Day Fourteen - Monday, October 29, 2012

Southern Living.
It is humid here!! Duh
Well, we opened the door to our house, all excited to be here and were greeting with rhat horrible musty smell and realized that the house had been left at a temperature all summer. Worked all day to was cupboards and floors that had some mold. Ick!!
Three days later and end result.. I think it will be fine and all be ok. Purchased a dehumidifier and that machine is amazing. Have some modifications to be made with our ducting tomorrow.
Have called in the big guns to work on some of the big trees here and remove the boxwood hedge leading up to the door. I had wanted to try and work with it, but it needs to go :(
Both the electrician and the painter i worked with before came by today and we will get a few more things checked off the "to do list"!

I gave enjoyed some time with the kids and look forward to pumpkins tomorrow and trick or treating on Wednesday. Time is going by too fast.

However, i am getting very tired of trying to hunt abd peck my way around this tiny keyboard. Sure hope we can have internet connected in December!!!

Day Nine ( last day on the road) - Wednesday

Drove from Tallahassee to St. Simons Island today. All went very well and arrived around one o'clock. See pictures- they tell a fun story, but they are not in the right order, grrrr....see next post

Day Eight - Tuesday

Day eight - October 23, 2012

Left New Orleans and drove to Tallahassee, Fl. In three hous we drove through four states: Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida .
Interstate 10 is straight and smooth. The scenery is much like Georgia; tall green pines along the road and trash free. Florida has an increased fleet of cops, so we are driving the speed limit.

We had a nice phone call with Thane to wish him a very happy eleventh birthday. He is loving his wilderness survival school. They are all very happy with their move to Washington.

We spent the night in a Marriott Courtyard and walked to an Outback Steakhouse for dinner. Surprise, surprise! A really nice dinner and a lovely young student waitress. It was so refreshing to meet such a well spoken and polite young woman that Randy tipped her $20. You should have seen the look on her face. Priceless!

Tomorrow will be a short day and we will be "home".

Day Seven - Monday

In hindsight, we really should have been better prepared for our tour and food choices.
Fortified with a basic egg/ potato breakfast we headed out to see the French Quarter in daylight.
Charming and sad. Roads are in total disrepair and lots of sidewalks roped off for rebuilding along with piles of trash waiting for pick up.
Too, too many tatooed young people living on the streets.
I did manage to take pictures of Jackson square and the St. Louis cathedral; the oldest catholic church in the US. Also, only for Spanish...there was another catholic church for the white people.

Wanted to try the mufuletta sandwich from Central Grocery. They were closed on Monday. Went across the street for one of theirs. 👎 another recommendation failure.

Our tour took us mostly through the 9th ward devastation during hurricane Katrina. We went to the St. Louis cemetery and were told that each of the individual crypts were for entire family lines. When you die, you are layed on a "rack". There you stay for one year and one day. By this time you have slowly baked and your ashes are filtered down to make room for the family member. The crypts cost hundreds of thousands.
We did see a few streets of the garden district. By this time i had a "sick headache" as all my historical novels referrenced.
Rested in the room for a few hours; tried to make the best of the evening, but it did't work out.
Back in our room by 8:00 to see the Giants make it to the series.

Day Six

Day Six - Sunday

We joined the rest of the Natchez locals for breakfast at Shoney's. I will not have the desire to visit Shoney's again.
Back in Louisiana
we drove into Baton Rouge to the UNLV campus and ate at Louie's Cafe, recommended by Southern Living to start the recommended River Road Tour (plantations).definitely a student hangout. Ok

We only walked around one plantation; Nottoway. The grounds were beautiful and seeing how it was situated next to the river and the levy was interesting.

From there we drove into New Orleans. Our hotel was nicely situated in the French Quarter and not far from our first stop: Acme Oyster House. Started off with a dozen on the half shell.
Sort of went downhill from there. Decided to stick with oysters and had po-boy sandwiches. Too salty, too breaded and too well cooked. I actually got a little sick that night.
Walked around after dinner. Culture shock, to say the least.

