basically serves beer. although you can order chips and hot dogs.

I was there at dinner time and wasn’t many people there. The bartender had lived in Mexico though. So I got some tips from her.

From there I went to Diamond Tooth Gerties.

Diamond Tooth Gerties

Diamond Tooth Gerties is a casino with a stage show. They have three shows each night with each show becoming more “risque,” at least that is what they advertise. I planned on going to the later show but ended up at the first show. The first show amounted to a cutesy show for white haired people on bus tours. To be honest I was bored by it. But then again, I was still discouraged from crashing my website. Perhaps if I was with someone I would have enjoyed it more. The later show might have been more entertaining. Having said that, a lot of people seemed to enjoy it. So probably just me.

The casino was understandably quite small and something that doesn’t interest me much.

With that I walked back to The Bunkhouse hoping tomorrow my website would be back up.

Route for July 26, 2016 – Dawson City

Cache Creek Camping

After a long ride yesterday I decided to make today a short one. I found what looked like a great campsite in Cache Creek for only $20. That would go a little way to make up for my expensive hotel faux paux.

Cache Creek is only a couple hour ride from Kamloops and a beautiful ride with lots of amazing vistas.