Carl's Blog

NOTE: I’m posting a day behind.

Today is the second leg of the drive to New Orleans. Since check in isn’t until 3 PM, I’m in no rush.

Had a nice breakfast at the Holiday Inn, but the person that set up the buffet paired the sausage and the hashbrowns in one section with the eggs and bacon in the other. I feel that the sausage and bacon should be together. I’m probably just being silly.

Nothing exciting happened along the drive, unless you count the Audible book I was listening to while driving. It was Love, Lies and Hocus Pocus: Legends by Lydia Sherrer It is book 4 in the series.

So I’ve crossed the state line from Texas to Louisiana and had to stop at the welcome center.

There was even a short board walk labeled a walking trail and after a few hours of driving who can’t resist a good leg stretch?

And now back to the road and my book. Just more driving, until I get to the bridge that crosses the Mississippi River…

I don’t take pictures while driving, but technically I was parked. Whatever the accident was, it wasn’t a quick clear and eventually all 3 lanes stopped moving. Google actually provided an alternate route and once getting over the bridge I took the first exit, drove through a residential area, and then reconnected with I 10 and was on my way again to New Orleans.

Learning my lesson from my stay yesterday on Christmas Day, I didn’t go straight to the hotel, but looked for a grocery store to get the basics for making a sandwhich. I checked out Rouses Market. Being from Texas and having access to HEB, I am very spoiled. My choices for lunch meat was just the named brands, ie higher costs so if I’ve got to pay more for deli meat, I’m off to the deli to get fresh cut smoked turkey and muenster cheese. Strangely, I found Rouses branded deli meats there, but not prepacked. Another difference, there was a liquor store in the grocery store. You had to buy liquor at the “special” register. Liquor laws fascinate me in their absurdity. Not going to say anything more here, other than the laws are stupid because they is no consistence with them. Ok, I’ll move on…

I found my hotel easy enough on the west edge of the French Quarter. No place special just a 2 star Holiday Inn. The breakfast here is free, but you have to pay for parking. That brings up another thing of stupidity that would be nice if the corporation could have consistence between locations. This is one of those “If I was King..” moments..

A disadvantage of traveling during the winter is how quickly the sunsets. It’s only 6 PM and getting dark, so most of my pictures this evening are not the best, however; the Christmas decorations standout.

I skipped lunch today. I say that to explain my next quest, dinner. I googled like most of us do and picked a restaurant. The food was good, but the prices were touristy. The only costs that were on par were the drink prices, but $35 for grilled red fish and sautéed green beans. You’ve got to be kidding me.

I was still hungry and wasn’t going to get dessert at the restaurant. I went in search of beignets.

My plan was to eat at Cafe Du Mont, because my sister had sent me their mix to make beignets at home and I wanted to try the real thing. I’m going to blame the bright lights and the jazz music, but I went to the Cafe Beignet: French Quarter. 

This may have been the “wrong” place, but the beignets were great and later I learned from a local, they prefer Cafe Beignet over Cafe Du Mont. I will have to make a comparison.

Anyone ready for ghost stories? How about a vampire story? Well I suggest to leave now, because that is how I ended my Tuesday, the 2nd day of Christmas. Pictures first.. short summary after.

My summary of the tour will be very short, because I don’t want to ruin it, very limited spoilers ahead.

The tour started at 8 PM, Witches Brew Tours has a variety of tours. All of the basic ones were already full so I was forced to take the 21+ tour. In the description the only difference, this included stories about murders and crimes. We also had a pitstop halfway through the tour at a “haunted” bar.

My ghost guide, Mia, is a professed witch and Catholic. Wrap your head around that. She is also full of “Dad jokes”, and bad puns. I’m going to give her the benefit of the doubt for some of the stories she told, since she is from New Orleans, but some of the info about Voodoo didn’t line up with a recent podcast I listened to on a history podcast I follow. Check it out here at American History Hit. Overall I enjoyed my time and feel the tour was worth the money and with all the walking I didn’t have any trouble falling asleep. Staying asleep was another issue, but I blame the stupid “night light” by the sink in my hotel room that doesn’t have an off switch. Tonight I’m going to put a towel in front of it.

This concludes, Christmas Day 2.