January 17, 2007
There were a lot of strange metal towers (more like 3 story high rectangles) sandwiched between the road and the railroad tracks on Hwy 190. I don’t know what they are, but I think they’re something to do with agriculture. Maybe they store grain there, and load it onto the trains as they pass by.
Despite how unhealthy it probably was, I stopped at McDonald’s for an early lunch. $3 and three double cheeseburgers later I thought, If I wasn’t about to burn this off it’d probably kill me. But damn it was good.
I made great time to Lake Charles. Jacob picked me up in his truck (yeah, I was at Burger King eating Whoppers again). That’s where I met Anya, another biker going across the country. She’s from Brooklyn and is a professional stilt performer. Awesome. Jacob set us up in an RV camper thing in his yard and even gave us a laptop to use for email and such.
When Jacob returned from class, we ate dinner at McAllister’s cafe, got some beers, and went back to the camper to share travel stories. Anya is really interesting. She has been biking and hitchhiking her way from NYC to Austin, TX since November, including a 3-week stay in New Orleans where she helped gut houses in the lower 9th ward.
Anya’s originally from Moscow, but moved to the U.S. when she was 10. She’s got tons of interesting stories to tell, both from the last 2 months on the road, and from her life in general. Plus she has six tattoos, including one of a bike, a hammer, a finger moustache, and a needle and thread. Her bike is a Trek 720, but she doped it up with deer antlers on the handlebars and fake fur on the frame tubes. Hilarious.
We’re biking together to Beaumont, TX tomorrow and staying at couchsurfer Jamie’s place. It will be nice to share the road with someone else for a day.
Pretty awesome to meet you man! Good luck on your trip and stay safe :)