Day 12 – 7/01/2016 – Opelika, AL to Houston, TX – 692 Miles
Opelika, AL to Houston, TX – 697 Miles – MAP LINK
We got up early and took off right as the sun was rising. We continued on I-85 and took it into Montgomery, where we caught I-65 heading south. Our first stop of the day was in Evergreen.
My favorite jerky of the trip was the Tillamook – Chipotle. It’s tender and easy on the teeth with just the perfect amount of kick. I was only able to find it twice on the trip, but would look for it every place I went into. While here, I was on the phone with Lacey while a couple guys struck up a conversation with Dad. Of course, they asked where we were going or had been. When Dad said Maine, I could hear one say “GOTTT DAAAANG!” I was laughing pretty hard when we talked about it after leaving.
We continued on and took I-65 to Mobile where we took I-10 headed west. We crossed into Mississippi and then into Louisiana. For no reason at all, other than I wasn’t paying attention, I took I-10 south instead of staying on I-12 heading west. As we exited Dad realized my mistake. I ended up exiting the first place I could and stopping for gas there. We were in Slidell, LA.
As I said earlier in the report, my favorite sticker I’ve ever found came from Peaks of Otter on the Blue Ridge parkway.
While we were snacking and breaking, dad called in the birds with his spicy chips.
There was some deep conversation going on…
Leaving there, we went back north and got on I-12 this time to continue west and avoid New Orleans. We noted the number of people headed the opposite direction far outnumbered the way we were going. I wasn’t complaining! There were several places that were backed up miles on the other side. The final stop of the trip was for gas in Iowa, LA.
Dad was ready to get home…
And I was ready to get back to these 3 crazy females.
After getting back into Texas we did hit a bit of rain and also some stop and go traffic west of Beaumont, which seemed to be caused by the rain. I pulled into my driveway at 4:30 p.m., happy to be alive and home. So happy I took a selfie and a self portrait with Connie.
Here are the final stats from my GPS. We just broke the 5k mark at 5,013.8 miles and spent almost 100 hours in the saddle.
Thanks for riding along with us, I hope you enjoyed it. The Connies have traveled over 34,000 miles together in the last 8 years. As for where we are going next year, I have absolutely no idea.
Sponsors needed on future trips, if anyone has contacts, please let me know:
Kawasaki
Nikon/Fuji
Any tire manufacturer
5-Hour Energy
Monster Energy/Red Bull
Jack Link’s/ Tillamook Country Smoker
Aleve