Starting the Year Off Right - Road Trippin'

This winter, my travel itch was buggin'. I really wanted to go on a road trip, and I wanted to go somewhere warm because the Indiana winter was too much for me already (Ha. I had no idea what we were in for). My best road trip partner is Jaime, but I'd already been to all the states around her so flying to Utah to start a road trip wasn't worth it. Instead, I flew her out here as her birthday gift (with some bonus miles I had stored up) and we drove down to Louisiana, the only state in the south I hadn't been to. We drove down through Kentucky and Tennessee down to Birmingham, Alabama where we spent the first night.

Just across the Tennessee/Alabama border there's a huge rocket at a roadside rest stop. My aunt and uncle had told us about it so we already had our eyes peeled, but it's not likely we could've missed it. It was probably ten stories high.

The placards were a bit confusing so I never really could decide if this particular rocket had ever actually been to space, but it was still really cool!

If you know me at all or have read my blog for a while, you know I love hotels. I'm content with a crappy hotel, but I love fancy ones even more. On this trip, I discovered my best friend: Hotwire.com. They put up last-minute deals and you can get really cheap rooms the day you need them or in advance. Because of this website, we were able to stay in nice hotels (nice for us, at least. We typically stay in one- or two-star hotels) for totally reasonable prices. The first night in Birmingham we splurged and went four-star downtown. It was gorgeous, but I decided that it's not worth it. We had to pay for parking, there was no free breakfast (or anything for that matter), and it wasn't really that much nicer. The rest of the time we stayed in three-star hotels and most of the time they were just as nice with free parking and free breakfast.

We spent a lot of time watching HGTV and the Food Network that first night in Birmingham. We got in after dark and I wasn't feel very well so we didn't go do anything or eat anywhere. We had plenty of time on our hands to watch Chopped and HGTV's Dream Home.

The next morning, we went to visit the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, which was the site of a terrible bombing in the early 1960s. The bombing killed four teenaged girls. The church was the home of a lot of the important events of the Civil Rights Movement in the area. The history was interesting and it opened my eyes to the terrible things that have happened right here in our own country that we often forget about.

The sanctuary inside was really beautiful, especially the stained glass.

That day we drove down to New Orleans, our final destination. My favorite part of New Orleans was all the water. There are tons of bridges, and some of the freeway on/off ramps are just floating in water (well, not floating, but they're not very close to the land). I loved coming into the city and seeing water everywhere. It's easy to see how it would be a dangerous place to be during a hurricane.

The first night we went to the famous French Quarter. We visited Jackson Square first and enjoyed the lights along the Mississippi River.

We found Bourbon Street, but I was really not impressed. The architecture was really cool, but the overall atmosphere was really trashy and I didn't feel very good being there. Maybe it's better during the day.

We stopped at a restaurant on Bourbon Street and had the best meal of our trip. We tried oysters (not so good) and stuffed catfish with a crawfish sauce and a side of jambalaya. It was SO good. We still talk about it. We also allowed ourselves to be talked into some fried cheesecake which had a delicious lemon sauce.

And in true Louisiana fashion, they had a giant alligator hanging on the wall.

 

The next morning, we drove a bit south to Destrehan, Louisiana to River Road which is right along the Mississippi River and is dotted with plantations. We visited the Destrehan Plantation. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable and we had a great time trying to imagine the place in its prime. Unfortunately, it was not warm (45 degrees was not exactly what I was imagining when I chose a warm spot) so we didn't spend a whole lot of time exploring the grounds after the tour.

Bridge over the mighty Mississippi.

We stopped for lunch at a roadside restaurant and had the most amazing shrimp and crawfish pasta. I could definitely live in New Orleans for the food, though I'd probably be a lot fatter than I am now.

That afternoon we went on a swamp tour of a local bayou. We were hoping to see some wildlife, including a dancing alligator like the one they advertised. Unfortunately, most animals don't like to be out when it's 45 degrees outside. The only alligator we saw was a tiny little one whose head was on a log. We had to stop the boat and the tour guide had to literally give us step-by-step instructions on how to find the alligator's head among the brush. For some reason, it's not quite as exhilarating when the alligator head could have easily been mistaken for a rock on a log.

