From Southeast of the USA to Dallas

The mountain road in the Appalachian Mountains ends near Asheville, North Carolina. In this town I will turn the southwestward way that I have taken to the southward on the US25 and go down south to the peninsula of Florida About 50 km travel southwards from Asheville takes me into South Carolina. The forest, which begins in the east of Winnipeg in Canada and covers Montreal and then extends the whole Appalachian Mountains, also dyes the land of South Carolina in green. One week has passed since the terrorists attack in New York. An airplane is flying in a rather low sky. I did not have any expectation to see this. It looks bizarre to me, for I have not seen airplanes for a long time. No, that is not the only reason. The design of the airplane is strange. It seems to be an air transport. There must be an air base around here.

I rode through South Carolina in a half day and entered the city of Augusta in the north edge of Georgia. I saw a lot of African Americans. More than a half of the people were African Americans over there at the motel where I stayed or in an adjacent supermarket. Indeed, this state belongs to the Deep South. And, it is hot. When I am cleaning the bike so that I can dry my washed clothes as usual immediately after the arrival to the motel, an African American woman walks toward me from a room of the other side of the motel building and asks me a cigarette very friendly as if I were her old friend. I go back to the room for the cigarettes and she follows me in the room. She is a skinny woman. Her ankles are so thin that they might be easily broken even by a soft stroke. While talking some time, she changes her subject and she asks me $20 so that she can pay for her room. She says that her woman friend of ten years and her room mate, ran away to somewhere with her all the money of $170 this morning. I am trying to evade the answer, then she says "please" two times. I mumble to myself, "I have to help people sometimes", take $20 out of the wallet and hand it to her. I am always weak at women. To my surprise, after receiving the money she hugged this middle-aged man and, in addition, kissed me on the cheek. I think it was enough for the $20. There was a bar in the other side of the motel across the street. At night I went there and found all the people were African Americans including the bartender. A rather fat woman sitting next to me at the counter offered to dance with the bartender and an old man drinking at the other end of the counter. When she was rejected by them, she could not do other than choose me as the last person. I answered I could not dance and then she began to dance by herself. Her dance was so good that I could become happy. Afterwards I asked her to show me her dance again. I am sure there is no woman in the world who accepts this kind of selfish request.

Leaving Georgia, I entered Jacksonville located at the east entrance of Florida. I have at last come all the way to Florida, the southernmost part of the USA. Palm trees are seen on the side of the road. This is really a tropical land. It is already past the 20th of November, but what the hell is this heat? In the morning I put the leather pants and jacket in the air-conditioned room and walk to the bike to ride on. Sweats pour down on my face like a waterfall. The leather wear is totally impossible in this climate. I keep the leather pants, but change the leather jacket for a vest with protectors. It is natural to be hot. The latitude of this place is the same as in Mexico..

I went down south along the east coast of Florida on the US 1. After riding 150 km, I saw a traffic sign with the name of Daytona. No one wore a helmet. I vaguely remembered that famous Daytona is in Florida. There was a big motorcycle shop with the signboards of SUZUKI and KAWASAKI. I met a rider of my age on a DUCATI at a gas station. This town is surely that famous Daytona. He says there are one hundred and some dozens of motorcycle shops in Daytona. According to him, a motorcycle race will be held in three weeks and 3000 people will visit this small town. In March this town welcomes half a million visitors every year. He said to me, "A motorcycle rider would stay in this town for at least several days.", however, I left the town because I did not have to do the shopping.

Riding further down south from Daytona, I saw the sea from time to time. I felt a kind of nostalgia for Japan, seeing the sea for the first time after Japan. I saw a huge white building in the distance of the sea. I thought it was absurd, because the other side of the ocean must be Europe. I saw the map later and found it was J.F Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral A.F. Station. I do not have a guide book for this trip and move around only with a map. Therefore I do not have any beforehand knowledge of the land and the towns that I pass through. Even if I had a guide book, I would not have enough time to read. For the last two and a half months since I left the Canadian Rockies, I have devoted myself to writing my travel stories and renewing my web site. I have not had time even to read the books I took with me from Japan.

I was looking for a motel in Melbourne, a town in the middle of the peninsula of Florida and I saw a motel sign with $24.95. This is unbelievably inexpensive. There is a Japanese restaurant next to the motel. A Japanese restaurant must have beer. The motel is in a good location. I could not wait till dark and left the motel for the restaurant. Going into the restaurant, I found all the waitresses had a Japanese face In addition, All of them were good-looking. I talked to one of them instinctively in Japanese, "I am by myself..." There was no reaction. She must have grown up here. It seems strange to me that a girl with a Japanese face does not understand Japanese. When another waitress asked me, "What would you like to drink?", I answered as usual, "The strongest beer, please". She served me a bottle of Asahi. I made a mistake. Japanese beer is more expensive by around one dollar, but alcohol content is lower. It was watery. I really missed the Canadian beer with 8 % alcohol. I had "sukiyaki". Considering the materials difficult to obtain, I thought it was acceptable, however, the dish was so abundant that could not eat even a half of it. I should have taken the leftover to the motel.

