Cavaliers celebrate Carnival with beer bust

Tornado watches were issued and Carnival parades throughout the New Orleans area were canceled, but the Cavaliers held their most successful beer bust ever on Feb. 21 despite the threatening weather.

The club greeted a big crowd of locals and visitors in town for the first weekend of Carnival parades.

Cavaliers present for the festivities included George, Poncho, William, Doug, and Michael D. Hosting the evening were David and Michael W., who cooked up a delicious batch of chili.

The Cavaliers handed out special Mardi Gras beads adorned with motorcycles (with spinning wheels!) to the first dozen or so beer bust customers. The beads were very popular. Thanks to Mark for the suggestion.

George told us that he really needed the beer bust because his classes at UNO have been very stressful. It looked like he had a good time and the beer bust served its purpose well.

This beer bust was held on the third Friday of February because the Cavaliers swapped weeks with the Knights d'Orleans so they could host their annual Night of the Black Mask party the following week. Because the third Friday is normally a Knights' beer bust, we were pleased to welcome a large number of their club members to our beer bust. We were honored to have so many favorable compliments from them about our event.

T.J., our visitor from Maine, told us how impressed he was with how friendly everyone was. The Cavaliers are known to be a friendly bunch, T.J., but it's really just a New Orleans thing, and one of the main reasons why many of us choose to live in this attitude-free zone.

We also got to meet Karl from Pennsylvania, who had contacted us before his visit for suggestions on renting a motorcycle in New Orleans. He had a great time renting a Harley and riding up to Natchez, Jackson, and Hattiesburg, MS, for a few days, even though he got caught in the severe weather on the way back. He still had a big smile on his face from the great time he had on his ride.

Cavaliers carve the twisties to Taste of Bavaria

Last Sunday the Cavaliers circled Lake Ponchartrain; this Sunday we circled Lake Maurepas. Sure the temperatures hovered in the low 50s, with a thick cloud cover and intermittent showers, but we had a damn fine ride.

Two bikes met at the Phoenix for the Feb. 9 ride. Mark showed up on his 1998 Honda Shadow 750 named "Bettie," and David and Michael W. showed up on David's 1996 Honda Gold Wing SE. Mark brought along some cool biker Carnival beads (the wheels spin!) to share with us. Doug and Michael D. showed up in their SUV "just to see who showed up for the ride." After David took off all his clothes in the Phoenix (I had one layer too many on for the mildly chilly weather), Doug and Mike waved farewell as Mark, David and Michael W. rode off.

Heading out Interstate 10, we barely got to Causeway Boulevard before it started to drizzle. Deciding that it looked like it would be a steady drizzle, we stopped at the Loyola exit in Kenner to don our rain gear. That did the trick, and it didn't rain on us again until we were almost in Ponchatoula.

We used Interstate 310 to cut over to Airline Highway, and enjoyed the more leisurely pace of the old US 61. At a stoplight Mark cracked us up commenting about all the small town hicks piling into their cars to head to Wal-Mart after church.

We made a pit stop in Sorrento, where Mark and Michael fed several dollars worth of quarters into a vending machine that dispensed some way cool dragon stickers. Then we hopped on LA 22 and headed toward Ponchatoula. Well, almost. David missed a turn and wound up heading to Gonzales until he glanced at his GPS a few miles later and realized we were going the wrong way. A quick loop through a bank parking lot turned us around, and soon we made the turn onto LA 22 as we should have.

This is one of the finest little twisty roads in southeast Louisiana, and with light traffic and only two bikes, we took it at a sporty pace. The road follows the curves of the Amite River through charmingly named towns such as French Settlement and Catfish Landing. The road hugs one side of the river while picturesque camps and vacation homes dot the other bank. It's a postcard-perfect picture of life in southern Louisiana.

The road snakes behind the western side of Lake Maurepas for about 40 twisty miles, with dozens of wide, fast sweepers and tight, technical turns. It's a road that's sure to put a grin on any motorcyclists' face. (Michael kept giggling over the intercom to me as we swept through each of the curves.)

The road straightens out at Springfield and makes a beeline for Ponchatoula. But before you get to the quaint town of antiques and strawberries, there's a restaurant on the right, back in the trees, that offers some of the best German goodies you'll get anywhere.

We stopped for lunch at Taste of Bavaria. Our friends Troy and Alan, who live nearby in the town of Pumpkin Center, met us at the restaurant. The five of us were seated in a beautiful glass-enclosed dining room, and we had the most wonderfully delicious meal. It started with the hot and hearty rolls, fresh from the restaurant's own bakery. We all ordered a cup of gumbo to shake off the chill, and it was some of the best gumbo I've ever eaten, thick with okra and full of chicken and andouille sausage. Then we all ordered a variety of German delights. I had a marvelous weiner schnitzel, Michael had some delicious roast chicken and broccoli crepes, and Mark had a big fat bratwurst (and he cracked that the large sausage made him feel less of a man). Troy and Alan had equally delicious meals. We followed it all with some wonderful gourmet coffee (served in individual pots) to warm us up for the road and wait for a rainshower to end.

But we couldn't leave without paying a visit to the bakery case in the front of the restaurant on the way out. Taste of Bavaria is worth a trip just for the wonderful pastries and other baked goods. Michael and I loaded up a box full (and spent as much in the bakery as we had in the restaurant) to take home.

