21.02.2012, New Orleans "Mardi Gras" (Louisiana): At sunrise we start riding in Baton Rouge, Mark joins us for the first kilometers. It is a long way – 150 km – to New Orleans. Today we are lucky with the wind as it blows from behind. Big roads lead through ugly industrial areas before we finally find a cycle path along the Mississippi River that goes right into New Orleans. Beautiful old houses and shady alleys impress us on our way to our hosts Gilly and Mark, who are friends of friends of ours... They welcome us in their nicely renovated wooden house. But New Orleans is not just nice because of its colonial and cozy flair... it is carneval time right now, „Mardi Gras“ as it is called here. The city is full of events, parties, people in masks and holiday mood. Since already two weeks (!) parades are held, balls, concerts and parties. On Monday and Fat Tuesday we go into town amidst the crowds. We listen to a music festival (jazz, blues, rap,...) with several stages by the river and enjoy the atmosphere. Later on there is fireworks, before we head into another area, in order to catch one of the night parades. Thousands of people are in the streets. Everybody watches the nicely decorated carts and brass bands passing by. Those carts are all a piece of art! People in masks sit or stand on the carts and throw beads, soft toys and other plastic things into the audience. The atmosphere and energy in those crowds is unique! There are two to six parades daily – incredible. On Fat Tuesday we go to another parade, this time in daylight. It is a real fair! Families "reside" with their picnic chairs and bbqs beside the roads, where the parades go by. Most people wear a costume of some sort. More than six hours (!) we watch the "Krewe of Zulu" marching and driving down the street. They throw masses of beads into the crowds and we catch some too! Later on we head into the "French Quarter" of the city. This district is wild – everybody dances in the street, drinks and dressed up people pose for pictures. Everybody in New Orleans seems to participate in the carneval. Although some conservative church people demonstrate with nasty posters saying "Homo Sex is a Sin", "The Wicked Shall be Turned Into Hell" and "Jesus Hates Mardi Gras", everybody is peaceful and even those church people seem to be tolerated. They are also part of "Mardi Gras" every year. All in all we experience unforgettable days in crazy, beautiful and incomparable New Orleans!
18.02.2012, Baton Rouge (Louisiana): From Canyon Lake it just takes a day until we get to Austin, the capital of Texas. Our host Shaun (warmshowers.org) introduces us to the city. We go to a LP shop and listen to a concert there, buy pizza at a trailer (which is typical for here – to buy trailer food), walk through the city in rain and buy food at a supermarket that sells organic products. Austin is the birthplace of "Wholefoods" supermarket chain and going there is an experience. Our panniers are stuffed with a lot of good food and heavily loaded we leave the young and different city of Austin. Leaving the city we are back in the redneck-countryside of Texas. Big pick up trucks are the norm, many towns seem to be poor and people have weird slogans on their walls and fences: "stay out", "god bless America", "if you steal, I will kill", well... People we meet have hobbies like driving around at night in their 4x4 vehicles, drunk, in order to shoot raccoons and wild pigs – just for fun, of course. It is an interesting stretch of America, that we pass; something you do not even know from movies. People live in trailers, mobile homes and car wrecks. They burn their garbage in their yard or just pile it up in front of their home – not a beautiful sight. It is shocking to see so much poverty right here in "God’s own country". We camp a lot, stay in cheap motels when it rains and make use of the „warmshowers-network“. So once again we get an insight into different social classes and enjoy great hospitality everywhere we go. Our route takes us around Houston in the north and leads into dense forrests. Rain clouds and head winds accompany us most of the way. Other touring cyclists "fly" towards us and we stop for a chat (see cyclists we met). Roads are small and narrow until we reach the area of Baton Rouge. Here we stay with the extraordinary hospitable Mark, a bicycle freak and activist in a very positive way. We stay for a day and wait out a rainstorm. It is refreshing and delightful to hang out with Mark, because we share a lot of the same opinions and enjoy good conversations.
03.02.2012, Canyon Lake (Texas): We are rolling out of El Paso and are immediately back in the dry semi-desert of Texas. Roads are straight and long, the small towns on the way dodgy and bleak. The undulating landscape is full of spiky bush and cacti – as far as you can see. Had we just done a few thousand kilometres without a single flat, now we get plenty. Constantly we need to pull thorns out of our tires and patch the inner tubes. Free camping is made impossible by all the fences that line the roads. We have to stay at campgrounds, in cheap motels and sometimes we can stay with people in their big beautiful houses, or grubby ones, where we rather put up our inner tent (as the carpeted floor is so "used"). After a town called Van Horn we turn into the Davis Mountains. Twenty percent chance of rain is predicted, we exploit 100 percent of it and cycle in thick snowfall the whole day long. As it is freezing cold and the road slippery, we think back of October 2006, when we started our journey in Scandinavia (see Europe). We stay overnight close to the McDonald Observatory, where John gives us a tour of the site and we can warm up again. The sun is out the next day and as soon as we leave the mountains, we are back in dry desert area and the snowfall is forgotten. We meet other cyclists on our way (see cyclists we met) against head winds towards Del Rio. Through a "fried cloud" (deep fat fryer smell) we roll past numerous fast food chains and think this must be America’s most ugly town. Here we find cliché America: big fat cars, big fat people, huge supermarkets (too big for us) – and no one bicycles or walks. Happy to leave town after one night, it gets better and greener. We are suddenly out of the desert. Trees line the road and there is more and more green grass. The influence of the Gulf of Mexico is not only noticeable on the ground, but also shows up in the sky. In the mornings it is foggy, in the early afternoon thunderstorms form and therefore we have to pedal through heavy rain more often than we would like to. Our route leads through the "hill country" of Texas, which means hard work. It is so hilly, that it is possible to reach one of the maximum cycling speeds of the trip with 76.60 km/h (see superlatives). At Canyon Lake we take a rest day, invited by Joe and Ellen, who host us like family in their beautiful home with a wonderful view of the surrounding forested hills.
