Cavaliers pass 10,000 mile mark at Jambalaya Fest

The Cavaliers Motorcycle Club passed a major milestone on their ride to the Jambalaya Festival in Gonzales on May 25.

In only nine months of riding as a group, the Cavaliers have clocked more than 10,000 miles collectively by 11 riders on more than a dozen riding events.

The Jambalaya Festival ride was our biggest group yet, with nine riders, four buddy riders, and one support truck joining in the fun.

-George rode his 2003 Honda Shadow ACE
-Mark rode his 1998 Honda Shadow ACE
-Doug and Michael J. rode Doug's 1998 Honda Shadow 750
-Guy rode his 2001 Harley-Davidson Road King
-Poncho and William rode Poncho's 1996 Harley-Davidson Electra Glide Classic
-Michael D. and Matt rode Mike's 1999 Honda Shadow 750
-Tedd rode his 2002 Honda Reflex, while his partner Tom followed in the support truck
-Michael came down from Jackson, MS, on his 1984 Honda Gold Wing Aspencade GL1200
-David and Michael W. rode David's 1996 Honda Gold Wing SE

We were surprised at the big turnout for a lagniappe ride that was thrown together only days before. Our regular May ride had been rescheduled twice, and obviously we were itching for a ride. Even the holiday weekend didn't seem to keep people away. All of our regulars joined us, as well as a few extras.

Our group rendezvoused at the Phoenix at 10, with the usual greetings all around. We were especially pleased that our friend Michael from Jackson was able to join us on a ride for the first time. After posing for the obligatory pre-ride photos, our group headed west on I-10 to LaPlace, where we slipped off the highway onto the old US 51.

Rather than head directly to Gonzales for the festival, we decided to take good advantage of the sunny and warm spring day and take the scenic route. Old US Hwy 51, which parallels I-55, is a pleasant ride on the narrow neck of swampland between Lake Ponchartrain and Lake Maurepas. The old road gives you a good view of the swamps and the narrow canals dredged through them, and a great view of the two big lakes on the high bridge over Pass Manchac. The old road brought back many memories to me as my family used to make frequent trips to Manchac to go crabbing and fishing when I was a boy, long before the Interstate highway was built.

Our group stopped for a break at Ponchatoula, before tackling the most scenic part of our ride. Hwy 22 runs between Ponchatoula and Gonzales, and it's 30 miles of the most wonderfully twisty and picturesque highway in southeast Louisiana. Before leaving the rest stop in Ponchatoula, David encouraged everyone to ride their own ride, even if the group separated a bit. Faster riders moved to the front, and slower riders hung back. Both were able to enjoy the great road and the lovely scenery, especially in the stretch along the Amite River near the towns of Maurepas and Catfish Landing. There was a little too much traffic and a few too many police patrolling the highway to take the road at as brisk a pace as some of us would have liked, but we had a great ride nevertheless. We were especially impressed that Tedd, who rides an automatic transmission Honda Helix, rode aggressively and more than kept up with the big dogs in the pack.

We grouped up again at the end of Hwy 22 and headed toward Gonzales on US 61, expecting to find a big sign pointing toward the Jambalaya Festival. Unfortunately it took a bit of wandering around to find the festival grounds, but after asking a local for directions we finally found our way. We parked and walked around the festival grounds, exploring the amusement rides, the food booths, the music stage, and the crafts and T-shirt booths. We even stopped in briefly at the kiddie country karaoke going on inside the auditorium, where the air conditioning was a welcome break from the heat and sun.

Mark, who had overslept and missed our rendezvous, surprised us by meeting us at the Jambalaya Festival. Seems he woke up about 11:30 and high-tailed it up I-10 to meet up with us. Mark's a dedicated rider who tries to

Unfortunately the biggest disappointment at the Jambalaya Festival was the jambalaya. Several of us bought a plate, and found it to be dry and flavorless, with unappetizing pieces of tough, greasy chicken. But much of the other festival food was really good, including the wonderfully spicy chicken-on-a-stick and the blooming onions. We had some really delicious and thirst-quenching lemonade, and several of us sampled the ice cream treats from the Blue Bell booth.

While at the festival we ran across Ms. Teen Gonzales with her spectacular tiara. We couldn't pass up the photo opportunity. But no sooner had we done snapping the souvenir photo, than we spotted Guy wearing his own tiara. Guess he was just jealous and wanted to be a beauty queen, too.

The heat of the day started to wear on us, and after a while we decided it was time to head back, this time with Poncho in the lead. We stopped for gas before leaving Gonzales, then headed to the River Road for the ride back to New Orleans.

This part of the trip was particularly nice, to just cruise along with the levee on one side and several beautiful plantation homes on the other. We saw the burned remains of Tezcuco Plantation, where sadly only the chimneys remain surrounded by the outbuildings following a May 2002 fire. We also saw the charmingly beautiful San Francisco Plantation, which is sadly squeezed into a tiny plot of land surrounded by chain link fences and a petroleum plant. The bright spot along this stretch of River Road is the Manresa Retreat House in Convent, which was built in the 1830s as Jefferson College, a private school for the sons of plantation owners.

Our only surprise along our route home was when we got to LaPlace and discovered the road across the Bonnet Carre Spillway was closed. We made a detour to US 61, and followed the old Airline Hwy into Kenner, where we returned to the River Road and followed it and Jefferson Hwy through Harahan and River Ridge as we made our way back to the city. People started splitting off from our group as they neared home.

Our official mileage for the ride was 175 miles, with nine bikes participating, putting us over the 10,000 mile mark on our group rides.

When we made it back to the city, several of us met up again a bit later at Lafitte's on Bourbon Street in the French Quarter. This has become a post-ride tradition, allowing us time to hang out and tell each other what a great ride we had. If you see a row of bikes parked across the street in front of the Clover Grill, be sure to stop at Lafitte's and meet the Cavaliers. You'll find we're a really friendly bunch.