Born on the Bayou!.....

…Ok, not really, but that song has been going through my head since we got into Louisiana this afternoon. Last night we stayed in a beautiful bed and breakfast in Hernando, MS. My mom would have loved it! The house was built in 1890 and filled with old antiques and an air of history. The innkeepers were very nice, the breakfast was delicious and the towels were the softest I think I’ve EVER felt. It was a good night.

I did learn something valuable today, though: New Orleans and I have no more business together. I used to think it might be fun to go to Mardi Gras (which I found out means Fat Tuesday. Am I the only one who didn’t know that?), but after closer inspection, I have changed my mind. I’ve seen all of New Orleans I need to. And that’s more than enough. On another note, everything for several miles BEFORE New Orleans is on water too. We drove a long long way on a freeway that was on stilts over water. Houses all had docks and boats and they even had power lines all the way across in the middle of the water sometimes. Louisiana is one wet state!

The elevation, according to Nuvi, in part of New Orleans. No wonder the damn city practically sunk!

So to catch up a little because it’s been a few days, we’ve been through eight states since I last wrote. We found no interesting reasons to trek into Kansas, Arkansas and Tennessee other than to say we’d been there, so we more or less just cornered them.

Oklahoma, as previously posted, is a complete waste of space.

Texas smelled AWFUL. Like manure and raw meat. Seriously. Yuck.

In Kansas we saw a “gentleman’s club” in the middle of nowhere and we wondered whether the women there were hated in the community because all the non-stripper women know their husbands go to watch them undress. I guess we’ll never know.

We slept in Missouri….or rather I should say we TRIED to sleep in Missouri. Between the airport nearby, the road on the other side of the fence from our tent, the roaring wind and the TRAINS that went by at pretty close to half hour intervals maybe 100 yards from our tent, we did anything but sleep! But we did see Big Oak Tree State Park in East Prairie, MO. It was neat, but would probably be neater after the trees start getting leaves and stuff. We saw some cool turtles and lizards and birds in the swampy stuff though. It was pretty neat. On the way out “Nuvi” (we named the GPS…well, she sort of came with it, but we refer to her by her name) thought it might be fun to take us down a “County Road.” Translation: dirt and gravel. For about four miles. It was a hoot.

We stopped in Ar-Kansas for a magnet and that was it.

We didn’t even stop in Tennessee (we found the magnet in Arkansas, Cheating, I know, but we like to call it multitasking). Memphis appeared to be quite a pit, so we avoided it altogether.

The other thing we did since I posted last was walked through Carlsbad Caverns. It was pretty amazing. I’ve been through caves like that before, but never that big. It was fascinating to see all the formations and cracks and crevices throughout the underground…hole. It’s neat to imagine what the world must have been like when the caverns were formed, how different it must have been from where we are now.

The entrance to the caverns.

In the hole. I was just waiting for him and he took the picture. No pose intended. :)

Getting cranky. Ready for food.

Tonight we went to Aunt Jenny’s Catfish Restaurant for dinner (No, Jenny doesn’t work there anymore…in fact, she never did. She’s the owner’s wife…I asked). The catfish was good, much better than fried fish in California. Something about fried food here is less greasy than at home. I like it a lot better. I also had sweet tea and fried green tomatoes. I felt very southern. With the exception of my stomach problems, which I’ve been having, I think because we’ve been eating like crap. I need more fruits and veggies!

So a few updates: my knee is only bothering me a little bit now, like when I stub the front of my flip flop into the stairs and the vibrations makes its way up into my knee; we’ve gotten over whatever “bug” we might have been getting; my thumb has heeled quite nicely, I think we can cancel the appointment to amputate; we’re on our way to Atlanta tomorrow and we’ll be at the Georgia Aquarium, the largest in the world, on Easter. But hopefully I’ll get back to you before then.

So this was in Roswell. We thought it was hilarious. Look under the Arby's.

This we were amused by as well. Also, as you can guess, in Roswell. We stayed a night here too. The aliens didn't part out my car for their ship, though. Phewf.