Still in San Antonio
The morning’s first ride, at 08:55am, was really more of a hop-skip-and-a-jump across the I-35 highway from my motel. 
Right on schedule, at 09:00am I’m outside the Honda dealership, Joe Harrison Motor Sports ... 
.. where all the booking-in paperwork is dealt with by Dustin .. the 'Dude', whose official title and capacity within the organisation is, according to his business card, a ‘Service Writer’ - that’s a new one on me. Right-On title there ... Dooooood .. ;o) 
I’m allowed to use the firm’s staff room, and all of its facilities (e.g. coffee machine, power for the laptop, etc) whilst the mechanics get on with the job of fitting my new rear tyre. This gives me a little time to catch-up with my blog postings.
What a relief it is to see those deep-cut treads on a round-shaped [not squared-off] Avon Storm
So the brakes are checked at the same time. Verdict: (a) the rear pads still have a good 5,500 – 6,000 miles wear left on ‘em; but (b) the front pads have almost had it - I’ll be lucky to see another 500 miles outta those before they’re through. So I instruct the guys to fit new front pads. I take some new rear pads too, but carry them, unfitted, in my top box until I get up to around the North Carolina / Virginia area in around 4,500 - 5,000 miles’ time. I’ll get them fitted there; or maybe sooner, if needs be. 
There’s a neat selection of Honda and Suzuki bikes on display in the showroom. This is a nice little all-round set-up.
Anyway, by around 12-noon I’m heading out of busy San Antonio and soon find myself back on I-10(W). After 35 miles [56 km] from leaving Joe’s place, I exit the freeway at Junction 538, on the north side of Boerne, and soon I’m out in the countryside travelling north on the Sisterdale Road. Very special countryside too, as this is firmly in Texas Hill Country. 
The area reminds me of a slightly more rugged version of the Cotswolds District in central-southern England. Just rolling along, with hardly a care in the world .. :o)
After 30 miles [48 km] or so of rural bliss I notice a road sign on the left indicating the turn-off for the hamlet of Luckenbach. I re-call reading about this place during the winter in the travel book, Road Trip USA by Jamie Jensen, or some similar publication.Better go take a look then, eh?! I pull off and park alongside a pack of Harleys.
This charming little place maintains a ghost town feel with its tiny population where you can sense strong western roots. Here’s the Post Office-come-General Store - from another time [circa 1849] .. 
.. and a very laidback Saloon 
As I sip from my chilled can of over-carbonated [burp!] diet coke under the shade of a nearby tree, I notice that some poor Brit, and maybe his car in particular, over from Dudley in the English West Midlands, just might have come a cropper around here.--------------------------------------
Back on the road .. and 85 miles [137 km] later I’m checking-in at my pre-reserved motel room in the centre of Austin, the capital city of Texas. During the mid-evening I treat myself to a HUGE rib-eye steak + trimmings that cost more than I can really afford.
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Wednesday, April-23
After a really good night's sleep at the North Austin Plaza, 6911 Interstate hwy 35 north, Austin TX - take note, because at a tariff of USD $50 + tax, it's real good value-for-money IMHO ... I take the 170 mile [274 km] - 3 hrs 15 mins - ride south-eastwards to Houston.
For the first time throughout this whole trip, thus far, I feel 'in tune' with the STeed. Dunno why? Maybe it's the freshly scrubbed-in new rubber; and/or it could be the rejuvenated front brake that's now so brutally efficient .. BUT whatever it is I'm grateful for it and have an absolutely inspired ride down to 'Space City', the largest city in Texas and fourth-largest city in the USA.
Traffic conditions in and around Houston is notoriously fast and hectic - indeed, a veritable 'race track' - but I had no problem with it. Knowing you can always out-perform and out-manoeuvre 97.3527333% of everything out there on the road does give you a feeling of supreme confidence. Just concentrate and keep focused with all your wits about you. Y'all just can't [almost] go wrong. Ask any biker.
First stop is the Houston Astrodome [or simply ‘the Astrodome’]. My fireside wintertime research informed me that this place, when it first opened in 1965, was nicknamed 'The Eighth Wonder of the World'. So needless to say, I just had to drop-in to take look around.But I find out, after a quick chat with a nearby parking lot attendant, that the stadium is currently referred to by Houstonians as “the lonely landmark”, because hardly any well-known events take place there nowadays. It is now the quintessential ‘white elephant’ .. and blimmin’ well closed to general public viewings!
I really should have done my research a bit better beforehand, I guess. Just like my recent aborted visit to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, I didn’t go the ‘extra yard’ by finding out more about a venue before taking off in its direction. I have only myself to blame .. and no-one else.
Ho-bloody-hum .. again!
