Man it sure was going to be great living in Texas and not being at home fighting with my father about everything. I day dreamed a lot on this trip. It made me feel good and the time really flew by. Time for more gas. I took the exit and when I came to the stop sign I kept coasting, I was slowing down but not really stopping. I put my feet down and dragged them on the pavement. My feet started to heat up. I didn’t make the stop, oh crap! I turned the bike into the grassy area just off the road and came to a stop. I guessed that I needed the front brakes after all. I made my way to the gas station. I was pretty shook up. I told myself that it was a good thing there wasn’t a lot of traffic or it could have been really bad.
I got myself together, went to the restroom and splashed some water on my face. Bought a soft drink and some cigarettes, had a smoke, then back on the road. I really wanted to make it to Jackson for the night. I figured when I got there I could find someone to help me with the brakes. I didn’t think about my money situation. I had just over $60.00 left.
The sun was in my eyes all the way to Jackson. Even my really cool mirrored sun glasses weren’t much good. Seventy miles to go. Hey look, there’s a sign that says New Orleans. I had never been there before. I know, after I get my brakes fixed I could head there and then around the coast to Corpus. Maybe I could find some of my cousins in Lake Charles. Spend the night, eat some great shrimp gumbo. I loved it down there. Earlier in the summer we had went there on vacation. What a great place, there was moss hanging from the trees. I must have had thirty, third cousins, from my mothers side. Cajun music and cajun food. And the food was great! We had shrimp made so many ways that my mothers family could have written the recipe book for The Bubba Gump Shrimp Company.
I noticed something that was different for me. The homes along the road were not all that nice. They what looked like one room shacks most with porches. On some of the porches were old bath tubs and it looked like they were used as barbeque grills. There was smoke coming from some of them. I could smell the food from the road. It sure smelled good. They people looked to be very poor. I had never seen anything like this before. There were no pretty flower gardens, no lawns, just weeds. The paint was peeling if there was any paint at all. I also started to realize that it looked as though there weren’t any white people living in Mississippi.
As I was riding down the road I noticed moss hanging from the trees and all of the fields were white, white with cotton. I had seen corn fields where I came from. Corn forever! But down here it was cotton forever! Up north the farmers used equipment to harvest the corn, down here it looked like people were out in the fields picking it by hand. I sure wouldn’t want that job. I imagined, it’s at least 90 degrees, the sun beating down on me. I’m standing in the dirt with some burlap sack, bugs flying all around me, sweat dripping off of head and into my eyes. I’m dirty and smelly. Nowhere to go to when you have to pee and take a crap. No way! That job sucks!
