Bike and I have arrived in New Orleans
The bike I’ll be riding on this tour is a Bike Friday Pocket Rocket Pro, which is set up as a road bike. It’s a new bike, which had its maiden voyage on a 7-day tour in Arizona in March. I’m very pleased with its performance.
What’s a Bike Friday you might ask? It’s an absolutely fabulous folding bike that packs in a regular suitcase. Here you see it yesterday, all packed and ready to go. You just check it as luggage.
My first Bike Friday was a Pocket Tour Lite Crusoe set up as a touring bike, but I needed a go-faster bike for supported tours such as this one, so I traded the Crusoe in for this one. Of course now I need a bike for loaded touring! Check out the Bike Friday Website. If you buy one, tell ‘em Judy sent you. (We get referral awards).
The bike and I got to New Orleans this afternoon after an uneventful flight. But during the 2.5 hour flight from Minneapolis, I looked down at the roads below and could not believe that we are going to actually bike back to Minnesota, farther north than Minneapolis! Is this possible? Reality has set in.
The shuttle bus from the airport drove by the SuperDome that we saw so much of on TV during the Katrina disaster. Everyone on the bus looked at the Dome and got very quiet. The horrific scenes from the TV coverage came back to me as if I’d watched it on TV yesterday.
After supper I walked around down by the river for a couple hours. Horses don’t pull the tourist carriages here, mules do! Click here to see some pictures taken from the window in my hotel room and of a paddlewheel boat.
Tomorrow we assemble bikes, go to a bike shop, have a meeting and a banquet. I’m so excited!
New Orleans...
Wednesday, May 9, 2007