Not to worry, cuz just 25 miles or so [40 km] down the road I pull-up outside Houston's Johnson Space Centre ...
.. home of NASA .. and immediately sign-up for the guided 3:00pm tram tour. During this ‘behind-the-scenes’ 90-minute journey through NASA's Space Center, we visited:
(1) Historic Mission Control, where the original Apollo Missions were monitored. True history right here before my eyes. It was the day before my 15th birthday (July-16, 1969) when Apollo 11 blasted-off for the Moon. Four days later, and three days into my sixteenth year on Earth, the lunar module Eagle separated from the command module Columbia and landed at Tranquillity Base ... and the whole world, including me, was watching it all unfold on TV.What boyhood memories this dust-gathering room holds for me .. still intact, preserved all these years later, complete with the red ‘hot phone’. Fantastic!
(2) the Space Vehicle Mock-up Facility where the current crop of astronauts train for up-and-coming missions including ...
.. practice with the Shuttle's cargo bay 'Canada Arm', also known as the Shuttle Remote Manipulator System (SRMS) 
(3) Finishing with a close-up view of a gigantic Saturn V Rocket .. 
.. separated into its three constituent 'stages'
Over 363 feet [110.6 m] high and 33 feet [10 m] (without fins) in diameter. This monster is just one foot shorter than St Pauls Cathedral in London.All this unimaginable power, just to deliver this comparitively tiny top-end payload out of our planet's gravitational stronghold .. and beyond.
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I end the day 32 miles [51 km] down the road in Galveston .. and you're right, I can't get that darn song out of my mind either! .. ;o)
[Glen Campbell - Released: 1969 - same year as the Apollo 11 landing]
Golden memories, eh?!
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Thursday, April-24
Despite the song's intimation, there's not really that much to see around the island of Galveston. There's a busy port nearby, and a reasonable beach front. That's it. 
So I hightail it up to the Bolivar Free Ferry .. and ride straight on - I'm riding the very last vehicle to embark.
Last to disembark too on the other side!Riding north-eastwards, up Hwy-87, along the Bolivar Peninsular, I'm still enjoying the most perfect weather conditions, and listening to Gloria Estefan and the Bee Gees on the Pan's FM radio through my headphones. Somebody shoot me, right now, just so this moment can be preserved forever. This really IS the time of my life .. :o)
I stop to take a closer, beachside view, of the Gulf of Mexico's wavelets lapping the shore. There's just a gentle 10 mph on-shore sea-breeze blowing today. Quite different from the events of September 24, 2005, when Hurricane Rita made landfall roundabout here.
30 miles [48 km] after riding off the metal ferry ramp, I see my first obvious tangible effects of Rita. Years of previous storm damage destroyed much of the 87 coastal road going forward. Hurricane Rita only aggravated efforts to rebuild it. I understand that a long-lasting remedy is being considered, but right now the road remains impassable. I am, therefore, forced to turn left up Hwy-124. No harm done as ..
.. I needed to head north and inland for 56 miles [90 km] in any case, as the next stop for me is the 'Cowboy Honda' motorcycle shop in Beaumont ...
.. where the very amiable and efficient 19-yo Joseph sells me a gallon of 10W-40, plus a new oil filter - and cuts me a worthwhile chunk of discount into the bargain .. :o) A great young fella, with a sparkling personality, who's asked me to inform as many young English girls as I can that he's definitely 'available'. Well, despite your obvious over-active loin region Joe, I'm sure that you've nevertheless got a great future ahead of you. Keep up the good work mate .. ;o) You sure 'got it' man!
21 south-eastern miles [34 km] later, I riding into the Township of Port Neches ..
.. where I'm welcomed by my good friend 'CB' Shehan and his charming, lovely-lady wife, Wilma.I've known CB, who rides a 2001 Honda ST1100 - in the 'virtual' sense - for more than three years now, but this is the first time we've seen each other face-to-face. The power of the Internet, eh?!
I'm treated to my very first portion of freshwater Catfish, in a rustic rural restaurant .. down at the Bayou. Good choice of venue CB .. ;o)--------------------------------------
Friday, April-25
Oil and Filter Change Day - first thing in the morning
.. with the able assistance of the senior-but-spritely 'CB'
By 10:15am Wilma packs me off with (a) several slices of her homemade Brownie cakes - just THE best Brownies I've ever tasted - and (b) a handful of decent tea bags. CB and I go for ride around the southeast Texan countryside.
By early afternoon, after some nice lunchtime snacks at 'The Southern Maid' café, CB drops me off on I-10 at the Texas-Louisiana border; and we say our farewells .. I then ride off eastwards into yet another new-to-me US State, Louisiana .. 'America's Wetland' region.Just a junction or two down I-10 I exit the freeway near Vinton onto La-108 ~~> and take another right turn onto La-27 a short while later.
