Day 3 of Southern Road Trip and Houston Makes a Final Stand

Waking up in New Orleans on what turned out to be a relatively calm street, we played tourists and got beignets at the famous Café du Monde. Every employee appeared to be angry and Vietnamese. We asked for four beigets and the lady yelled at us and said, "No! Two! For you two!" and promptly stormed off to put in our reduced order. It would not be the first time that someone on wait staff attempted to convince me that I should be eating less than I'm asking for, but she seemed so assured of herself, I was taken aback. Perhaps she was trying to tell me I'm fat.

After our beignets, we left the hotel and found that my parent's car was still intact with no broken windows. We parked it on the street for $2 so as to avoid the $48 parking fee at the nearby lot. From New Orleans, we proceeded to drive for over 300 miles until we got to Buc-ee's where we had oversized meals and a delightful banana pudding and completed the remaining 20 miles into Houston.

If you recall, I was fairly certain I would not be assigned any trips due to the fact I had only two days remaining in Houston before transferring to LA. But of course with that confidence came an unexpected trip to humble me one final time. Around 11pm, I discovered I had been assigned a pairing that would be going up to Cleveland, O'Hare, and Milwaukee, then back down to Houston on the following day and over to Pittsburgh for an overnight followed by a deadhead back to Houston on May 1st when I was supposed to be in LA. Oy vey! I called to make the correction, but I would still be stuck flying on those final two days (including my birthday!).

Poor Nicole was left behind to bond with my family and sister who had just given birth to a ten-pound sack of potatoes. We finally met up on the 30th and flew together from Houston to LA on what would be my final commute. It had been a very long day that began early morning in Milwaukee and involved two legs just to commute home from Pittsburgh, but with that effort came an increased sense of accomplishment. This called for donuts! And perhaps Randy's Donuts knew that it was my birthday. I asked for a dozen and was given 15. What a day!

2nd Day in the Dirty South

After eating a very southern-style breakfast of grits, andouille sausage, and beignets, we walked a little bit around Mobile. We saw a shipbuilding yard for what can only be described as stealth boats for the navy. There were about as many people out and about during the day as there were last evening. At one point I walked by a cafe where I swear I saw a woman stirring her drink with a strip of bacon. If it wasn't bacon, I'm not sure what I saw. Around 11:30, we left Mobile and drove through Pascagoula for a bit just to see what it had to offer. It offered nothing other than perhaps the inspiration for the name of the Sassagoula café at DisneyWorld's Port Orleans resort. We stopped off in Biloxi, Mississippi for lunch. We ate at a quirky place that looked like someone's house. Nicole and I played checkers while eating sandwiches. Nicole won at checkers and chose our next destination. I am not sure how she even found out about it, but our next stop was a giant rocking chair in Gulfport, Mississippi.

Here you see her running toward the giant rocking chair with more excitement than my four-year-old niece seeing Anna & Elsa at DisneyWorld. After she discovered she couldn't actually sit and rock in the world's largest rocking chair, (and accordingly couldn't discuss how it was good to have land while sipping on a lemonade and venting about the oppressive southern heat), she returned to the car. Within about 30 seconds, the sky erupted with extremely intense rain. This slowed our progress a bit because I was unable to drive the speed limit even with the wipers on full blast. By the time we crossed the border into Louisiana, it had calmed down a bit and we drove across the Lake Pontchartrain causeway and finally into New Orleans. It was a bit of a battle with traffic, horses, and middle-aged folks drunk in the middle of the day, but we eventually found a place to park.

Nicole and I are fairly calm individuals who don't fancy large crowds or drunkards, so when we saw large crowds of drunkards we were a bit overwhelmed. Fortunately, we were able to find a place to eat that was a bit removed from all the craziness. We were able to eat on a balcony above the action. I had an alligator po' boy. Nicole had some red beans and rice and a salad. It was a gassy evening. After dinner, we walked around a bit more and made the obligatory trip down Bourbon Street. There was a surprising amount of folks pushing sixty (or more) getting drunk.

I was almost hit by someone driving a rascal . . . twice. It was time to get the hell off Bourbon Street. We bought a pair of Abita Amber cans at a liquor store, where Nicole had a run-in with a man wearing a cape and headed back to drink our beers and relax. We are staying at a very unique place with a very large balcony on a relatively calm street. It is a nice escape from the insanity that is New Orleans. Tomorrow is our last day of the road trip and we should be back in good ol' Houston by evening.

Day One of the Great Southern Road Trip

Due to the unpredictable nature of flying standby, I successfully made it to Orlando from Houston, but Nicole found herself in an oversold situation on the only United flight from LAX to Orlando for the day. After her unsuccessful first attempt, I routed her through Atlanta and on to Daytona Beach, where I picked her up around 9:00pm and we drove up to Savannah, Georgia to spend the night. The following morning, we walked around the historic district for a bit, snapping a few pictures along the way.

The last time I visited Savannah was during my winter break in grad school. During that period of time, a severe cold snap hit the south and the warmest it got when I was there was a shocking 26º. Fortunately this time was much more pleasant with temps in the low 70s for our morning stroll. We drove a little bit around the town and saw where Forrest Gump sat at the bus stop recounting his stories of 'Nam and runnin' and Jenn-ay. Oddly enough, we saw someone dressed up as him during breakfast at the Holiday Inn Express. I was grabbing my cinnamon rolls while I overheard a very over-the-top southern accent and just assumed this was standard for the area. I didn't realize there was a character breakfast going on behind me. From Savannah, we headed west toward Alabama. Highlights from the drive included Nicole's first trip to Chick-fil-a and . . . that's about it. It's difficult to convey just the sheer lack of anything between cities in the south. There are very few places to exit and grab food and not much to look at off the side of the road.


Eventually we arrived in Montgomery, Alabama. Why Montgomery you ask? Well, it just so happens that there is a minor league baseball team called the Montgomery Biscuits. Its mascot is a biscuit with eyes, baseball cleats, and a tongue made out of butter. While we didn't actually see a game, we made sure to pick up some much-needed biscuit merchandise. At one point we had considered spending the night in Montgomery, but the town was virtually dead. Restaurants were closed, businesses boarded up, streets void of cars. We saw a memorial for Rosa Parks, but the museum was also closed.

We continued our drive south from Montgomery through the town of Greenville, Alabama, where we were hoping to find a place to eat. The best Yelp reviews were for a bbq place next to a gas station. In person, it was a tiny shack in disrepair with a heavyset man passed out in front of it. A few of the other eating places listed were boarded up or closed. Where do people in Greenville eat? It is a question that has no answer. We continued south for another two hours until we got to the very bottom of Alabama and the city of Mobile. While outwardly, it looks like much more of a city, it too is a bit like a ghost town. While we were able to find a restaurant that was open with relative ease, the streets were pretty dead. I understand it's a Tuesday and it's not exactly mardi gras, but it would be unusual to see a car driving down the street or people out and about. I'm just not used to this sort emptiness. Even Washington, DC was more lively at night. Nevertheless, Mobile is a quaint looking town. In some ways it reminds me of New Orleans, but maybe a bit cleaner. I am glad we chose to continue driving rather than stay in Greenville for the night. It's a different world in the south.