All these pictures are from my phone. Will update with better later. Also, i don't seem to be able to control the order.

Day Five

We had an amazing day today. Slept in and them went to the National Military Park in Vicksburg, MS.
Our country has so much agonizing history. The park encompasses the actual trenches and battle fields of one of the last battles of the Civil War. They fought so close!!
We then drove south pn 61 and drove part of the Natchez Trace Parkway. So beautiful; a southern Blue Ridge Parkway.
Upon arriving we discovered that it was the Natchez Mississippi River balloon race. Yikes. So much activity... And ues, they do walk around here with a beer in hand.
Asked for a dinner recommendstion and ended up at Roux 61. The best time...so many friendly people ready to talk. I could hardly eat. Maybe Californians are a novelty here.

Day Four

Day 4

46 degrees. Brrrr  It is quite a bit colder than we had planned.  It did get up to 78 Degrees in Louisianna
Left at 8:00 am. Sun is low and right in our face. Driving east makes the mornings a little difficult.

Road nightmare in Fort Worth - Dallas.  We somehow missed our turn and ended up on a freeway that was a complete redo.
This is that last weekend for the state fair (also in Dallas)! The news mentioned that their welcoming statue of Big Tex burned down yesterday....everyone so sad.
Gas $3.46!!!

Subway sandwiches again today on the road.

Amazing to think we drove through three states today! Texas/Louisianna/Mississippi

Bonnie and Clyde Ambush Museum.   Who knew??

The oldtown of Vicksburg was not anything like we expected.  We went in for dinner and did not stay.  Everything was dark and not much was opened.  Kroger dinner tonight in our room....

Our day today

 

Downtown Dallas

Finally got back on 20 east!

Crossing the Mississippi River

 

 

Day Three

Day 3

Lots of trees on the east side of Albuquerque.
Then a slow decent to flatlands.
*note. Best to stay on the travel side a any major downtown area to avoid commute traffic.
Low of 55 degrees; high of 74 today.
Impressions of MN:
Nice clean roads and rest stops. Artistic bridges and overpasses.
Tall cell towers. Lots of billboards.
Lots of rectangular housing ( mobile homes, pre fab. basic housing)
Fireworks! What's that all about?
Billy rhe Kid grave site at Ft.Sumner, NM.
Time change to mountain tume!!

Arrived Texas around 11:15 am
Different roads: cement, makes a high pitched 'hum' sound.
Lots of wind turbines.
FLAT. FLAT Picnic areas (sheltered tables) along the road, but no bathrooms.
There is an app for rest stops.
Going west to east, every state starts with mile marke #1 and the rest stops are listed by the mile marker ( WB- west bound and EB - east bound)  came in handy 

Left highway 40 to head southeast on #187.

Lots of wind turbines. Signs of a better economy with farms: hay and cotton. Another time change - central time. Forgot to plan on losing that hour!
Made it to Wichita Falls, TX.  (no falls to speak of)

Ended up staying in a generic Comfort Inn (better than the "It'll Do Motel), but had the best steak at McBride Land and Cattle Co. steak house.  We would have never gone there except for a recommendation.

Another long day tomorrow and then we hope to do some sight-seeing!

Shopping?

Texas Rest Stop.  So nice & Clean

Growing Cotton

Day Two

We had a pretty good day today. Drove to New Mexico!
Williams, AZ, south of the Grand Canyon is such a cute Route 66 town. Elevation brings more pine trees than you would expect around Flagstaff.
Winslow, AZ is a sad little town as was Holbrook. Once in New Mexico things seemed a little better. This is a nice clean state with great roads.
We are in the downtown area of Albuquerque ( can finally spell it!) and had a nice dinner in Old Town at the Church Street cafe.
They filmed a movie today in the town square. "American Girl" with Jane Seymour. Just missed it.
Jennifer Aniston was here filming a movie two weeks ago.
Tomorrow we tackle Texas! Yikes.

I don't think my pictures are posting in order, but hope you can figure them out.