The Barmaiden

Okay Washington DC, you need to knock it off with this rain stuff so I can have fun today. Pretty please???

I feel bad saying this, as I know quite a few people who will likely disagree, but Florida kind of sucks. The people can’t drive (seriously, I thought Texans were bad!), the roads are boring, and there are speed traps everywhere. All we could find were chain restaurants unless we drove miles and miles out of our way, and getting anywhere took way longer than google maps promised us it would. I’m pretty glad that we’re in Georgia now.

Anyway, when we got into our car after a long day at Disney World on Wednesday night we found that a chip we got in our windshield outside Tallahassee had spread across about half of the window. So upsetting!!! We knew our windshield needed to be replaced (it already had a big chip that had spread about two inches) but we were hoping to avoid it until after our trip so we wouldn’t have to worry about getting new chips. So much for that plan.  The people at Safelite were really nice and replaced it and had us back on the road in less than two hours. 

The biggest bummer is that we were really hoping for a leisurely morning, and that didn’t happen since we had to scramble to check out of our hotel in time to get to the repair shop by 9 am.  Oh well.

After sitting in the waiting room for a couple hours (and dropping a chunk of $$$ on a new windshield) we were pretty hungry and grouchy, so we decided to use one of our Cracker Barrel gift cards and have breakfast (well, more like lunch) before we left Orlando. It’s probably good, because driving through Florida makes Mike exceedingly grouchy!

I had really been hoping that the space shuttle would launch while we were in Florida, but no dice. We drove over to Cape Canaveral anyway, and that was pretty cool.  We stopped at Camp Holly on the way there, and I finally got to see an alligator! He was out in the water, but he looked pretty huge (why do I assume it was a boy? Maybe it was a lady alligator. You never know!) For the record, they swim way faster than I expected, and this one looked like she(?) wasn’t even in a hurry, so good luck getting me to ever go swimming in Florida. Anyway, that was pretty cool, even if it was too far out in the water to get a good picture.  Back on the road again, we hit approximately a million bugs, messing up my nice clean windshield (and coating the front end of our car) - it’s pretty gross.  A car wash might be required. 

We continued to A1A (beach front avenue!) to drive up the coast a bit. One thing that we have learned in our travels thus far is that every beach town looks the same, so they’re all starting to blend together.  We stopped to take photos at Cocoa Beach and the NASA visitor center, and then headed back inland to book it up the interstate and out of Florida. It took forever, but we finally crossed the border at mile 3330 of our trip. 

Just across the border, we pulled into a turnoff next to a river to check out the water (maybe see another alligator?) and instead saw a sign warning boaters to watch for manatees. I was really hoping to spot one from the dock, but no such luck.  Maybe next time.

We drove through the back woods towards Savannah - and man! Some of them stereotypes about the deep south appear to be a bit truer than we thought. Trailers parked in the woods, surrounded by a bunch of broken down cars, people sittin’ on porch swings, the occasional confederate flag…it was pretty awesome.

We stopped for dinner at a little restaurant in Jesup and learned once again that food in the south comes in huge portions for relatively low prices.  We’ve got to stop thinking in California $$$ terms when we make menu selections! A $4 order of chili cheese fries (don’t judge us! They’re gluten free!) was enough to feed both of us for dinner - and we also ordered some chicken to share. Needless to say, I’m still sort of stuffed! 

And that brings us up to date! We finally posted our Texas and Louisiana pictures to our website, so check them out. The posts keep the date we started them on so you might have to scroll around a bit to find them amongst my ramblings.  Mike’s got some more ready to upload the next time we find some wifi and extra free time. Today we get to explore Savannah and then head on to McBee, South Carolina, home of the world’s largest water tower. I’m pretty excited. So far the only ‘world’s largest’ thing we’ve seen has been a stinky paper mill outside Jesup, Georgia. I think the water tower will be better than that. (If nothing else it’ll smell better!)

I think the geese that apparently live near our campsite have finally made enough noise to wake Mike up so we can break camp and hit the road again. Catch ya later!

All the bugs in this swamp are seriously f’ing up my nice clean windshield.

After driving through Texas in two days, we were amazed at how quickly the miles ticked by in Mississippi and Alabama. It seemed like we would get in the car to go somewhere relatively far and arrive in no time at all.

This was not true of Florida. Part of this was an absolute failure of navigation skills on my part.  It’s a good thing Mike is patient, because if he had been the navigator, I would have killed him.  Twice (TWICE!!!) we found ourselves on seemingly endless back roads through the middle of nowhere with less than a quarter tank of gas.  Fortunately, we found civilization before Mike had to pull out a folding bike and ride to the nearest gas station.

