made it to Florida!
Mood:  a-ok
rode two days out of the New Orleans to Guatier MS. and hooked up with former Oakland buddy Mike Shuster at his brother Jere's place. The Shuster clan took me in and I wound up at his niece's first communion, met every Shuster ever made and in laws. Mike, Jere and I went floating out on the bayou so I could see the requisite alligator and all went well until Jere offered me the controls and I had us stuck in the mud wihtin 10 minutes.  Mike warned him about me but Jere just had to see for himself...  Then we loaded up the bike in Mike's truck and along with Mike's lovely wife Kari and 4 yr old Kylie drove two hours to Gulf Breeze Fl. to their house, picking up Kari's Mom along the way who flew into Pensacola from California. Mike lives two houses down from his sister Teresa's family. Great bunch of people. Hit the beach the next day and attended a birthday party at a friends house that evening. Excellent party, met alot of good folks and had a couple (dozen) beers. That kind of convinced me to not leave this morning, so I stuck around and had Easter dinner with everyone. Bikes ready to go, I figure I'm within 8/9 days of Orlando. I can't believe l'm almost finishing the first leg of the journey and soon will be in Europe. It has been great so far and I really appreciate seeing friends and family along the way so far. It's just going to get better and more interesting, thanks everyone for continueing to check in and I shall talk at you from Orlando.