Day 27 - Houston, TX - New Orleans, LA

So Houston is definitely an island of boring among a sea of awesome I think. Two hundred miles west, San Antonio and Cowboy Culture, two hundred fifty miles east New Orleans and a constant party. I guess Houston is where everyone goes to work and then goes other places for excitement. Houston is also a place of transition I guess, I mean I know that in San Antonio I was in the 'West' and once you hit the Louisiana border you're definitely in the 'South.' The feeling is entirely different, yet Houston seemed like neither.

Anyway, so this morning I got a little bit of a late start but that was fine, I wasn't really planning on doing anything else in Houston just heading out to New Orleans. It took me almost an hour to get out of the Houston suburbs, even without traffic. A little bit after noon, I reached the Louisiana border. Within ten minutes I saw a sign for 'Crocodile Charlies' a cajun restaurant with a lunch buffet. Now let me say, I'm not generally a fan of buffets but in the case of a type of food that I'm not real familiar with, its great to be able to try so many different things. Holy crap in a bag it was about the best food I'd ever had. Not only that, but I was assured that I had entered the south because my waitress Candice, referred to me as "shug," and "sweetheart." Southern twang like whoa and a pat on the back before I left. Crocodile nuggets, boiled crawfish, jambalaya, gumbo...I really need to learn how to cook this stuff.

The drive was actually pretty cool. I was going on I-10 over the Atchafalaya Basin. I'd never heard of it before about two months ago when there was reference to it in the book World War Z (great book btw). For about thirty miles, the freeway is three stories over rivers and swamps. It's like a neverending bridge but you'd better hope you have gas because obviously there's nowhere to stop. Eventually I reached the outskirts of New Orleans. I'd expected decimation, but instead I just saw a lot of new construction. There were a few boarded up windows still but nothing too bad. It wasn't until I got off of the interstate, about 3 miles from the hotel that I really saw the affected areas. Whole streets where not a single house looked sturdy. Rubble in the streets, every window boarded up. I don't think I was actually driving through the 9th ward but still, it didn't look a lot different than it did a couple of years ago. It was a little eerie too, driving on the I-10 over the city, if you remember thats where thousands of refugees were stuck for days. It was funny though, I'll bet that if you took the right way into the city from the airport, you could probably completely forget that anything ever happened here.

The French quarter was just as vibrant and fun as it ever was, well I assume anyway. Granted it was a Tuesday but still that place was hopping. The whole area is really beautiful in an old ragged way. That might not make much sense, but its the opposite of so many 'clean' places that seem sanitary and dead. This place was kinda dirty, I'll be honest, but it was so alive and had so much character to it. The buildings were covered in wrought iron railings and balconies. Bourbon street is just one ongoing party. No place charges covers and almost all of them have live music. You can just walk from club to bar to club, holding your drink, listening to music and having a good time. I never felt uncomfortable or like I was in a dangerous area, there were certainly enough cops in case anything got too out of hand. I think I was out until about 2am, mostly watching these guys who were putting on a jazz show in 'The Blue Bayou." I had just an awesome time, and I'm very glad that I know my limit very well. Not only is it cheaper to only have three, but watching some of the people at the end of the night, you could almost feel their hangovers in the morning. No thank you.

So tomorrow I'll be doing a few things around here and ending up in Memphis, TN. It's a good thing that I'll have a gym where I'll be working...I don't know how much more Southern food my 32" jeans can take.