22.01.2012, El Paso (Texas): It is a long way out of Phoenix, plenty of residential areas to cross. But suddenly we are back in the desert. Different types of cacti and small spiky bush dominate the scene. Our route leads us over hills and wide plains, before we reach the mountains just after the town of Safford. Our days are filled with long climbs and great views. So far we had just cycled in sunshine, but now we get some heavy rain. It comes overnight, when we camp at a rest area beside the road. The following day we have to climb a pass. It is cold, windy, foggy and wet for the whole day – not our favourite day. But shortly after the weather improves and is "normal" again, which means sunny. There are 300 sunny days per year in this area. Nonetheless the higher we get, the colder it becomes. During the night temperatures drop several degrees below zero and even during the day temperatures climb just slowly. As soon as the sun goes down, negative temperatures become the standard. The road through the mountains is very scenic and free of traffic. We climb passes and enjoy flying down on their other side. In the higher regions pine trees grow and it smells wonderfully. Deer and wild pigs roam the forest. From the few passing cars – hands stick out and wave friendly. Once again we run into great people that host us, cook for us hungry cyclists and let us get dry and warm in front of their open fire places. We climb the Emery Pass, which is with its 2,502 meters the highest one of our across-the-USA stretch. From up there we get great views towards the east, where we are going. Once we have rolled down the winding road, we are back in treeless, dry steppe country. We progress quickly through flat land, while seeing cattle farming, cotton fields and orchards of pecan trees. The latter provide good wind shade in the otherwise treeless region. After a lot of days cycling through the countryside, we reach a city: El Paso at the Mexican border. We stop at Kalama and Charley’s colourful place for a day, enjoy their hospitality, work on our website and plan the next leg of our route...
11.01.2012, Phoenix (Arizona): In Los Angeles we slide quietly and comfy into the New Year, as we are celebrating with four "fresh parents", who are all short of sleep. Then it is time to start cycling again. For the first time in the "history of our big journey" (since 2006) we cycle the same stretch for a day. This is from L.A. along the coast to the town of Carlsbad, where we (as two years ago on our way from Alaska to Patagonia) stay again with Steve and his family and are welcomed as "old friends" and fed like kings. After that we turn east and go on new trails across many big hills and few little towns such as Julian and Pine Valley. We reach pretty dry steppe-like countryside and enjoy blue skies every day. During the nights it becomes freezing cold, but during daytime it is warmer and comfortable for cycling, although we never go short-sleeved after leaving the coast. Suddenly cotton fields line the roads. Villages seem half empty and forgotten, in other places new housing is being built, where retired people move from the North of the country to the South. A lot of towns are in Mexican hands, as we are cycling close to the border. Signs are in Spanish and everybody speaks Spanish. We imagine the deserts of California and Arizona pretty lonesome, but that is not the case. Colonies of caravans and mobile homes are spreading over the landscape. The "Snowbirds" have landed. These are retired people that follow the sun and the warmth south in winter and go back north in late spring. We wonder what they do down here and how they kill their time? Besides that we wonder about some leisure activities: people drive with ATVs and other small cross-country vehicles on "our" dirt roads and the few sand dunes of the country – with amazing endurance. You do not see anyone on foot or cycling. But everybody, who we meet, is friendly and we enjoy the hospitality of the USA. Through the warmshowers.org website (cyclists host cyclists) we get to know numerous friendly and open minded people, who have nothing in common with the cliché American. We camp beside the road behind bush and under the stars, on campsites with "Snowbirds" and at a fire station. We sleep in a room behind a fish and tackle shop, at the house of a border official, in the house of cat-lovers close to their cat toilet... Whatever social class we meet – the friendliness, with which we are accepted, is always the same. Eventually we reach Phoenix, the first real city since L.A. At Tracy’s and Jan’s place we take a rest day in the large city and have a look around...
31.12.2011, Los Angeles (California): In the morning of the 24th of December we celebrate Philipp’s birthday together with M@x (www.x-sound.at) in Ho Chi Minh City, later on that day Christmas. Christmas in Vietnam’s biggest city is different indeed. Everywhere speakers are blasting American Christmas Songs through the streets loudly – with a touch of Asian rhythm. Decorated plastic trees are also everywhere and amazingly ugly. The later the night, the more motorcycles fill the streets. Whole families sit on them on their way into/through the city center. Kids wear Santa Claus Costumes and snack on candyfloss and roasted insects. All the exhaust from the motorcycles and all the noise in the streets create not exactly a "Christmas-atmosphere" for us. It is more a "shrill night" than a silent night. When we have seen enough, we go to a restaurant and have a Christmas-Pizza, which is almost becoming our travel-tradition now. On the next day the Christmas-Spook is over and we pack up. We change the continent again and fly to Los Angeles with a stop in Seoul. As two years ago we are staying with our friends Marlies and Setso, who have a bigger family now: baby Milo is here since nine weeks. We enjoy sleeping without ear plugs (the baby does not scream loud enough), the clear air, the beaches, the sea and the neat city. We will celebrate New Year’s Eve with the Metodi’s, before starting to cycle east to Miami...
