Day 3
Left Albuquerque around 8am because we knew we had about a 12 hour day of driving ahead of us. I must admit, this day is fairly boring to blog about because it was a whole lotta nothing. Once we got out of New Mexico everything was flat as can be.
Lauren and I were able to get a picture with the “Welcome to Texas” sign. The sign said “Drive Friendly – the Texas way”. It should have said “Drive dumb – the Texas way”. Ok that’s not to say all Texans are bad drivers…in fact I wouldn’t even go so far to suggest that most Texans are bad drivers. However I will say that many of the Texans we encountered were oblivious drivers. Example 1: A car stopping dead in the middle of the fast lane for no apparent reason. No emergency flashers and started driving a few seconds later. He just decided to take a breather or something in the middle of the highway. Example 2: A car randomly merged into the center lane without signaling so he could turn right. What?? And example 3: A u-hall stopped before pulling over onto the shoulder on the busy highway in Austin. Seriously – oblivious.
The rest of the drive was pretty smooth though. We listened to Harry Potter book 7 and chatted, slept a bit, had Sonic for lunch and made it to our hotel at around 9. I worked out just so I could get some blood circulating then we went straight to bed. 12 hours of driving tires you out. We were excited to see more of the city in the morning though.
Day 4
I woke up relatively early again so that I could work out before we started out. We made a brief stop at Starbucks and chatted with the nice workers. It might just be that all Starbucks people are nice, but these ones were very friendly. Working at Disneyland has made it so that I strike up a conversation with just about anyone – so I have told most of the people we’ve encountered on this trip about our epic road trip. They’re usually pretty responsive to it too.
Our first stop in Austin was Allen’s boots to look for cowboy hats. We were unsure about actually purchasing though, so we left and tried to check out some of the vintage stores I had looked up on yelp. Unfortunately it was only 10am and most of the places didn’t open til 11. We then went BACK to Allen’s boots because Lauren was still debating on buying a hat. She left empty handed again – unsure about where she would actually WEAR a cowboy hat in Ventura, California. By that time one of the stores had opened so we checked it out, and I left with an awesome camera satchel that makes me feel way awesome and old school. We got back in the car, ready to head out to New Orleans, but Lauren was still second guessing the cowboy hat. We ended up deciding to go back and take a 3rd look at it – after all there will always be at least ONE time when you need a cowboy hat, and what better place to buy one than Texas? Lauren decided to buy it, and 3 times in a shoe store proved too much for me and I caved and bought a pair of SERIOUSLY awesome red cowboy boots. Now I guess I just have to find a great line dancing bar to wear them in!
We finally started out to New Orleans around 11:30, but the drive was only predicted at about 8 hours today so we weren’t too worried. The first half of the drive went a lot faster today because we actually saw trees (TREES!). I laughed a bit to myself as we passed through Beaumont because of Footloose, and Lauren and I got a bit confused by Texas highways/tollways, but overall the first half of the drive was very smooth.
Part 2 of the drive was equally easy – it was fun to drive through all of the swamps and bayous of Louisiana (albeit nerve-wracking to drive over so many bridges!). We missed the “Welcome to Louisiana” sign because it was on the other side of a bridge and next to an on ramp. We were bummed, but that’s what Photoshop is for. On the way we saw another car with a California license plate, and seeing as we were a little stir crazy from all the driving, freaked out a little bit. We made a sign and befriended our fellow Californians, and when they veered off we waved goodbye.
We faced a bit of hotel drama during the drive – New Orleans is not necessarily the safest city in the world, and the hotel I had picked was smack dab in the middle of the French Quarter. Awesome location for sight seeing, but I sort of forgot that all my worldly possessions would be sitting in the back seat of my car and surrounded by drunk crazy people. Because of this, my lovely mother was able to find and book a hotel with a secure parking garage, and all my fears we assuaged. This hotel ended up being quite lovely with a MASSIVE king sized bed and tempurpedic mattress, and was also in a fantastic location.
We drove into New Orleans listening to The Princess and the Frog (again, me insisting on appropriate music selections), checked in, and then head out for the evening. First we had dinner at a restaurant called Pier 424 where we both had delicious seafood gumbo. It was mighty spicy, and I felt like I must have been eating Tiana’s famous gumbo. After dinner we walked over to the Café Du Monde to have beignets from the original location. And yes, they were AWESOME. I love beignets. So much. Next it was time to walk Bourbon street and check out NOLA (New Orleans). Now I’d just like to say maybe it was because there was a massive football game that night, but oh my word, Bourbon street was the craziest thing I have ever experienced. WAY crazier than Vegas by far. As Lauren was saying, you can choose to do Vegas the classy way. In New Orleans…yeah there’s no avoiding the skeeze. Whether it’s signs that say “titties beer and sports: what more could a guy want”, women in underwear beckoning men into clubs, people wandering around (in front of cops no less) with their open containers, or the guys on every balcony throwing beads at women whether they flash or not (and many flash).
Lauren and I managed to find some tamer fun though at Howl at the Moon- a dueling pianos bar. We had lots of fun there listening to Sweet Caroline, Miss American Pie (to which I sang the lyrics to The Saga Begins at the top of my lungs) and many Beatles songs. At about 10:30 we were beat though, so we called it a night and made our way back to our hotel. On the way we scooped up some beads of the street so we could get our mardi gras beads without having to expose ourselves. We were happy. The hotel had given us a coupon for a free drink at their little lounge, so we decided to finish off the night with a glass of wine to help us sleep. The lounge was stylized to look like a 1920s bar and it was a really relaxing way to shake off the craziness of Bourbon street. I finished my wine, watched Jim Carrey host SNL, and then fell right asleep. It had been an exhausting day.
Day 5
We woke up and started out around 10 because we had managed to go to bed so early the night before. Getting out of New Orleans was a bit of a struggle because cops had blocked off the streets we needed to go on, but we eventually made it back to the 10 and set out to drive the remaining 600 miles to Orlando. It only took about 3 hours to pass through the rest of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. We were able to get pictures at the signs for each state – even though Florida gave us some trouble. We ended up having to pull over a bit past it and run to the sign.
We finally made it to Florida though! Unfortunately it was a bit of an empty victory, seeing as we had 7 hours left to drive through that state. The rest of the drive was a mixture of fast and excruciatingly slow. We listened to Harry Potter and both took naps, and we finally made it to the hotel!!! We had a bit of a celebration and then met up with Stephen so he could give Lauren her comp ticket to WWOHP. What a kind boy. Unfortunately, Lauren misplaced said ticket pretty much as soon as she got it. We had a bit of a freak out, but luckily found it in her backpack once we made it into the room. I did a short work out just so I could move my legs a bit and then we both decided to hit the hay. After all, we wanted to be rested for the big day of magical wonderment.
I can’t believe I’m actually here in Florida! Here’s to the next 6 months and the end of EPIC ROAD TRIP (well at least the driving section, thank goodness)
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