Day 11 and 12 - New Orleans

Bon Ton Roulet! or as they say in New Orleans - “Let the good times roll!”

Wednesday morning I booked a tour of New Orleans and we headed for the French Quarter to catch our bus. Parking was readily available and we had time to stop off for breakfast at a small cafe called River’s Edge near the French Market. Our tour was guided by a New Orleans native and she gave us lots of background into the events surrounding hurricane Katrina as well as daily life in New Orleans. She took us to the 9th ward where a lot of the damage occurred when the levees were destroyed and showed us the International Search and Rescue markings still on the side of the buildings. She also showed us a new housing development that is being funded by Brad Pitt. All the houses have solar panels and are eco-efficient. She told us the story of how Fats Domino refused to evacuate during the hurricane and was eventually rescued from his home and taken to a shelter. No one knew who he was because his name is really Antoine and his first language is French. New Orleans is rich in history and tradition and everywhere we went we experienced the culture.

We also rode the steamboat Natchez which is the last remaining steam powered boat in America. As we cruised down the Mississippi, Captain Steve pointed out places of interest along the shore. He told us that when the large ships come up the river, a pilot familiar with that stretch of the Mississippi boards the ship and guides it through that particular area. Then another pilot boards and does the same thing for the next stretch. Since New Orleans is bordered on one side by the Mississippi, on another by Lake Ponchartrain and on the other by the Gulf of Mexico, it is an important port for the United States. We ate lunch on the boat and listened to a jazz pianist while we watched the paddle wheels in the back of the boat push us forward. The weather was glorious and the trip was beautiful.

After a short trip up and down Bourbon Street and a stop at one of the fine establishments along the street, we strolled back toward the river and eventually stopped at the Cafe Du Monde for Cafe Au Lait and Beignets. Beignets are deep-fried pieces of dough that are covered with powdered sugar and served while they are still very warm. Our tour guide had warned us earlier in the day that when you eat a beignet you must first take a deep breath and eat it all in one bite without breathing. She said if you breathe you die. It wasn’t exactly that bad, but I did learn not to inhale powdered sugar. I can now attest that I have learned the proper technique to eating a beignet.

When we got back to our hotel, we were so exhausted from the day that we decided to rest just a bit before we got into the shower and ready for bed. You guessed it - we woke up this morning in the same positions we crashed in last night. The “Big Easy” got the best of us.

Days 9 and 10 - Dallas

We left San Antonio Sunday morning after having breakfast with the Powells at their hotel on the River Walk. I could have stayed in San Antonio another day because there was definitely more to see. (More jewelry to buy!)

Because it was Mother's Day, we stopped at a HUGE outlet mall in San Marcos, just north of San Antonio. It was the biggest mall I've ever seen. Dave joked that he could have left me there for a week and I still wouldn't have time to see everything. We checked out about 4 stores but then it was time to move on.

We arrived in Dallas on Sunday evening just before dinner. It was great to see Rod and his dog Sasha again. Rod took us to a rustic little burger joint that evening and I had my first taste of watermelon tea. It was different but very refreshing. After we placed our order we were given a slip of paper with a name on it and when they called the name on the paper our order was ready and we could go get it. Dave’s paper was She-ra and it was really funny to see him answer to that name.

Monday morning Rod took us to breakfast at LePeep and then to the Goodwill headquarters where he is the Executive Director. They were having some HVAC problems so while Rod investigated the situation Tex and I watched the workers sort donations and get them ready to be shipped to all the stores. I watched a couple of guys tear apart computers and rebuild them. Rod told us that they had recently opened a computer store where they sell the refurbished computers. Of course I had to see the store and before I left, one of the technicians built me a custom system with a 200GB hard drive and 2GB of RAM and a pretty fast processor. All for less than $200! I can’t wait to get home and try it out. 

We also visited Stroker’s of Dallas which is a custom motorcycle shop that used to have a reality program on the Speed Channel. Dave met the owner, Rick Fairless, and got to visit with him a bit. Rick told Dave that there may be another TV show in the works. There were some pretty awesome custom bikes at the shop as well as a line of Victory motorcycles that Tex really liked.

Rod took us to a small diner that at first glance didn’t look too impressive but when we started looking at the cars parked around it we saw a Jaguar, Porsche Cayenne, Cadillac, Lexus and lots of other high end cars. Rod told us that when actors or politicians come to town they always frequent this diner. We met the owner who is a nephew of one of the members of the Hunt family (Hunt’s Ketchup, etc). 

