Last weekend and this weekend were relatively related. Fri night was 35 miles each week, last week Sat was 60 miles and this week was 65, did 10 Sunday to ice the cake. It was hot , I stayed hydrated, plenty Gatorade, Propel, Water, ice in my Camelpak. Anything that empties gets filled up at Audubon Park. The Levee is sunny and hot but Audubon Park, St Charles Ave, Uptown are all well canopied by Oak trees, The Quarter is cool because all the open doors to clubs air condition the street. They pump out beer stench , cocktail aromas, flowery cheap perfume, old spice cologne mixed with sweat, cigar and cigarette stale, and the ever popular "I've been drunk for two days body smell mixed with dried vomit. Friday nights are no problem but Saturdays are in the heat of the day, full sun, plenty gamma rays. This last Friday night I hit a thunderstorm, lightening popped all around me but I kept moving. I sought shelter behind an oak tree on canal street, didn't help, found a parking garage to hide under till the lightening slowed down to an occasional flash.. My new motto is " suicide by life" .. Hey, it's not "Splendor in the Grass " but I like it. 10:pm on Canal st in Mid city is a lonely place, keep my eyes peeled, don't stop for anything , unless I want to . Who am I kidding, I stop in Audubon and City parks at night , just part of the furniture, not out of place. It was almost dark Friday and I was speeding down the levee toward the park , I was in the Harahan area, on the right about a half mile down I saw something brownish strolling toward the woods, must be a man in brown clothes walking toward the batture, I got a little closer and I smelled a horrific odor, it was a cross between a wet dog, and a dried fish . I sped up as it approached the edge of the woods to get a good look and pull out my camera, it all became clear , it was just another Big Foot sighting . Those things are all over the place. I did get a picture of it's opening where it went into the woods, brown, tall,, walks like man, big arms, yells a lot, not unlike a gentleman I work with. I'm sorry I confused the smell , it was cigar man sitting on the side of the levee smoking his fat nasty cigars, in his white shirt , suspenders , gray slacks, puffing like a laboratory test monkey. He wears headphones but I swear I saw smoke coming out his ears. He's probably listening to "smoke gets in your eyes" by the "Platters". On Bourbon street a cop told me to walk or get off the street so I told him to take my picture and I'll leave when I'm ready, he agreed. HaHa. On Saturday,laden with drinks and still needed a snow ball at Audubon park to lower my core temperature. There's only one flavor of snowball, "cherry". anything else is uncivilized. I keep checking my legs for clamminess, once they were a little dry and clammy so I stopped and pumped down some gatorade and rested under a shady tree at St Charles and Louisiana, if you want to see the other side of life hang out there a while. City park was low on people but the lakefront was heavy. I rode around the quarter a while and enjoyed the sights, it's not as good as Walmart but there's plenty to look at. Notice how I'm jumping around ,that's how my mind was when I was riding, the heat had my brain juices boiling and those synapses were popping back and forth at record speed , my serotonin uptake was outrageous, I had high speed AADD. (Adult Attention Deficit Disorder) or ( Adult Ain't Dealing a full Deck). It' s all part of "Suicide by Life" the book s in the works.. I passed Dauphine and Ursurline and on the corner is the "Good Friends Bar". Their all good friends too. The next 2 corners held 2 of my old hangouts, I worked on Rampart and Ursuline, one was "The Roach" and the other was "Cosmos Factory", both reputable french quarter bars, hole in walls loaded with bums, hippies, drug heads, hookers, undercover cops, drunkards, and me. I'd have one drink, breathe the air and laugh a lot . One drink was all I could stay in there for. When it was time to relax I stopped at Gazebo's on Harrison Ave. Poppa Pizza was next door so we had Vodka Sours , Ground meat and onion Pizza, it was there we watched man land on the moon in 69. I barely remember the bar maid, I think she was Sue, 23 years old, had a 3 year daughter and lived in the Quarter, blonde hair , blue eyes, big smile. She shopped at the store I worked at and lived around the corner. Just think next year I'll be 18 and be able to do all this legally.. I'd get home about 11;00 or 1200 every night and did my homework in homeroom. Who didn't , oh those with good grades didn't. My Mp3 is playing "you got me going in circles" that was B6 on Frostop Juke box. Neither is there, but the song brings me back, the smells of greasy burgers sizzling on the grill, the fake orange juice, and weak root beer , the fries were great, clean your own table , sure to be some Sacred Heart girls there to flirt with. At the Natchez launch they've put water hoses in front of the fans , blowing a cool mist across the shelter, I caught some of that action. on a break, have a picture of that contraption , also have a pic of Royal Street by the Old Courthouse were we gathered for night parades and other stuff, we traveled in groups of 5 to 10 , kids from the neighborhood, kids from school, we were packed on the sidewalk in our trench coats with honeys at our side, the flambeaus swung by, you had to duck or your hair would catch fire. Floats were 2 feet away from you. A parade at night on Royal street was not what you get on Veterans during the day and if you got home early enough you could check channel 6 to see if you made it on TV. I'm listening to a blues guitar /vocal song by "Joanne Shaw Taylor" called "Blackest Day" from her album "White Sugar". She's not Lucinda Williams calibre yet but very close. She wants her heart back that she gave to her lover. It's the heat, the heat, the heat, it boils the fluids in your brain, makes me think funnier than I usually do. I can envision that Serotonin flashing across those synapses and banging into the back wall of my brain cells then bouncing back. It's called re uptake. phenomenal, the brain, just a bag of fluid and cells filled with chemicals taking direction from nothing and no one. We can use our brains but we can't control them, it can take a tangent anytime it feels like it , a friend blew his brains out in his back yard last week for no apparent reason. Known him for years , happy , normal, nice guy, good father and husband. I say it again "suicide by life". the books coming. We're in a rain spell right now , probably won't ride as much till this weekend, then get at it. One of my lifes dreams is to be a Barker on Bourbon Street. I want to wear a red suit, red stovepipe hat, red leather shoes and a big clock like Flava Flav, sunglasses in the dark and white gloves. What's all this got to do with bike riding, it's what I think about while I'm riding. First a Chupacabra, now Big foot, next week maybe Godzilla or the 50 foot woman. My bike's dirty, need to clean it and make some adjustments , lube it up , Archie Bell and the Trells ,now that's some Grammy winning stuff. Hey do the tighten up . I head to the Lee Shore. If you see me on the levee, throw a rock at me and I'll wave at you with one finger affectionately.
later
gary
ps. if you didn't read last weeks , go back it's a good one.
