It was the first morning that included sunshine since being around the Traverse City area. It didn’t last long though, at one point on 90 going west toward Lafayette a sort of microburst thunderstorm thing rolled through. 2-3 miles of raining as hard as it could and then sunshine again. This was the theme really throughout most of the day.

The ride on 90 wasn’t bad, but it was relatively high traffic and fast speeds. At one point though the highway was elevated with thick marshlands on either side, the trees with the hanging moss were all around and nice to look at.

I meant to check the Louisiana Department of Transportation notices about my route before leaving but it slipped my mind so I was a little nervous as to what I’d find. Flooding was happening mostly to the north and west of New Orleans and I was staying pretty far south, but it was also raining all along this route the previous 2 days.

My first attempt at jumping on Louisiana 82 confirmed my worries. The road was under maybe 10-16 inches of water for a few hundred feet and it looked a little deeper than I wanted to attempt, though trucks were plowing through it no problem.

Luckily there was another way to get on 82 after going a few miles further through town, and this was looking much better. The area around here was affected quite a bit by the high waters. Around the towns of Perry and Esther, parking lots and driveways were under quite a bit of water, people seemed to be going on with their lives anyway though and just parking in the shin deep water.

Most of the houses along the route are built on stilts, sometimes only a few feet off the ground, sometimes a few stories off the ground. They look like the typical rectangular mobile home, except in the air. I think they call em cajun high rises.

82 was a neat ride altogether, I’m really glad I decided to come this way. Also called the Spur Byway, large portion starting about halfway between Lafayette and Galveston consists of the Creole Nature Trail. Nature was certainly present for most of the ride. It was mostly grassland/bayou/swamp all around, aside from residences and business occasionally along the way. I saw turtles crossing the road, a snake doing snake stuff in the middle of the road, tons of large crane-like birds and pelicans. And these were only the living ones. Quite a diverse road-kill scene around these parts as well. No gators though, damn.

One portion of the highway that goes east/west just after Esther is in rough shape, but it was also quite scenic. I also had to ride through a few small streams crossing the highway though as a result of the highwater. After this stretch though, the highway was in good shape and clear the whole way.

Eventually around the town of Cameron, I came to a ferry crossing. $1 to get on a ride across. Or don’t get on and ride across and go back the way you came. It was pretty awesome, just me and two other cars. Apparently you can spot dolphin pods around the area. It started to pour rain for like the 6th time though right after I took this picture.

Then all of a sudden the Gulf Coast shows up and kicks your right in the eyes. It was an amazing sight, seeing the beginning of such a massive piece of water.

A few more miles of this and back to grass land and the occasional gas station. Eventually after crossing a few awesome bridges, the Lone Star State.

Riding into Port Arthur was like something out of a science fiction horror movie. Factories and refineries and smoke stacks as far as the eye could see, tons of them taking complete control of the landscape. Fire spewing from some, smoke spewing from others, oil derricks here and there. Quite the change from coming out of the Creole Nature Trail.

Eventually after a short time on Texas 73, I was headed down 124 on the Bolivar Peninsula. The same style of houses on stilts were all around, except these looked like big nice modern houses, only they were 30 feet in the air. Entire towns of stilt houses, pretty cool.

And another ferry! I’ve never been on a ferry in my entire life, at least that I can recall, and here was #2 for the day. Ferry #2 was much larger, probably 30-40 cars on the one I was on. It goes from the Bolivar Peninsula right into Galveston.

Finally I made it to Galveston. It was a long ride through swamps, heat, multiple rainstorms and a couple of bodies of water that no one bothered to build bridges for. But it was totally worth it, the ride was quite scenic along 82 and I’d recommend it to anyone, car or motorcycle.

Though Galveston is cool, their lack of Uber/Lyft and availability of Taxis, in addition to no sort of bus/shuttle to take you down the miles of Seawall Dr left me a little pissy. It was about 2 mile hike to the restaurant, another mile or so to the pier and then all the way back to my hotel. I was drenched in sweat and tired. Apparently at one time they did have Uber, but have since decided to employ protectionist policies for the cab industry that wasn’t even anywhere to be seen anyway. Thanks Galveston! Sweaty Pete crafted a delicately insulting email to the city council members upon return to hotel room.

Here was the day’s swampy route:

On to Austin TX today and I’m quite excited to see some familiar faces!