After goodbyes in the parking lot and a fairly lengthy process of suiting up again (all those layers for warmth and rain protection), we headed toward Ponchatoula and Interstate 55. After a short detour back into town (I forgot to have us stop for gas) we were off and riding again, only this time we rode home in a fairly steady rain. I commented to Michael how much I like riding in the rain. It seems odd at first, but as long as you take it easy, it's really kind of nice to be all bundled up, warm and dry, yet still be out in the elements. Michael added that he was "warm as toast" in the rain gear, leather, and an electric jacket liner.

The temperatures warmed slightly as we neared New Orleans, where it reached nearly 60 degrees, but the steady light rain continued the whole way home. We waved goodbye to Mark at Causeway and cut over to the River Road for the rest of our ride home Uptown.

We'll be sure to add the twists and turns of LA 22 and the scrumptious German food at Taste of Bavaria to our ride calendar again this year when the weather's nicer so that more of you can enjoy it.

Cavaliers circle the lake on lagniappe ride

I reached Nirvana on this ride. Somewhere along Hwy. 22, with a belly full of seafood linguine, a warm sun shining down from a clear winter sky, and the low roar of five bikes rumbling along through the pine forests of the Northshore, I hit that zone of contentment that comes from enjoying a solitary sport in the company of good friends. Let me tell you how we got there.

The time had come to do some ride planning for the coming months so that I could publish a spring and summer ride calendar. I suggested an in-town lunch meeting, but Michael and Doug saw that the weather was going to be nice and suggested a ride instead. We would stop at lunch and have our planning meeting. We sent out emails and before we new it, we had a lagniappe ride set for Sunday, Feb. 2. The best part: no one knew where we were going.

The sunny morning brought five bikes together:

-Doug rode his 1998 Honda Shadow 750
-Michael D. rode his 1999 Honda Shadow 750
-Mark rode his 1998 Honda Shadow 750 named "Bettie"
-Guy and John rode Guy's 2001 Harley-Davidson Road King
-David rode his 1996 Honda Gold Wing SE

At our pre-ride meeting Doug suggested we take a back roads ride through the Northshore. By the time we were off and riding, temperatures were in the low 60s and rising. We headed out St. Claude Avenue to St. Bernard Parish with Doug in the lead. We turned up Paris Road to Hwy. 90, then took Hwy. 11 to Slidell. Most of us had never been along that stretch of Hwy. 11, which is really quite lovely, even in the dead of winter, with flocks of shore birds fluttering around the marshes.

As we neared the interchange with Interstate 10, we got to see up close some of the funky and unusual camps in the area, such as the castle house and the pyramid house. The interchange got a little more interesting when a confused automobile driver seemed to think the two-lane overpass was only one way. The car was traveling in the same direction we were, but on the wrong side of the yellow line. We backed off a bit and fortunately the motorist moved to the right before the oncoming traffic reached it.

The ride across the eastern end of Lake Ponchartrain on the Hwy. 11 bridge got a little chilly over the water, but at least we got to enjoy the newly resurfaced pavement on what was once one of the area's most notorious stretches of bad roadway.

We took a brief rest stop at a McDonald's in Slidell and consulted our maps. We decided to follow Hwy. 433 to connect with Hwy. 190. That turned out to be a great decision. Hwy. 433 is a beautiful little road that winds through Slidell before crossing Bayou Liberty over a charming little bridge followed by a series of tight turns.

A straight and true ride on Hwy. 190 led us through quiet Lacombe and bustling Mandeville, where we connected to Hwy. 22. A short distance later we were crossing the Tchefuncte River at Madisonville, where we made a quick decision to stop at Morton's seafood restaurant for lunch. It turned out to be a perfect choice. We beat the lunch rush and grabbed a prime table on the outside deck, where it was warm and sunny enough for us to enjoy the view overlooking the Tchefuncte.

Over lunch we discussed a variety of ride ideas and realized that we have no shortage of great places and events to ride to in this area. Based on the input we'll be posting a spring and summer ride calendar soon.

While we ate we saw dozens of other bikes arrive and park near the restaurant. All day throughout our ride we waved at scores of other bikers, in groups and alone, all out enjoying the same fine mid-winter weather we were enjoying.

After lunch we continued heading west on Hwy. 22 to Ponchatoula, and this was the where I reached Nirvana. I had just finished a delicious lunch of seafood linguini, in the company of five other like-minded men. The sun was warm and shining down on us as our five bikes rumbled through the pine forests of the Northshore. I settled into a state of utter contentment, sharing the love of the open road with friends. Motorcycling is primarily a solitary sport, but when shared with others, the enjoyment is only amplified. It's moments like this that I truly appreciate how lucky we are to have our little club.

Hwy. 22 took us to Ponchatoula, where we hopped on US 51 south through the swamps of Manchac. The old highway parallels Interstate 55 across the narrow neck of land between Lake Ponchartrain and Lake Maurepas, but rather than flying across the swamps on an elevated freeway, the old road brings you up close and personal with the swampland of the Ponchartrain basin. US 51 then took us to Laplace, where after a brief rest stop, we hopped on the River Road and headed home to New Orleans, completing our lagniappe ride all the way around Lake Ponchartrain.