Day 76:
17,760 miles and counting.
Today I met Iko, hands-down the coolest dog of my trip.
I started the morning with a half hour drive to New Orleans proper. I
was there shortly after sunrise and long before the city was awake. I hopped on my bike and zigged zagged around for what end up being about five hours and a dozen miles. I took a very inefficient route around all the various virtual geocaches that showed me the best sites, adventure labs, and other fun tourist attractions in New Orleans. I know I had to come spend the day here, but it’s safe to say, this place is just not for me. My wife loves it here. Between voodoo and vampires and the food, she might live here. I guess that’s just not up my alley. Also, I’m a big fan of the elevation, I really 
enjoy being a lot higher in the air than this. But I took a lot of pictures, learned a lot of crazy history, and walked through a lot of human urine and dead bodies. I was there early enough that at times I was the only human being I saw. I was riding a bike down Bourbon Street and was the only thing that was alive in that moment. Gradually some people were walking with their coffee, and then finally by the time I was done, music was as loud as could be and the lunch crowds were out and mingling. So that part was rather fun, watching a city wake up and come to life for the day. But that’s also a sure-fire sign that it’s time for me to get the hell out of there. I loaded up my bike and started to head toward Birmingham. I have another repair shop appointment there, I had an alternator belt replaced on Friday, and it’s the wrong size. Hopefully the repair shop chain is going to honor the work of the other location…thankfully they did.
So that’s the next place I must be, and gradually make my way north and east. I drove until I ran out of daylight and found a place to call home for the night somewhere south of Montgomery.
Day 77:
18,000 miles and counting.
Today I met Shadow, hands-down the coolest dog of my trip.
I woke up at a truck stop off I-65, where I was parked in the very back, along the roadway. I took a shower and had spicy sausage pasta boil in bag for dinner lat night.
Not a whole lot is going to happen today. I have to make my way to Birmingham. I have an appointment to replace another alternator belt on my van. Hopefully get the tires rotated while I am there as well. I learned my lesson using these extra soft tires. Since I am going to be in
Birmingham, I wanted to stop and say hello to Storyteller Overland, the wonderful place and people that build my amazing adventure van. I stopped by there, snooped around undetected, took a few pictures as proof of my snooping, and then checked in for my van service about 20 
minutes away. I was 3 hours early. I told them I was around, and I would be out in the parking lot working, if they wanted me sooner.
I am in a weird time frame of travel right now. I have not touched my camera in 3 or 4 days. Mentally I am heading home. But I have a wedding to be at in 8 days in South Carolina. If I came home right now, I would leave again in a day or two after getting home. So, I am going to finish the handful of things on my geocaching checklist (hopefully), and then get a campsite somewhere in the mountains for the days I have to wait until the wedding.
Before getting all the way out of the city, I had the tires rotated after the alternator belt repair. I think from here I will be heading directly to Georgia. I have quite a few checklist items around Atlanta and north western Georgia. This includes getting on a boat Saturday morning.