Florida and southern Alabama have really thick forests. This is really pretty, for a while.  After a few hours, we got sort of bored! I didn’t see any alligators or anything! Sigh.

Anyway, we watched two people get pulled over for speeding in Tallahassee, ate some really delicious BBQ in Alabama (thanks again Aunt Amy!), and saw way more cattle ranches in Florida than we thought there would be.  No orange trees though.  Florida is not living up to our stereotypes!

Oh, and I almost forgot! When we arrived at our hotel last night, the super nice guy at the front desk upgraded us to the Quality Inn version of a honeymoon suite. It’s pretty nice (for a Quality Inn), and we feel really spoiled.  :)

Now, I can’t sit here and write to you anymore because Mike is ready and rarin’ to go to Disney World. I had no idea that he was so excited about Disney World! Apparently we HAVE to be there when the gates open, so we best get moving!

I’ll let you know how many ‘hidden Mickeys’ we find!

It took us two days to drive across Texas. Yes, we took a less than direct route, but still! We crossed Mississippi in less than 3 hours and that includes a big chunk of time spent eating boiled crawfish. We’re on mile 2347 so far - not bad for six days!

My accommodations this morning are a little different than yesterday. We’re in a campsite near Gulf Shores, Alabama - a stone’s throw from the Florida border. Our air mattress seems to have developed a slow leak, so I’m pretty close to touching the ground. (Sorry Ma - we’ll fix it or get you a new one!) When we set up camp last night, there were gazillions of gnats in our tent, so I made Mike sit in the dark while I played pied piper with a flashlight and lured them outside. It worked pretty well - we only had one lonely gnat hanging out on our computer screen last night.

Mike was too hungover to get up and go explore New Orleans with me yeaterday morning, so I went out on a solo mission. The French Quarter is pretty amazing. The balconies, the flowers, the super nice people, the horrible smell…I like it. I wandered around taking pictures for a bit, then stopped for some beignets. For those of you who haven’t had one before, a beignet is a kind of French donut. It’s a square of fried dough that they put in a bag (or on a plate) with a ton of powdered sugar. It’s pretty messy to eat, and I learned the hard way not to inhale while surrounded by a cloud of powdered sugar, but they are sooooo good! Too bad Mike can’t have gluten - I would have saved one for him. I took them back to our awesome hotel room (thanks Scott!) to eat them on our balcony.

I did bring Mike some coffee, and he rallied around ten - we decided that he needs to remember that he’s a Taylor and therefore should not go drink for drink with a McCarrel. It’s just not fair.

Once we checked out of our hotel (so sad!) we decided to drive around New Orleans a bit to see just how depressed we could make ourselves. You can definitely still tell the areas where Katrina hit. There are tons of houses with spray painted marks from right after it happened. We even stumbled across the abandoned Six Flags New Orleans, which was totally creepy.

All that sadness made us hungry, so we headed to a little Cajun place that I had found on yelp. This is where I learned that many restaurants in the south are closed on Mondays. Note to self: when planning a return trip, go ahead and skip Monday. We found a backup plan and had some amazing seafood gumbo and red beans and rice.

The rest of our day was spent meandering through the last little bit of Louisiana, then driving across Mississippi and Alabama. We had a ton of southern food that we wanted to try, so we stopped for a crawfish boil and again for some good BBQ (again learning that restaurants in the south are often closed on Mondays. Yes, I learned this twice in one day. Sigh.) Mike wasn’t a huge fan of the crawfish, but I thought it was pretty good. We both agreed that the BBQ (thanks Aunt Amy!) was amazing. We weren’t even hungry, but we cleaned our plates! We’re gonna need to go on a serious diet after this honeymoon is over!

We watched the sun set over Bayou Le Batre, Alabama - and it was just as pretty as you would imagine - don’t worry - we took lots of photos. I’ve also been taking tons of pictures of water towers for you to enjoy. I know we’re behind on posting pictures. Mike is a perfectionist and wants to make them pretty before we post them for the world to see. Hopefully we’ll get caught up tonight.

Today we are headed for Orlando, Florida. That’s right - tomorrow we get to go to Disney World! I can’t wait!

First, let me set the stage for you. I am sitting with my feet up on the balcony of our New Orleans hotel room.  Below me is Bourbon Street, and I’m watching the bars clean up last night’s mess and get ready to open for the day.  The sun is peeking around the corner and Mike is sleeping on the second floor of our suite. It’s pretty nice.  I’m already plotting to come back to New Orleans someday, and I’m soaking up this balcony, because I know we won’t get to stay here again - not with a sign on the door that says that our room can rent for up to $1000 a night! Being on our honeymoon has it’s advantages!