 

If you're thinking, "Hey, this picture is upside down," you're wrong. That alligator skin was hanging from the ceiling of the gift shop. A perfect ceiling decoration for any home.





We boarded this beautiful boat with our guide (whose name I can't remember) to float around the Louisiana Bayou looking at a whole bunch of nothing in barely-above-freezing temperatures. I'm glad we went, but I definitely think this would be a much more enjoyable experience in the Spring or Summer. Maybe I'll go back someday.

 

Our tour guide was fabulous. He knew so much about the bayou, the animals, the area, everything. He hadn't been formally educated, but he was amazing at his job. I recorded this video to record his Cajun accent which was so cool. I'm not sure if it'll work or not.

There wasn't a whole lot of wildlife out, but we did see these raccoons whom our tour guide had named. They recognized his voice and perked up and came over to the water when he called them. Then he threw them some marshmallows. I've never thought raccoons were cute, but these little guys were pretty adorable. I guess they're cuter when they're not going through your trash.

The best part of the trip was when he went over to this box in the corner of the boat and pulled out a tiny little alligator. It was his pet alligator named Allie who he's raising in his house. INSIDE his house. Crazy. He let us pass her around and hold her, which was super crazy and cool.

No, I didn't apply a layer of self-tanner between these two pictures. I'm not sure why I look so much darker in the second one. But maybe you didn't even notice the color of my skin because I'm HOLDING AN ALLIGATOR!

 

 
That evening we drove across the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway which is the second-longest bridge over water in the world - 24 miles!

 

That's us after already having been on the bridge for over ten minutes.



We drove through to Mississippi that night before stopping for the night. The next day we drove to Nashville, Tennessee and made it into town just in time to see the end of the Colts come-from-behind win in the playoffs. That was a pleasant surprise!

 

We drove downtown to Broadway, which is the main strip of Nashville where they have bar after bar with live music. I seriously have never seen so many bands playing at once. I tried to get a picture of the lights and feeling of the area, but my camera was not cooperating. So I'll post the pictures I took, then I'll find an internet picture to show you what it really looks like. :)

And this is what it really looks like. 

 

We found a candy store that was the most amazing place I'd ever seen. There was candy everywhere and everything we tried was delicious.

These. Were. Real. We didn't try them.

We walked all the way down to the river. I don't know what it is, but I'm just a water and bridge nut. I think they're gorgeous, and a city that surrounds a river is my favorite.

Our plan was to drive back to Indiana the next day (Sunday) because I had to be at work on Monday and Jaime's flight left early Monday morning, but a huge snow storm moved in and we were stuck in Louisville. We could have tried to go farther, but we wouldn't have gotten very far so we stayed in Louisville and watched our friend Juan Pablo on the Bachelor.

We tried to go home again the next day, but the freeway was closed just past Columbus, Indiana. Fortunately, my parents live in Columbus so we stopped at their house and stayed the night. My brother Jacob had also gotten snowed in there so my dad made popcorn and we all played games. It was a fun surprise night with my family!

We finally made it back to Indianapolis the next night, but not without difficulty. Interstate 65 was still closed so we had to go around and come up on the east side of Indy on Interstate 74. That freeway was open, but it was still pretty covered in snow so it was slow-going. They cancelled school again the next day so we settled in and watched the next episode of the Bachelor.

In all, I think Indianapolis got about a foot of snow and they cancelled school for five days. So we were supposed to go back to school on Monday, but didn't go back until the next Monday. Jaime was also supposed to fly out that Monday morning, but she had several cancelled flights and she didn't leave until Wednesday night. It was so fun to have her here for a few extra days, though if we'd known, we could've stayed in New Orleans and visited more sites! I always love having her here, though, and she was able to visit with the rest of my family which was fun. They consider her part of the family now.

It's been about a month since this trip, and I'm already craving another road trip. Jaime and I were just talking about this and we decided we should probably just become truckers together so we can be on the road all the time. It's the best way to travel! Next on the agenda: New England.