Roadtrip #3 – Day Six – Back on the Road Orlando – Orange Beach

 

Longest day for travel today with over 400 miles covered in a day,  Not a lot of major highlights but it was Thanksgiving,  Started out the day relatively early after a short break at the beginning to do a little souvenir shopping.

Carol drove for first stint as usual and we stopped to pick ups breakfast at an Orange Visitors center (nothing to do with sectarianism ;-)) and picked up some nice fresh oranges and saw a baby gator!

We snacked along the way and waited for our final destination to eat our Thanksgiving Dinner.

We were staying at a Hampton Inn in Orange Beach.  We paid extra to have a beach facing room and it was worth it for the excellent views and the lovely sunrise in the morning.

We popped into  Bubba’s in Orange Beach for our dinner which was really nice food then rested with a beer in the hotel room.  It was not lost on us that we were eating in a place called Bubba’s in the South.  It was really nice actually although I would have liked draft beer.

It was a travel day…so that’s all we’ve got…

 

RoadTrip #3 – LaFayette – Destin

4 States in one day (Texas is so big that it always takes a day just to get out then you can breeze through the other states.

Sophie is the author today.

Day Two.

Once again we woke up in darkness, with a 5 am wake up we were out of the hotel sharp by 6:10.  As we drove through Louisiana we saw the mist roll over the swamps and fields like invading troops.  After a while of driving we hit the Mississippi state line! Almost a mile over the line we hit a rest stop where Dad and Ben stopped for a quick toilet break and Mum and I took a few pictures with the sign and grabbed a wee coffee in the visitors center.

As we got on the road again we decided to take about 20 minutes out of our journey to take the scenic route by that time we had switched seats with Dad complaining about the space in the very small back. (Editor note: it was too small for my torso and after 17 hours like that I was dying…17 hours may be an exageration).  Set up was – Ben in the middle and Mum and I in the front, me navigating and Mum driving. After a few minutes of driving we decided to stop off at the beautiful white sandy beach and then  some ice cream at Sonic then we got back on track to Florida!

Right as we hit Alabama Dad almost had a heart attack because we missed the rest stop and couldn’t take a selfie with the sign. (second editors note: I like the selfies with the signs…that’s not a crime).  After that fiasco was over we stopped off at Zaxby’s chicken for lunch and from then we pushed onward until we got to the Florida rest stop.

Across the Florida line at the rest stop we got a map, a selfie and some really nice orange juice then another hour and a half till we got to Destin;

In Destin we found our hotel room with a beautiful beach front view. After we got settled we went for a walk along the beach where we found quite a few broken pieces of sand dollar and then walked to the pier, taking pictures as we went.

Mum and Dad walked along the pier while Ben and I played in the sand down below. After our walk we quickly went back to the hotel room and got changed and went out for some Chinese a few miles away. Finally we ended the night back at the hotel room where we all got ready for an early night at 8:00. (Last editor note – we struggled to keep the kids awake…a new phenomenon).

 

The Big American Road Trip Day Seven – New Orleans

Well it was a quiet day yesterday and a big day today!  We took in 5 states on our road from Chattanooga to New Orleans.  Granted some of the states were just flying visits but we hit Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and finally Louisiana.

Sorry Arkansas but your roads were the worst of our 10 states we visited.

We were expecting a 7.5 hr day but we managed to get the driving reduced by a half hour because we picked a hotel on the southern side of Chattanooga so we missed all the city traffic which may seem like a small thing but for us was a big thing!!

Anyway the road was great and the scenery was beautiful on the way down.  It was very nice to travel between the states and when we hit Mississippi and were not expecting it we were actually pretty pleased.  The whole journey has been a discovery and an adventure so finding things we do not expect is a real thrill for us and so good for the kids as they learn more about their adopted country every day.  The roads are similar but we tried to make sure we stopped at rest stops and tourist info places along the way and that helped frame the state we were travelling through.  Interestingly you could tell the state by the quality of the roads but also by the toilets!  Each toilet in the states had a different type of urinal…weird observation I know but very true…Alabama was the only one with all metal triangles to pee in!!  I loved the fact that Alabama welcomed us with a Sweet Home Alabama which was a nice touch.

The other interesting thing was the town markers.  Official state markers have the shape of the state around the road number so you can tell which state you are in by the shape around the number on the green signs.

The flying McAllens!

We arrived in New Orleans (having gained our hour back that we lost on the way up as we moved back to Central time) around 4pm and checked into the hotel.  We had traveled through a small snow storm as we left Washington but it was 85 degrees in NO so we took advantage of the nice weather and shook off the cob webs by going for a swim (well, Ben and Sophie did!) in the rooftop pool.  It was pretty nice and the kids performed acrobatics in the pool much to the chagrin of the 2 old couples who had the quiet pool all to themselves before we arrived.

After swimming we were headed into New Orleans for our dinner.  We decided to walk to the famous Bourbon Street to see what we could get to eat.  i have to say that with two children it probably wasn’t our best bet.  When the lady walked by me naked but for a pair of tiny bikini bottoms I knew we probably were not in a family friendly environment!!

After a bit of walking about we found a really nice food place called Jimmy J’s which had some really nice beer on tap.  They didn’t tell me till I was walking out that it was 8%!!  the sore head the next day was caused by those 2 beers!   The Gumbo was really nice though and we’d recommend it as a very friendly place to eat just off of Bourbon street which is a little calmers than the hustle and bustle of the French quarter without leaving the place.  We stayed next to the convention center which is not a bad walk to the French quarter at all at 1.5 miles.  The hotel (Hilton Garden Inn) was friendly and well presented even if it was a little more pricey than the hotels we had stayed at along the way and did not include breakfast for the extra cost (we passed on the $14 (inc tax) breakfast and found our own along the way.  Parking was also an issue but if you are ever there before you pay the $35 for valet parking (the only thing the hotel offers) take a look about there is a garage across the street and we actually found on street parking for $3 for 2 hours which stops at 6 so we arrived at 4.30pm so only had to pay the $3 till 8am the next morning.

Unfortunately our aircon in the car busted about a half hour outside New Orleans which made for a pretty hot trip across the city!  Visit tomorrow to Hertz to get a new car will be in order!