The closer I came to Miami, on the tip of the Florida peninsula, the larger cities appeared in series along the road. I had to stop at several -kilometer intervals of the traffic lights and I could not go farther down the road. I thought, "If I waste time, the sudden shower will come again". So I left the US 1 and took the Interstate 95. Soon later when I came into Miami City, the highway began to branch away. I did not know which way to go, because I did not examined the direction well beforehand. "Oh, No! Which way to go? ... Maybe to Miami Beach". That was wrong. I had to go west, but the road went to the opposite direction across the sea. Miami Beach is in an island in the east of the downtown of Miami. I had to go back, however, I felt like having good luck instead. I was able to enjoy a panorama of the skyscrapers hemming the bay from the top of the bridge over the sea. The US 1, on which I had traveled most part of the east coast of Florida peninsula, goes through the busiest street in the midst of the high-rise buildings of Miami, runs over the sea in the south and finally disappears in the sea. I went to Florida in order to ride on that road. So I went back to the US 1. The traffic of central business district with skyscrapers, about which I had been worried, was on the contrary as easy as in a ghost town. I had a preoccupation of the traffic chaos as seen in the downtown of Japanese cities, but in fact I had the easiest riding.

Meanwhile when I came to the suburbs, the number of the cars gradually began to increase and at last the traffic flow stopped at a light. Probably I came across the rush hour of the evening. I could not help waiting calmly in the heat. Looking aside, I found a two-lane road which had no traffic. I supposed the road might have been closed because of the road construction. However, a bus was proudly coming toward me. It was a road specific for buses. I agree that something must be done to solve the insufficient public transportation of the Us, but I think that was an unimaginably courageous policy. While I was thinking about the probably negative reaction from the Japanese citizen to this kind of road, I came to forget the traffic jam.

I had once seen the road over the sea in the south of Florida

The US 41 is a two-lane road, however, it is very easy to ride with its light traffic. On my right side of the road a canal 5 - 6 m wide continues for a long distance. The canal is so long that a boat can travel across the peninsula by the canal. I supposed so at first, however, while I went farther I found the canal was chopped by crisscrossing roads in places. What is the purpose of this canal? Immediately after one riddle is solved, another riddle arises.I was thinking about going up north all the way on the seaside US Highway also in the west coast of the peninsula, however, I was involved in the heavy traffic on the way again as in the east coast. I changed my mind and took an Interstate Highway. I straight went back to the northern border of Florida, after staying one night in Tampa, a harbor city, on the way. I advance toward the northwest from Florida and then headed for the west on the US 84 in the south of Alabama. That road had also light traffic and was fringed with trees. The slightly undulating road was the best for motorcycle riding. I entered Mississippi in the west of Alabama soon and saw vast extend of field. That was the same scenery as I saw in the prairie of Canada. It lasted till in Louisiana. Since I had a good rest in Montreal, I have been working with a PC to make and to renew my web site every night till three or four o'clock in the morning. Probably because of the bad effect of the hard job, I threw up every day on the road after I left Florid. Too much work affects the weakest part of my body. I have a friend in Dallas, Texas. I will do my best and ride 500 km every day. When I arrive there, I will have another good rest.

In Dallas, the dangerous city where John Kennedy was shot,

I go out of the school to smoke a cigarette while I wait for the school children of the first class. It is hard today that I cannot smoke in the presence of the pupils. In addition one class has a long time of 90 minutes. Meanwhile around 20 kids arrive in line. Everyone seems to be vigorous. As I was told most of them speak Spanish, I speak in Spanish, "Good morning, my friends. My name is Toru Matsumoto". They cannot catch "Toru". So I say as usual, "Toro as in el toro" and they understand immediately this time. I pitch a tiny tent for single occupancy by the side of the motorcycle and show an air mat and a sleeping bag to them. In the classroom I point on the world map at about the 30 countries where I have visited for the past about 30 trips, and follow the traveling route of this time.. Besides, I monitor the video of this trip taken by my camera, Sony Ruvi, onto the large TV screen of the classroom. There are 6 - 7 PC's in the classroom. I think I also have to show my notebook PC, Sony Vaio. Then, the introduction of my home page is indispensable. And, it must be interesting to tell them how to write Japanese and how to count numbers in Japanese. The school children over here are very active. When I talk something, more than half of them raise hand and bombard me with questions. So I cannot keep telling the things I wanted to talk. They wear plain clothes, not uniforms and the layout of the desks is not as rigid as in Japan. The teaching platform is missing. Free children are raised in a free atmosphere.

This immoral middle-aged man goes out of school for smoking between the classes, however, the teacher has to do something else like taking the kids to the restroom and does not have time even take a short break. We rushed to a restaurant nearby for a quick lunch in a heavy shower. The labor of the teachers of primary schools is very hard. The four classes of the day were finished at three. It was after a half year that I went out and did something like work, for I had a retirement in March this year. When I finished the job as a one-day teacher, I felt a little tired on the day. It must be the first and the last for me to talk in front of school children. On that night I also soaked in the hot bath of the apartment with a can of beer in the hand. I never saw other people in the bath. Probably there is no culture of soaking in a bath in this country. Fortunately the bath is in a way reserved for me every night. I was a kind of fanatic for hot springs in Japan and so what I miss about Japan is only open-air thermal pools in the deep mountains. Even in Japan it is never easy to find a outdoor bath without anyone else like this. My fatigue disappeared.