Classic Motorcycle: 12/03/09

It's good to be on the road, even for a little while. The trees, the signs, the power lines, the lazy dashes flying by. After a week in a chair, it's nice to be going somewhere.

Cha Cha, my dietitian, had Taco Bell on the brain. After initial grumblings, I relented. She did the final leg of the ride with bags Taco Bell in either arm, food for five. When we arrived I was off the bike in an instant, filling a glass with some Woodenhead Syrah[1] I'd craftily sent ahead by car, and downing tacos with "fire" sauce.

[1] Not a match for their incredible Pinots, but a worthwhile sibling, and excellent with Taco Bell

I got an early-ish start. I'd found a place for breakfast on the internet that showed promise, but once I started moving it felt too good to stop. Finally I worked out of the LaFayette traffic and bummed around back roads heading south to the coast.

Houses here are strange. Often roofs are extremely tall. A one story ranch will sometimes have a roof that comes up at 45 degrees and rises two stories. There are no signs of windows or dormers or anything. It's as though it has a cathedral attic. I suspect this must relate to hurricane resistance, although it seems like such a roof would catch the force of a lot of wind. Often the houses have a basic 50s ranch appearance, with a few small columns near the front entrance. Almost all are new, even far out from the coast. This could be just growth but I wonder if Hurrican Rita brought damage that far inland.

As I move down to the coast houses are nearly always on stilts, and are all new looking, bright siding and new metal roofs. Much of the area along the road is lined with man-made small canals, all of which seem to lead out towards the ocean miles away. Towns are few, most of the road is just a line through the wet plains.

In Grand Chenier and Cameron, there are some lots with bare slabs, and a few older houses, with chunks missing and signs of stalled repairs. Mostly though it's new. These towns were obliterated from Rita. Things are generally cleaned up, although at one point I passed a minivan, marooned fifty feet off in the weeds.

There are oil rigs and shrimp boats in the distance, lots of truck traffic on the road. People are busy. Taking a ferry I get to Holly Beach, a completely exposed beach town with more stilt houses. I'm finally looking out directly over the ocean. There appear to be small sandy lots, some with RVs. There is a grid of streets but few structures. The whole thing doesn't make sense until I see the photo of what this place was like before Rita.

I press onward and into Texas things start to turn industrial, large scale. I'm well inland before I find somewhere to eat - some excellent pulled pork at a roadside trailer. I'm confused about the south. I can't find anywhere to eat. It might be that some of these small towns don't have a formal restaurant; perhaps it's just that on friday and saturday a certain trailer opens its doors, or some other improptu thing that a visitor might just fly right by.

The way the bayou transitions into inland Texas is a bit scattered. Once everything dries out a little, there are dense forests, plains, and everything in between. I'm well into the heat now, when I stop I gulp a liter of gatorade or unsweetened iced tea or water in minutes (I always have a taste for exactly one of those, so I go with it).

I end up in Bryan, an older Texas town with a classic downtown that seems very healthy. Still it seems empty. Throughout this trip, everything has seemed empty. Big restaurants with only two tables filled, towns that look clean and kept with little traffic. I'm used to towns with a modest cafe or burger joint, but here it seems I'm either going through poor working towns, off the truck routes, that can't support any restaurant, or bigger places in towns trying to go for the tourist buck, which doesn't seem to be coming. I can only guess the recession is keeping residents at home and tourists away. Constantly things seem not just overbuilt, but recently overbuilt.

A "gourmet" restaurant with good reviews shows promise but only serves dinner on the weekends. I shuffle over to a mexican place. It's BYOB; I have no B. The place is big and completely empty. It looks decades old, the walls are lined with signed photos and other assorted garage sale items. I ask if anywhere nearby has beer to sell and the owner can't think of any; he is friendly, and offers me one for free with dinner.

The food is not very good.

i think the more fitting name for it is summertime blues after the song by blue cheer cause there aint no cure for this addiction man

my vintage bike i call frankenstein which i got the idea from the song by edgar winter
its a 1977 yamaha it250 trail bike pretty much brand new still got the original tires on it and they are still holding up strong man only 1769 miles on it when i took this photo and i still have the owners manual and sales reciept and the original tool kit and pouch it mite as well be 77 right now
this bikes a beast so powerful you can shift with no problems without clutching
man they dont make them like this no more shit todays too light made i mean this things heavy man its more like a raod bike with dirt tires its so heavy

am i the only one who hates modern bike design and misses they way these bikes were made back then?

plus these old bikes were tuff man i cant recall how many times if turned this one over and it kept on running lol still got the scar too

clearly you can see the vintage plastic tank and fenders have faded out alot any one know a way to restore their sky blue colors without sanding or painting?

P.S i say its vintage cause the 70s seemed to be a good decade for dirtbikes and motorcycles in general

we finally got it runing on feburary 25th only had to spend around 100 bucks on it for new front wheel bearings a front break cable and a throttle cable not bad to get a bike that old up and running in time for spring to get som great photos from the many trails around here

i find it funny my neighbor got a new bike and it wont run right at all and this think 32 years old and it runs as good as it did the day my dad bought it

well today march 3 the rear brake shoes fell apart and locked up the wheel so gotta buy new ones and probaaly new front ones and replace them to just to be safe so toatal cost of gettin running will be around 150 which is still damn good

well its time for a new back tire so thats going to raise the restore cost a bit lol the only knnobys left on it is the ones you see on the side i wore them off 5 years back when i rode it on the gravel road alot that summer before the throttle cable ever broke

man today on april 22nd 2009 i finally got to take it up a dirt trail man this bikes got all the power youll ever need its climb steep trails today that i never thought it could climb and man what a smooth ride it is the shocks are great i went over the rockyest part i could find and it helded it like it wasnt even there

i got a question anyone know what the yamahop is all about?

well it finally turned over to 2000 miles on april 27th i still say thats nothing for a bike as old as it is man

i once heard the guy that works at meds cycle shop say bikes were made better back then cause people took pride in their work and stuff wasnt just a number back then like it is today and that back then they were made tuffer with bigger piston rings and stuff unblike todays bikes which are mass produced to make a quick buck and i couldnt agree more with him man things were made better back then compaired to modern crap i misss the days whewn cars were cars and didnt have shit like gps and a dvd player in the back for the kids i misss the days of carburetors BRING BACK THE CARBS MAN!!! at least then people could fix there own cars again
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