India House in the summer

When I began living at India House (International Backpackers Hostel), my hair was long and I had 10 or 15 lbs of excess body weight. My transportation was a Ducati 900 Super Sport. The wind screen had been fiber glassed over and airbushed with lightening. My name soon became Mike the Bike. It was easy to make friends quickly as is the nature of travelers. It was nice to live amongst internationals, a welcome respite from the relatively provincial American mindset. The owners of the hostel were crazy cool: John from Ireland - short, stocky, mustache, full throttle and caffenated, Aaron from England - crew cut, layed back, wakes up after noon, handled maintenence, crew cut and Mark from Zimbabwe - way layed back, always holding a drink, went online when the sun went down. They started the hostel by squatting with no money. They built it up, reinvested and now own various property and structures thru out New Orleans. One day, I biked to Lollapalooza (a traveling rock fest). Alice in Chains, Arrested Development, Rage Against the Machine, Tool, were all bands that were part of this tour. I ended up being offered a job making falafels and fajitas for a food vender (Little Jerusalem). I'd had an awsome experience that day and decided on impulse to open my wings, jump and see where the wind brought me. I motorcycled back to India House and spoke with Irish John and Zimbabwe Mark. I left a note for Aaron asking if he'd keep an eye on my Ducati and ride it around a bit. I'd only known Aaron for 2 weeks but he'd been asking me to ride it, said he was good and plus I'd seen him play some amazing pool... So that night I get dropped off by a friend back at the site, hop in the Little Jerusalem caravan and head to Houston for the next show. There were six more shows left on the tour. The last one would end in Pasadena California. I learned how to make and wrap a fajita in less than 10 seconds. Kids would wait in line for 60 minutes for food and pay 2$ for 8 fluid ounces of H2O. I would not return to India House for 3 months.