We also went to Cabella’s. I had never been there before and I was shocked at how gigantic this place was. We visited the aquarium and the animal exhibits and then we checked out the gun room where the antique guns were on display. We saw pistols from the Wild West, guns used in the Civil War, specialty guns used for trap shooting, etc. We even saw Dirty Harry’s 44 Magnum. The craftsmanship and detail on some of these weapons was amazing.


Tuesday morning we left Dallas for New Orleans. It was a long day of traveling so when we checked into our room I cooked a little supper and we crashed.

Pictures from San Antonio

Bob and Kathy Powell 

Betty and Dave

Pictures from San Antonio River Walk

The Alamo

Alamo monument featuring James Bowie

More pics from River Walk

Mosaic on the side of a building

Rivercenter Mall

San Antonio at night

Days 7 and 8 - San Antonio

We arrived in San Antonio late Friday afternoon and met up with our friends Bob and Kathy Powell at their hotel (The Drury Plaza Hotel) on the River Walk. We drank margaritas and ate Mexican food while the Mariachi bands played in the background. A great time was had by all!

We saw quite a few young men and women in uniform with their families. This happened to be the weekend the air force base held their graduation ceremonies. We were also surprised to see several wedding parties. We found out later that San Antonio is a very popular wedding spot. There is a small spot on the River Walk called "Wedding Island" where many of the ceremonies are held.

On Saturday we took a boat ride on the river and walked to the Mexican market El Mercado. The market was an overwhelming display of things to purchase; everything from produce to hand-made pottery and jewelry. We had some more authentic Mexican food and listened to even more music. The weather was hot and sunny and the day couldn't have been better.

On the way back to our hotel, Kathy and I ditched the guys and found a very unique shop featuring hand-made articles from Mexico. We saw the most beautiful garments and jewelry made by incredibly skilled craftsmen. Several of those items will find their way back to Ohio via our suitcases!

Day 6 - Houston

Another great day! Kevin and Maize, Dave and I walked through the neighborhood in the brilliant sunshine and enjoyed the day. When we arrived at the pond, Maize jumped in the water and showed us her skills as a duck-herder. Those ducks found out that she really means business!

Later in the day we visited a local micro brewery in Houston called St. Arnold's. They've been in business about 17 years and last year they sold about 31 million barrels of beer. Compare that to Anheuser-Busch who sells about 100 million barrels each year. The owner himself conducted the tour and explained that St. Arnold's only uses five ingredients in their beer; yeast, hops, wheat and water. The beer is not pasteurized and is only sold in Texas and parts of Louisiana. Best of all, the beer is delicious! Their most popular beer is the Lawnmower. It's a light refreshing beer that's' made to taste great when you are all hot and sweaty from mowing the lawn. They also make a wonderful root beer and a whole case of it found its way to our car trunk. Imagine that!

Last night we got together with five other couples at Saltgrass Steakhouse and had a wonderful time of laughter and fellowship. It was so good to see our friends and spend some time catching up again.

Day 4 and 5 - Houston

Here we are in Houston! Yesterday was a travel day and basically all we did was drive. We arrived at Kevin and Miranda's house at about 5:30 and by the time we had unpacked the car and played with our "grand-dog" Mazie, our friends Mike and Mary had arrived so we all sat around and visited and ate pizza.

Today Tex visited Universal Technical Institute and showed pictures of the Cobra to his former instructors. I think he really enjoyed going back to the school and showing them how he used the knowledge he gained while attending UTI.

While he was talking cars, I had a "me" day in Old Spring. It's a really neat place that is made up of old houses turned in to every kind of store/boutique imaginable. I strolled up and down the streets and explored the stores and visited with the shop owners and found some unique gifts to take back to Ohio. I sold 5 of the bracelets I had made to the first shop I went into. That was a real rush. The lady that bought them said she may be interested in ordering more if she sells these quickly.

Later this evening we are meeting up with some of our friends for dinner. Authentic Mexican. Yum!

Pictures from the Anheuser-Busch Brewery

 Beautiful Clydesdales

 Beechwood aging tanks. If you drank one beer per hour 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, it would take you over 100 years to drink the beer in one of these tanks.

 A gift to Augustus Busch, a chandelier from the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904.

 To the right of the Malt House is a building that was once an elementary school. Anheuser-Busch bought the building and turned it into corporate offices. Augustus Busch picked his old 3rd grade classroom for his office.

 The elephant was the symbol for a brand of yeast sold by Anheuser-Busch from the time of prohibition through the 1990's.

 The clock tower

 Bevo the fox was the symbol for a line of soft drinks sold during prohibition. 

 The bottling plant.

 Here comes the trolley to take us to the sampling room. Yum!

Pictures from Gateway Arch - St. Louis Missouri

The Mississippi River was overflowing its banks in some spots. Even the river boat rides were cancelled because the dock was under water.

