On the Road, Days Six Through Eight: NOLA BABY

It was nice to get out of Houston - not much to see there except our jail cell of a hotel room. We left around 10 A.M. for our most anticipated destination - New Orleans. Thankfully, the driving was only about six hours, including the bad traffic and the torrential downpours.

Pam was driving during the thunderstorm, God bless her. The storm was huge, and happened right as we were driving over a ten mile long swamp in the heart of Louisiana. It was crazy.

The hotel we stayed at was a billion times better than that stinking Houston room. It was clean and homely. It even had a second level up spiral stairs with another bed (that we didn't use, but it was cool that our hotel room had a second floor). The rain caught up with us by the time we checked in at four, so we waited it out until six, when it was still raining and we just said "screw it" and bought some ponchos and headed out to Bourbon St.

What a neat town. It's an old town, which only means it's filled with culture. All up and down Bourbon Street, it's all shops and bars and restaurants, and all of them have balcony levels that you can hang out on. Here's the view from Embers Grill, where we ate dinner that first night.

I had my first Po' Boy, complete with alligator meat, and washed it down with a local brew, Abita Amber.

Pam had already visited New Orleans about two years ago, so she was familiar with all this. She said it was great to be back. I could tell she really loves this city. It really was a great vacation spot.

The rest of Friday night was a blur of neat bars and crazy drinks (including the infamous "Hurricane" which basically tasted like Jungle Juice I used to ladle out of a big trash can in my youth) and great Cajun music. We eventually stumbled on a bar that featured that great Nawlins jazz music, complete with accordion and fat lady playing the spoons. We had a great time just hanging out and enjoying the environment.

Saturday morning we took it a little easy - it was the first time in a couple of weeks that we had a long night of partying, so even though we did wake up for our complimentary hotel breakfast, we promptly fell back asleep until probably one o'clock, so it was a late day. When we did finally head out though, we walked through the French Quarter, which featured some nice sights.

It also was just as fun as Bourbon Street. Tons of people were out and about. After a nice lunch of blackened chicken, we hit up some shops.

The local souvenirs.

We found a nice spot on a balcony of a cafe to enjoy some nice cool beers on a hot day.

It had a good view of all the people walking - and riding - by.

All kinds of folk passed us, including a few wedding parties.

This was the first time I saw the Mississippi River with my own eyes. It was majestic.

Again, we basically just spent the whole day walking around and hanging out at different spots. We walked along the river, we checked out a few Voodoo shops, we chilled at one of a few local breweries, we hung out at a jazz bar that was just FANTASTIC as far as live music goes. The musicians were so talented. Let's see, what was the band called? Ah yes, Pam reminds me they were the Shotgun Jazz Band. Just blew us away.

So that was our NOLA experience. What a relaxing, riveting, exciting, and fun weekend. I'm so glad we stopped there.

Today we drove for pretty much the whole day. Our plans to stay in Georgia fell through, so we basically got directions from NO to Baltimore, and stopped halfway whatever hotel was there. So now we're at the Days Inn in Lenoir City, Tennessee, blogging for the final night and watching some Breaking Bad and eating some Little Caesar's. It's nice to relax after a long day on the road.

We have one more adventure at our friend's house in the suburbs of Baltimore, and then it's time to head on home. It's time, folks.

This will be my last time blogging. We have three or four more posts that are coming up before Tuesday afternoon, but they will be more conclusion posts. This is our last live from-the-field post.

What a ride it's been.