We woke up in the parking lot, slightly sore and went in to the Wal*Mart to buy some food items and use their restrooms. I cleaned the bugs off the windshield but these ones weren't going anywhere.
We headed back to New Orleans over the Lake Ponchartrain bridge. I’ve always wanted to go over it since I saw how it was built on a History Channel show. It’s 26 miles across the center of Lake Ponchartrain. Quite an engineering feat.
We went back into the city and got a good view of the skyline and bridge from the waterfront. There were a lot of people out walking around. They all still had beers and daiquiris in their hands though.
The aftermath of the previous night’s party was still evident, with bottles and beads hanging from the balconies on Bourbon Street.
Basically, in the daytime the architecture is coolest part of New Orleans. It’s different from anywhere else I’ve been. I really liked this building. Many of the streets looked similar but they were all really cool.
The Presbytere was a great central landmark of the city and the carriages in front just made it more suited for a photo.
I went to the Gumbo Pot for a cup of gumbo around lunch time. I had to try it while I was in Nawlins. It was good but I think I want something more spicy.
Cafe du Monde was recommended to me so I checked it out. There were plenty of people there that seemed to be enjoying it. The atmosphere was nice but it was extremely crowded. I guess I should expect that on a Saturday.
I got an order of beignets, which are little donut-type things, almost like pieces of funnel cake, with a LOT of powdered sugar on top. Delicious.
We got off the highway for a while and took River Road, a scenic drive along the Mississippi River. Ironically, we only saw the river once for a short time on this road. The rest of the time it was blocked by the high hills along the bank.
One thing that was really cool to see was a few plantation houses. This was Oak Valley Plantation and the entrance was amazing. The oak trees that line the walk are dated to be around one hundred years older than the house. Again, we didn't go in because it was pretty expensive but we got a look around the outside.
The rest of the road was nice. We passed a lot of farms and a massive oil refinery which supplies the pipeline that spans the US from north to south.
Our next stop was Baton Rouge, the state capital. We parked right in front of the the old state government building.
The building was awesome to see in person. We walked around for a while and realized there wasn't much to do there. We did go to a rooftop bar/restaurant to see the view. It was a nice place to sit but not great for photos. It would be great to hang out up there and have dinner and drinks though.
We kept heading west and it was really cool driving through the bayous and swamps. That's certainly a change from New Jersey.
We stopped in Lafayette for some disc golf at Ace Run, one of two courses in Acadiana Park.
The shots were mainly short, hence the name, but still a lot of fun. There were a lot of blind shots and curves and this one played right near a ravine that is probably where most people's shots end up since they put a ladder down to it next to the basket.
We played up to hole 13 and then decided to call it a day because of the dark but I was doing really well.
We lucked out because there was a campground in the same park as the course so we just went back to the camp and set up our tent. We went down the road to use internet and eat dinner and tried, unsuccessfully, to find a Wal*Mart for water.
We came back and I stayed up at the picnic table writing and entertaining myself on the computer as armadillos and camping neighbors freaked me out a little bit.
Total driving distance: 231 miles. Our shortest trip yet. It could be less tomorrow.
We woke up at our campsite and went to the next parking lot over to play the full Ace Run course. There were a lot of people in the park but not many others playing disc golf.
After we finished Ace Run we continued on to the other 18-hole course in the park, Duzee. It was not quite as short and easy. This hole had a tree obstacle about ten feet ahead of the tee. I didn't get through it the way I wanted.
One of the trees along the way took Joanna's disc and held on to it until she climbed up to get it. There were only a few times that we had to search for discs though.
There were some nice areas at the tees to sit and watch people play.. if you're into that. The courses were good overall. The short one was fun because you had a chance at an ace on a lot of holes. Even though I didn't get any I came close and got a good number of birdies. The other was cool as well but the attempt at difficulty sometimes came off as annoying.
We got back on the road and headed west again, hitting 2000 miles in Western Louisiana on I-10.
This is where we were, on the way to Texas.
The drive to Texas didn't seem so long at all compared to a lot of the drives we've done so far. They have been comparatively short lately.
When we got into Houston, I went to the street my mom used to live on- it was Mother's Day, after all. It was a small street and I could see the Houston skyline down the road. I sent her some pictures since she hasn't seen it since she was 9.
We headed into downtown and had a great view of the skyline on the way in. It reminds me of driving into Dallas for some reason. It's been a while since I've done that though.
We walked around a few blocks and checked out some parks and scenery. This is the city hall building and I really like it and the park in front.
Like a lot of the cities we've been to, downtown was pretty empty so we had the place to ourselves to explore. There were a lot of parks in a small area and they were all pretty nice and had some good views.
Olive Gardens look the same in Texas. We went to use one of our gift cards to get portobella raviolis. They were delicious. It was nice to have hot food for dinner.
We checked some camp sites but, after coming up with nothing, ended up in another Wal*Mart Parking lot.
I gave in much faster to sleeping there this time for some reason. Probably because I didn't want to drive around for two hours looking for a camp.
Total distance: 281 miles. More than yesterday after all.