These pictures were taken from the top of the arch.

Busch Stadium.

The old Courthouse

Dome of the old Courthouse

Day 3 - Little Rock

Today it rained. And rained. And it rained. Did I mention the rain?

All the way from St. Louis to Little Rock we saw flooded fields and storm damaged buildings. I felt prompted to pray for all the people who faced ruined property and lost crops.

Around lunch time we stopped at a place called Lambert's Cafe. Tex described it as a "Hillbilly Cracker Barrel." As we ate our food, the servers came around with something they called "pass-outs". These pass-outs consisted of fried okra, tomatoes and macaroni and fried potatoes. They also had warm dinner rolls that they would throw to anyone who held up their hand. When the diner caught the thrown roll the other patrons would clap and cheer. It was really a fun place and the food was simple and delicious. I got a kick out of the restaurant's website which is www.throwedrolls.com.

We are finally safe and sound in North Little Rock in a very nice room at the Quality Inn. Tex is channel surfing (surprise!) and I'm getting ready to download some of my pics.

Day 2 - St Louis

For some reason, we just couldn't sleep this morning. We were up and getting ready to start the day by 4:30 AM. As you would suspect, there wasn't much going on at that time so we watched the weather channel and hung around the room until breakfast time.

After breakfast, we traveled to Gateway Arch along the Mississippi River in St. Louis. At the last minute, Tex chickened out and wouldn't go to the top of the arch with me so he stayed in the museum at the bottom of the Arch and I boarded the "pod" to travel to the top. The pods were little cars that held five people each and looked a lot like a giant egg. It took 41/2 minutes to get to the top and 3 minutes to go back to the bottom. The view at the top of the Arch was spectacular. The sun was shining and the weather was clear and beautiful. What a cool experience! Tex doesn't know what he missed.

After the Arch we checked out the old Courthouse and looked at the historical displays. Then it was time  to travel the the Anheuser Busch Brewery for a tour.

At the Brewery we saw several Clydesdales and were actually able to see the stalls where they stay. Our tour guide told us about the history of the company and pointed out that the name "Budweiser" was selected because Augustus Busch thought it sounded like a "strong" name and it was easily pronounced by both Americans and Germans. As we visited the vats and then the packing lines, we learned a lot about the brewing process. The guide made sure that we would not be able to leave without remembering that the beechwood aging process and the addition of rice to the recipe are what makes Budweiser unique. The tour was interesting and the sampling room was fun too.

Later in the afternoon we attempted to visit the St. Louis Car Museum but found out that they are only open by appointment. That left us nothing to do but come back to the hotel and crash. Relaxing is great but I think Tex may wear out the remote control for the TV before we check out tomorrow. Is there such a thing as TV channel ADD?

Epic Journey - Day 1

Our best intentions were to leave home at 8:00AM sharp this morning but things don't always go as planned. It was 10:00 before we toodled down the road to begin another of Dave & Betty's Excellent Adventures. The weather was great and traffic was light most of the way. We stopped at Cracker Barrel for brunch and made a couple of pit stops in the afternoon before we checked into the Comfort Inn in St. Louis about 7:30 PM. Dinner consisted of a turkey and swiss sandwiches and fresh veggies. We are breaking our arms patting ourselves on the back because we only spent $20 on food today. Not that we're cheap, it's become sort of a game to see if we can stay within our budget and still see and do everything we want.

Just before we reached our hotel, we saw a long stretch of destruction from the recent tornado. Our front desk clerk told us the storm came within 5 miles of the hotel and there was damage 20 minutes east and 30 minutes west of here. Many homes had tarps covering the roof and large signs were down beside the road.

Tomorrow we plan to visit Gateway Arch and then take a riverboat ride on the Mississippi. After that we'll go to the Anheuser Busch brewery and possibly the farmer's market. We hoping for good weather.

Almost time - so much to do!

It's almost vacation time! How can there possibly be so much to do?

I finished packing on Monday (except for last minute essentials) and you would think that the pressure would be off - but no! - I keep finding more and more things to do. Since we are planning to cook most of our own meals on the road, I've been trying to anticipate what tools I will need in my make-shift kitchen. I just know I will forget something that is absolutely essential and we will have to search for hours to find whatever it is. (Nothing like good old pessimism, eh?)

Today my sweet Gracie dog goes to stay with Amanda and Kyle and Chase. I'm already having separation anxiety. How will I ever make it two weeks without her? I just hope they enjoy her visit and are still speaking to me when I get back home. I know my sweetie can be a handful at times and needs a lot of attention. Oh well, this will be good practice for them.