Lafayette LA - Not Quite New Orleans

Well, I write to you now from Lafayette, Louisiana. I was supposed to be in New Orleans tonight but weather and time prevented me from making it.

I started the day at Iftikhar and Rabia's house and I was set to leave at 10 am but Iftikhar, knowing my weaknesses, got me to stay for another half hour to watch the first 30 minutes of Meet the Press. Anyway, I got started on the road at 10:30 and it was drizzling out, just barely raining.

I knew when I started this trip that I didn't have any rain gear but I also knew that it would not rain on me until after Austin. When people would ask me what I would do about rain I would tell them "it's not going to rain until after Austin and I'll take care of it there" - so I did. I bought some rain pants in Austin and I figured my motorcycle jacket would take care of me above the waist. That was kind of true.

I pulled over within the first 10 miles of leaving this morning to put on those rain pants and get ready for a rainy day. It didn't rain for another hour or so. For the better half of the day, I would only put on my rain gear after driving in the rain for long enough to be completely wet and then when I would finally breakdown and put it on, it would stop raining.

It wasn't bad through Texas. I kept seeing ominous clouds that I knew better than to take a picture of, because it wouldn't turn out anyway. I've gotten very good at spotting rain clouds from far away. I haven't yet figured out how to get the highway in front of me to redirect itself away from said rain clouds, but I'm working on it. I gleaned some knowledge from the weather channel this morning and I learned that the weather I was getting was blowing in from the gulf, it was blowing north. So I avoided the gulf as long as possible, I took backroads so I would stay well north of Houston and everything was great.

As I approached the Louisiana boarder, things got dicey. I was keeping steady on my eastward bearing but the Gulf of Mexico was cutting north to get closer to me and, as a result, so were the rain showers. As I got close to the Louisiana border, I was about 50 miles from the coast and it started raining. It would rain on and off for my entire trip across half of Louisiana. I debated with myself if I would make it to New Orleans from the moment I crossed the state line.

You can see when you are about to get rained on. It doesn't happen out of no where, you can see it because you drive under a dark cloud and then it starts to rain. This feeling overtook me as I was driving over the tall bridge that is the western gateway to Lake Charles, on the downslope of the bridge it started to rain on me. It was rather unpleasant and caused me to stop at the next underpass and review my option, which were few.

As the day went on and I got more understanding of how the rain works, I learned that any safety concerns about the motorcycle and the rain were not anything in comparison to the uncomfortable feeling of being wet all over and forcibly driving yourself into more uncomfortable wetness. I take extra caution when driving in wet conditions but, besides slowing down a bit, there isn't much you can do and judging from the 2 motorcycles that blew passed me on the highway, it would appear you can drive faster than me and turn out alright.

Finally around 6pm I realized that I wasn't going to make it, I found a Wendy's and drug my water-logged self in and started making arrangements over a single combo. I was able to cancel my room in New Orleans without penalty and I actually found another hotel room in Lafayette, about 25 miles down the road, for the same price (still milking the pseudo-employee discount, of course) and by the time I finished with my meal, it was done raining, of course.

So, tomorrow, I have to wake up early and get on the road to Atlanta. It's another 600 mile day tomorrow but this time I'll be starting early. I am hoping the skies are clear tomorrow so I can take the drive through New Orleans and some parts closer to the coast (away from the highway) and perhaps see some of what has been done (or hasn't) over the last 10 months since Katrina.