I woke up about 8:30 or so and decided to get on up and see what was going on for the day. When I was ready to go, I called the others and they wanted to sleep longer, so I decided to go walking around the French Quarter. I didn’t think I could get in much trouble so early in the morning even though I was by myself and I am glad I went out. I loved walking those streets, they were just so nice. I saw several people out rinsing off their sidewalks – seemed sorta strange, but I guess it makes sense. I walked past Jackson Square and turned to go back to Bourbon Street – felt like I should make a photo of a Bourbon Street sign and I did. On my way back, I bought Mema a postcard and found a neat New Orleans bag so I got that too. I went back to the knit shop but it still wasn’t open. I wandered back to the levee, sat down in the sun with the nice wind blowing off the river, and ate the apple I had gotten at the hotel for breakfast. It was really a neat experience sitting there watching the boats and barges going by.
After a while, I decided to head back to see if the knit shop was open at 10 and they were!!!! They had all kinds of neat yarn. I got some sock yard to make Frank a cap (perhaps) and a purplish yarn to make myself a narrow scarf as a souvenir of NOLA. They sure did a great job of wrapping up the yarn in colorful paper and ribbons. I’ll try to post a photo of it tomorrow, except that photo is on my phone and I may not be able to post it until I get home. Anyway, I walked back to the hotel and met Frank and Rachel. I rode the elevator up to their room and when the elevator door opened, I was surprised to see them standing there with all their luggage, waiting to leave. How about that for good timing? After loading up their stuff, Rachel went to check out and I dropped all my stuff over the balcony to Frank who was standing below. He caught it all, even my computer!!! Thanks, Frank. Then the valet parking attendant came to the car, made Frank get out from behind the wheel, and drove the car to the front gate. Frank was not really very happy about all of that, but went along with it.
As we wear leaving NO, they wanted some of the special chicory coffee that is made here, so Frank found a Community Coffee Shop, Rachel got out at the intersection to go get it, and Frank and I drove around a few blocks. Rachel was just coming out to the street as we arrived back, so again, perfect timing. Then we headed out toward Avery Island.
The GPS on Frank’s phone did a very good job of guiding us and we went straight on out of town and along Lake Pontchartrain. We missed the exit and had to go a LONG way to the next exit but we made it. We went through lots of little towns and saw lots of flat farm lands on the way. We got stopped behind a wreck and had to just sit for at least an hour, but finally got around it. Seems like a police car had been sandwiched in between two other vehicles on a bridge not too far ahead of us. Looked pretty bad to me, but he may have survived it. After that, we found Avery Island and toured the Tabasco factory. It was a very interesting experience and I’m very glad we went there. We also went to the Tabasco Country Store and spent some money. Frank bought a gallon of the sauce and other things and I bought three jars of their chili starter to use for a group dinner sometime in the not-to-distant future.
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| From March 9, 2012 |
We left there and went on to LaFayette for lunch at Julien’s where we all had Po Boy sandwiches. Rachel’s was made with alligator sausage (yuck, but she enjoyed it) and Frank’s was made with shrimp. Mine was just plain old ham. We all enjoyed them and we enjoyed listening to the lady talk – every sentence she said to us contained the word “Baby” and she used some other word when addressing Frank – “Bo” I think it was.
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| From March 9, 2012 |
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| From March 9, 2012 |
Then we got back on Hwy 90 to get back to the interstate. That Hwy 90 was rough and full of traffic. We were really glad to get back on I-10, at least for a while. The traffic there was fairly heavy and then all of a sudden, it stopped. Seems the interstate was blocked, perhaps by a car fire. So we got off and went cross country. Hard as it is to believe, that small road was often smoother than the interstate, which was often quite bumpy. We also got to see lots of rice fields and small communities. We finally got back on I-10 and this time we really made it to Texas.
We were getting quite hungry so we started using our phones to find restaurants in towns ahead of us. We found one that had good reviews, so we got off the interstate to go there. The directions took us to a dead end dirt road with a house on it. Bummer. We headed back to the interstate and saw the restaurant but it appeared to be closed. After we were back on the interstate we decided that we should call each restaurant to make sure it was open, We called lots of BBQ places only to find out they close early, like 8 p.m. Strange. We finally got off in Beaumont to look for one that was open and when we found it, it was not somewhere we would have felt safe, so on we went. It appeared that we were in a ghost town or something – most everything was shut down. After lots more driving, we were almost back on the interstate when we saw a steak house that looked pretty good, so we circled around and went there. Rachel and I shared a pot roast dinner that was really good and Frank had country fried steak. After all the problems we had finding a place, we lucked out and got a good one. Thank goodness.
After that meal, Frank let me drive the last hour and a half into Houston. We went right to Sara’s Bed and Breakfast, found the keys to our rooms in the mailbox and went up to our rooms. The B&B is an old Victorian house and it’s beautiful. I got the Galveston room cause I want to go there sometime. I think my room might be slightly larger and I know my bedroom is larger, but they are both nice rooms. We will have to go else where tomorrow night because they only have one room available then. Therefore, another adventure is waiting for us with our name on it. Frank has shown me how to upload photos, so if there are photos with this entry, I learned and if not, I didn’t. Considering it’s so late now, I’d say there may not be any photos on this post, but I’ll try.
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| From March 9, 2012 |
We’ve talked about plans for tomorrow and the Livestock Show (including the pig races) and the rodeo figure heavily in those plans. The weather is probably going to be stormy and cooler but we’ll adjust to whatever.
Great trip so far.
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