Day five was all about getting to New Orleans. We started our day earlier than usual - mainly because our campsite was a bit…well, sketchy, and I wanted to get the heck out of dodge.  Mike decided that he likes getting up early and has given me permission to wake him up in the mornings from now on.  We’ll see how long that lasts. (Note that he is still sleeping after I tried waking him up about half an hour ago.

Anyway, we drove around beautiful Natchitoches for a bit - apparently Steel Magnolias was filmed there, and we can definitely believe it - it’s beautiful.  Despite numerous attempts by Dave to teach us how to say it, we still can’t get the hang of it, so if you want to know how that’s pronounced, you’ll have to talk to him!

I wanted a serious southern breakfast, so we decided to head for the next town and keep an eye out for a good spot to stop.  This turned out to be harder than we expected to find! Maybe it was because it was Sunday, but isn’t it a thing to go out for breakfast after church?

We had almost given up hope when we pulled into the town of Lecompte. We were passing it by when I saw the sign for Lea’s, but I talked Mike into pulling a u-turn (probably highly illegal, but we did it right in front of a cop - oops! - and got away with it, so it must not have been too horrible. Anyway. Lea’s. They had a sign out front touting their pies, and man, I love me some pie! Perfect!

They don’t have a menu. You want breakfast? How do you like your eggs? Bacon or sausage? Grits or hashbrowns? Toast or a biscuit? Coffee? Done. And man, it was good!!! Mike says it was the best bacon he’s had. I think he means ever. And yes. I had a piece of pie. It’s never too early for pie. So many pies to choose from!!! I had the wild dewberry (whatever that is) and it was delicious. 

From there, we drove through Baton Rouge - the coolest part about this was all the swamps and marshes we drove by! It was like watching a nature show out the car window. We saw turtles, cranes, herons…cardinals…too many things to list, really.  No alligators, although I kept looking for one.

Finally, we arrived in New Orleans.  Google maps directed us right through the French Quarter. Holy crap! Our hotel is cool! It’s the Bourbon Orleans, and it is beautiful.  We drove the valets a bit crazy with our road trip crap and headed inside to check in.  We were just about done, when two people came bursting into the lobby asking who just got married??? They had seen our car out front and wanted to congratulate us.  Well, the woman who was checking us in heard that and changed our whole setup! She upgraded us to a suite with a balcony! Thanks drunk people! We aren’t good at asking for free stuff, so if it hadn’t been for you, we would have been in a boring old hotel room!

Anyway, we showered and changed and headed out to see the town.  Our first stop was a bar we had seen from our balcony that had hurricanes to go.  Two hurricanes later, we were pretty drunk.  Oops! Total rookie mistake! It wasn’t even 5:00 yet! We tried to fix the problem with some food, but it was no use.  We headed back to the hotel to ‘nap for an hour’ and woke up around midnight.  Sigh.  I dragged my still-drunk husband back out for another try. Fortunately, New Orleans is a pretty happenin’ place - even at midnight on a Sunday! So we got a few daiquiris and another hurricane and wandered around and watched the drunk people, then sat out on our balcony and listened to the music from the jazz club across the street until they abruptly closed a little after 1am. 

I’m both sad and glad that we only get to stay one night here.  We could use another shot at an evening out on the town, but I’m not sure our livers can handle it! 

Well, I’m going to go drag the hungover one out for another pass at the city before we have to check out and hit the road.  Tonight we plan to camp in Alabama, so that should be fun!

I always laugh when people come with us to Mexico for the first time. Invariably, they overdo it on the first night and miss out on the fun the next day due to hangovers. I like to think that I’m better than that.

Apparently I’m not. We were so excited about our awesome room upgrade (being on your honeymoon helps sometimes!) that we went directly out and got a couple of hurricanes. This was a bad idea. I don’t know if you’ve had a hurricane in New Orleans before, but they are not messing around!

I’ll admit it. We were pretty drunk. We had some dinner and made some friends (fellow drunks) and then went back to the hotel to ‘nap’ at five o’clock in the afternoon!

Six hours later, I woke up and dragged my still drunk husband out for another round (or two!)

After all…we’re only here one night! Better make it count!

The hubby is going to revoke my camera privileges if I continue to take a picture of every water tower I see!

I just love water towers!

What’s with all the dollar stores in Corsicana, Texas? There’s a ton of them!