What lies ahead is flat-as-can-be flooded countryside. It must be fair to say that, right now, I'm indeed South of the 'Deep South' .. and heading towards the very heart of 'Cajun Country'.
45 southbound miles [72 km] later, as I touch the coast again at Holly Beach, Cameron and Creole, the devastion of those 2005 late summer hurricanes becomes very apparent. Gasoline prices frozen in time - how these have changed over the last 2½ years.[Gas prices around the USA are currently increasing by an average of $0.20+ per month. Consumers are complaining bitterly about it all. In the UK, however, petrol is £1.07 ($2.12) a litre - or $8.05 per US gallon. And diesel is $8.70 per US gallon! ... Welcome to 'Our World' guys!]
Local businesses destroyed 
.. livelihoods wiped-out overnight
.. homes ruined and abandoned
.. devastation 
.. it's like a war zone around here. All very depressing, so it is .. :o(I've seen enough, so I head back up to I-10 on Hwy-27
.. riding high over the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway. A navigable inland waterway, running approximately 1050 miles [1700 kms] from Brownsville Texas ~~> to Carrabelle, Florida. I finally arrive at my motel, in the City of Lafayette, by the early evening at 5:15pm.
325 miles [523 km] covered for the day.
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That Evening
I then meet-up with a couple of great STers; Chris (aka: 'clmixon'], and Mike [aka: 'MikeP1300'] with whom I have been exchanging private messages ('PMs') over on the ST-Owners.com website since the middle of January.The three of us ride off into the darkness towards an off-the-beaten-track seafood restaurant where Chris treats us all to a heavily-inclined crawfish dinner. These are freshwater shellfish and similar, I s'pose, to our Atlantic crayfish back home .. only a fraction of the size and weight.
As it's The Festival International de Louisiane here this week in Lafayette we then make our way downtown to soak up the atmosphere.
There's some great music makin' going on hereabouts .. :o)
.. and I get to hear some real Cajun music .. - and what a great sound it is - like something I've never heard before. Kinda, blue grass, with some Irish jig and country/rock/folk, all thrown-in the mixer together. Great stuff! 
Just before we all slip off to our respective beds, Mike whispers to me that, tomorrow night, I'm more than welcome to stopover at his place, in the nearby suburb of Scott. Again, thanks mate .. ;o)--------------------------------------
Saturday, April-26
Now since I arrived here I've been just itchin' to see a big ol' gator or two. So after some mid-morning coffee + muffin, which Chris manages to also attend by taking some precious time out from his heavy workload schedule, Mike suggests that we ride to a nearby swamp, and have a hunt around the waters edge.
Chris goes back to work (paramedic training). Thanks Chris for your time and effort ..
.. while Mike and I shoot down to The Cypress Island Swamp ..and go a 'gator huntin' 
But we see bugger'all in the water, apart from a couple of turtles .... :o( :o( But as luck would have it, I spot a local boatman .. and quite a character, Bryan Champagne, Chief Guide of Champagne's Swamp Tours who's just about to load-up a small party (4) of similar-minded people. I ask if we can join in.
"Sure thang, you-all" was the reply, in a thick Cajun accent.
So we're off! through groves of 500+ years old Cypress Trees, all draped with Spanish Moss
.. and I'm about as excited, as a very excitable person, who's got a very special reason for feeling particularly excited! .. :o)
.. as we power out into the shallow swamp, where in some places Bryan navigates in no more than just a few inches of water. Here's a brief video of a master at work, subtitled for the hard of Cajun hearing .. ;o)AND we see all the gators we want, for two good reasons:
(a) It's the mating season right now, so they're all out and about looking for some crumpet; and
(b) The temperature is down today, maybe to just below 70ºF [< 22ºC], so these cold-blooded monster are basking in what little sun there is to get their internal body temperatures up to working speed.
.. 3 to 16 ft long
Sensational'So tell us all Bryan, does gator meat make good eatin' ..??'
'So .. y'all don't like fish neither then, eh Bry?'
I don't know what these lilac-coloured swamp flowers are called ..
.. but they are indeed, very pretty 
As our 90 mins -to- 2-hour long brilliant personal tour comes to an end, so starts a thunderstorm. The first real rain I've seen for the last six weeks. As such, I cannot complain. 
Shortly after we get back to Mike's place in Scott, the warm rain simply starts fades away.By evening it's all gone, the roads dry up, and we go into town for some Greek food .. followed by good live Cajun music in one of the downtown bars.
The rest of the night remains a blurred memory to me [hic!] .. ;o)
