“Down in Louisiana, where the alligators grow … “ – or so the lines from Poke Salad Annie go. We finally found a location to have the night out on a swamp, alligators ‘n all. The hut, on stilts to keep it above the water provides much needed protection from the feisty mosquitoes that take […]

We were following a local on a honda, guiding us along a back road beside the levees of the Mississippi, past sugar cane fields. There plumb in the middle of the road was a big turtle waiting to be saved. I stopped and before long we were all admiring the baggy grandmother who didn’t pull […]

Vicksburg ,where General Grant finally got the Rebels to surrender in 1865, was a parkland of history and memorials to the Civil War. The locals still feel the loss and there are often a few comments that let you know that the wounds are not healed. After the history we had a great steak at […]

We’re on a balcony perched over the Mississippi looking across the river into Louisiana, drinking Bud and watching the barges ply their way up the Great River. Man they’re long – a 100 metres at least. As the sun sets over the Louisianna delta and our Ipod belts out Delta Blues it is hard to […]

We’ve just come off the Natchez Trace Parkway, a 500 mile road that follows the old footpath that runs from Nashville Tennessee all the way down to Natchez, just up from the mouth of the Mississippi. It was initially a track for the Choktow Indian and then became the byway for the traders who’d ride […]

This is a museum for petrol heads. Basicly a private establishment (thanks George Barber) with more than 700 bikes and a Lotus collection to die for as well as Porsches for miles. You could even do a training session in driving the Porsches around the track, where they had a recent “super bike ” meet. […]

It’s difficult to call them anything but play-farms really. The larger ones have silos where they store the cattle food imported from the huge grain farms out West to feed their housed cattle. Imagine the expense of that! No wonder the US farm subsidies are so high, protecting these lifestyle farmers. That the US President […]

Mary Baird , Calvary Residential Home, Centre Street, Invercargill, New Zealand. Make her day special My Mum Mary is turning 94 and as I won’t be there on May 17th please send her a card. How would you like it if your daughter went away on her motor-bike and didn’t come to the party? I’ll […]

Yesterday our first day off the bikes since we started. We were to meet in the lobby at 7am, so some day off (you might say). A day off means you get to wear fresh socks around here. So into the public transport system to discover hardly anyone, in the car-filled city, uses it. We […]

One of the boys was meant to write about this day when they put on possom or coon hats and romped around the land that Davy lived on and the house he was born in. The “Davy Crockett” song was sung and we marvelled at how much this boy who was “born on a mountaintop […]