Trip Overview
Planning holidays has never been something I look forward to and this year was no different. Some years I leave things so late I dont even bother going anywhere at all but there are two things on mind that I really want to do, a trip to Japan and a proper drive round America.
As I was already in America I thought it was a good chance to do the "road trip" but I hated the idea of the stereotypical "road trip" along main roads from one major city to another. I wanted to go off the beaten track and see the less obvious parts of the country.
My girlfriend agreed that she would like to do a trip like this and so we agreed some points before we left:
-No booking hotels until we were tired and felt like stopping
-No limits on mileage per day, if you feel like driving keep driving
-Use San Francisco as a half way point and stop there for a few days
-try do it in 15 to 18 days
-Steer clear of restaurants with names we have heard of before
-Start off across the Southern states and come back across the middle
-Stop where you want and do anything you want
-Try stick to backroads where possible
-Take lots of pictures
The rules were very simple and were designed to make the trip different every day. One day in the middle of nowhere staying in a dodgy little motel and the next day in a big city staying in a nice hotel, different every day. To give you an idea of how ad-hoc this was going to be... we didnt even know what day we were going to leave.
The next thing that was required was a car. I was driving a dodge challenger at the time but it wasnt comfortable enough for this kind of distance and wasnt big enough to fit cases in and to sleep in if need be. I gave it back and rented a Chevy Tahoe 5.3 V8 brute. Yes it would cost a lot on fuel but it was huge, mountains of room in the back for cases and sleep if required and felt like a good safe wagon for the journey ahead, all 6500/7000 miles.
I wrapped up work on Friday afternoon and we took off from Atlanta heading towards Mobile (say it with me... "MO-Beale") Alabama. We got to Mobile and stopped at a great seafood place for some dinner. It was a really old skool place jam packed with locals, no fancy decor but the food smelled good. We had some oysters and various other seafood dishes and decided to get back on the road.
Heading towards New Orleans we estimated our time of arrival to be 10pm, just when things are getting started, my co-pilot used the laptop and datacard to find a hotel in New Orleans and booked us a room as we hurtled across Interstate 10.
As we entered New Orleans the trees and wilderness gave way to a brightly lit skyline with a huge bridge leading the way and the radio began to pick up some radio stations, this was blaring as we rolled in to the hotel lol
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yfArN-e2OU
Within minutes we had dropped the car off dropped stuff in the room and were heading toward Burbon Street, it was packed! Music was blaring loudly from everywhere. People of all kinds of race and nationality were crowding the streets. Every second bar had different music coming from it with the doors wide open and inviting you in.
The drink of choice appeared to be the New Orleans Hurricane of which we had many helped down with massive amounts of beer. The live music in every bar was excellent and we settled on a blues band who were playing all sorts of classics and at one point a bloke sitting at the bar with his girlfriend went up and asked could he play a song. The lead guitarist handed over his guitar and the bloke burst into a hail of savage Jimi Hendrix tracks playing the guitar with his teeth at times, my kind of place indeed.
We moved to another bar which was less packed and ordered some more cocktails. A bloke walked in and started to tell us he was a rambler. He told us of his "rambling" from state to state and all of the places he had been. He said he was thinking of hanging around to experience mardi gras, I asked him "when is that" and he replied "Ive no idea... Ive been here for a few months now... it must be soon". When we told him about our trip he asked could he come along and we quickly made good our escape.
Very very late we stumbled back to our hotel and went asleep with ringing in our ears.
The next day we got up and went for a walk around the famous French Quarter, down to the mighty Mississippi river to watch the old steam riverboats cruising and then had some spicy Louisiana lunch, they love their Tabasco sauce!
Then it was back to collect the car and get back on the road to cross Louisiana and in to Texas heading for San Antonio.
Thanks for reading, Ill update again soon.
