Roadtrip #3 – Day Seven – Orange Beach to Lake Charles

Day Seven.

Another travel day but with a stop.  We set off later from Orange beach because it was such a nice view and we got to wander on the beach.  I went down for a wee dip in the Gulf of Mexico but it was pretty cold.  The hotel obviously had a sense of humour which was nice and it was a nice relaxed way to start the day.

After our complimentary breakfast (Carol is obsessed with ‘complimentary breakfast’) we hit the road for a 3.5 hr drive to New Orleans (or N’awlins as we now call it).  This was our second roadtrip that took in a stop in New Orleans. I have to say it’s a bit too much for me really.

She’s on her holidays and she shared with her brother!

Very busy, very dirty and very touristy.  Bourbon street has a smell all along it which I am pretty sure is illegal unless you go to Canada or Colorado!  The roads are a nightmare and it literally took us 90 mins to find a place to park and fight our way across town to get to it.

Having said all of this I think we have been getting the town at it’s worse as it was Friday night and it was Thanksgiving week.  We’d like to come back at a quieter time to see if it felt as intimidating and frankly uncomfortable.  A lot of homeless people and beggars and people out to make a quick buck.  It’s the bane of all tourist places I suppose.

 

We did do the rounds though – visited the French market, had Beignets and did Bourbon street (albeit briefly).  One last criticism – being from Austin and listening to excellent live music every day meant that the Bourbon street banging and crashing sounded amateurish…anyway. One of our family guilty pleasures is NCIS and Carol and I watch the New Orleans version of it so it was interesting to hit the sites from the TV show.

 

We visited the bar that is owned by the lead character in the show, Dwayne Pride, and it is always interesting when you see TV sets.  The bar looks the same on the outside but obviously it’s a sound stage for the show so is completely different on the inside.  The same with the main office location.  It’s a realtors car park but they use it for the base in the show.  Nice to see but I was glad when we paid the car park fee and got on the road.

Our last night on the road was at Lake Charles on the border between Louisiana and Texas.  The journey was interesting as there was a thick fog all the way and it was dark so there were no travel highlights!

Checking into our hotel was interesting as we did it all on the Hilton app.  We checked in then used my phone to open the room.  So no conversation with anyone at the hotel! We’re going to see if we can check out without a single human interaction…it’s an experiment we’re not anti social ;-).

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The Big American Road trip – Final day New Orleans – Round Rock

Our final day did not start off very well with Hertz informing us that we had to go 30 mins out of our way driving to get a new car after our Air conditioning went in the Optima we had hired.  Their office was right across the road from our hotel and after being rude letting me stand at a door which was not unlocked and just watching me the staff were even less helpful when I got inside.  The previous day they had told me that if I went to their office in the morning they would have a car for me.  I turned up to be told that they might have one but there were 40 cars due out that day and frankly they were too busy to help me so i needed to go to the airport.  We were in no rush so i asked if we just waited would they have one and the girl behind the counter just said – ‘Look if you want a car you need to go to the airport chances are we will be too busy to help you all day’.  85 degrees and no air con with two children in the car.  Guess who will not be getting my business in the future?

I complained on facebook, twitter and online and they did apologize on Facebook but nothing more…rude to say the least.  Anyway we drove to the airport and swapped out the Optima for a Nissan which was nicer and more roomy than the Optima but they had hooked up the sat nav to the front electrics and that meant the front charger did not work!!  Anyway enough moaning as the day started off poorly but got better!!

We now had only about 530 miles left in the big trip and after taking a wrong turning on a New Orleans bridge (don’t do that it put us 22 miles!!!  out of our way – those bridges are huge) we were on our way.  New Orleans still had some fascinating scenery for us on out way out including the dead trees which lined the highway  which were an eerie and interesting sight to say the least.  We travelled for quite a while through Louisiana and encountered some cool things along the way like the huge bridge in Baton Rouge which looked like it was a ramp to nowhere.  The kids are too old now to fall for the tail about it being a ramp we needed to jump in the car…’aye aye Dad very good’.  The wee ones are growing up!

Before we left Louisiana we wanted to grab some souvenirs for our neighbours who had generously looked after our fish whilst we were away but out hertz mess meant that out time in New Orleans was cut a little short and we didn’t have time to pop back in for a present.  Carol noticed a sign along the way for the Swamp Shop which is a souvenir place along the road.  It was a fascinating wee place as it was obviously previously a house and sat next to the Tourist information office.

The staff were uber friendly and even took our picture (being token Scots) for their Facebook page (although we are not up there yet!).  The shop sold all sorts from Man Cave stuff to Alligator eggs (fake ones obviously but nice toys).  After we had procurred our presents we walked over to the Tourist info to use the facilities and found two baby alligators in their tank.  Not what we’d expect to see in Fort William that’s for sure!

It took a very long time to get out of Louisiana and we were driving for at least 3-4 hours before the texas border came upon us but it felt good to be in our home state even if we did have 280 miles to drive at that point!  We were welcomed to the state with a sign about watching out for snakes (better than Alligators??) and Ben took his obligatory photo with the welcome sign!  Although it was chucking it down so we had to take the picture quick and retreat back to the car.

Each state had these welcome centers as you went in and for giving them your zip code you got a good quality map of the state which is useful even when using Sat Nav.  We actually snagged two in Texas so we can start a board here to document our travels!

We have tried to eat local as much as we can (although on the road it’s unfortunate but the locals have been drowned out by the chains like McDonalds etc) and we had our last meal on the road at a place called Al-T’s which was a Cajun place just outside of Louisiana ironically.  The place had a smoking and non smoking area (smoking was bigger which tells me something) and when we arrived we were actually the only folks in the non smoking area!  Anyway the food was pretty good and there was plenty of eating in the portions.  Ben went with the huge burger because (he was hungry Dad…) and despite the waitress warning him off he actually managed to eat the whole one pound of meat in a big bun!  Anyway the place had been frequented by lots of famous folks over the years such as Percy Sledge and Jerry Reid, the country singer who is most famous in the UK for being in the Smokey and the Bandit movies!

After that it was just a dash to get home ahead of the rain which was lashing down.  Just to be clear Texans cannot drive in the rain!!  Either too slow or much much too fast.  We arrived back at 10pm which when we left the hotel at 10am meant we were on the road for 12 hours for a 7 hour journey…Carol liked to make her stops along the way!!

After 3200 miles, 10 states, 7 days, 2 cars, snow, floods, 85 degree heat, sun, mountains, plains, Graceland and the White house we were back home with lots of stories to bore everyone about afterwards!!  Oh and I bought a new hat on the last day to remind me of our trip.

We got back to Round Rock tired and ready for bed but it was worth the time and effort and despite the flu hampering both of us in the first few days (Ben and Sophie were not affected thankfully) we got a true taste of life on the road and would do it again…but maybe next year.  Grand Canyon anyone??

Our final map!

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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!