Vaca 2020 - Day 2, 3 & 4 (a few random things), Travelling to NOLA & More...

Having never been close around New Orleans, Dallas to the West, Pensacola to the East, I really had no idea what to expect. My mind was blown when the I-55, just South of Ponchatoula, turned into a bridge.  I expected to go over some swampy lands and then back down to terra firma.  Never happened until we "arroved" in New Orleans!!!   I would guess it was somewhere just around 40 miles of bridged swamp land and lakes Maurepas and Pontchartrain, which of course, put Hank Williams in my head.

So, a little heads-up about this post.  It's our drive from Vicksburg down to New Orleans, but also some random stuff from our four days in New Orleans that didn't really fit other posts...  I'll get it out of the way now and hopefully the next few will be more enjoyable than this one.  But thanks for reading anyways.

At first we thought it was just a bit of an extended bridge and not very exciting, so, no pictures.  But after it continued and went on and on and on and on, Lesley snapped a photo or three as we migrated further South. The bridge in across the water there is a railroad bridge.

I pulled this from Google Maps roadside view, but yes, this is what about 40 miles of that road looks like, with more or less water, depending on where you're at.

The bridge across the water on this side is I-55 Northbound.  That is Lake Pontchartrain that you can see betwixt the bridges.

Just a bit more proof that our species will build what they want, where they want, logistics be cursed.  I think this was within a stone's throw of New Orleans, after I-55 merged with I-10 by Kennar.  

And finally, Naw'lens.  That is the Mercedez Benz Superdome where the Saints play, made even more famous by Hurricane Katrina.  At this point, I was starting to wonder what the heck I had gotten myself into as NO was never high on my list to see...  What I didn't know yet is what we would "experience" once we hit the French Quarter around 7pm on a Saturday night...  Oh boy...

This is from the top of our new, 4-day home, the Hotel Monteleone, which has been featured in a few tv shows and movies.  We were amazed at how all of the central air units are practically piled on top of one another on some of those rooftops.

Another from up top, just looking a different direction.

Another...

And another, of the big, gigantic poo-hole that they call New Orleans.  Just about as filthy as Las Vegas, but with less street porn and much more homeless.

But, there was a pool on the rooftop, so we made good use of that!

Hotel top pool area. Pretty nice to barely hear the city noises from below.

Nothing special, just a street shot while we were out exploring.

I took this picture NOT because of the dude, but because I didn't want to forget where we ate by the time I wanted to write this blog.  This was roughly a block from our hotel, not fancy at all, but they made these:

Smoked oysters that were absolutely STINKIN' GOOD!!!  They are the "Char-Grilled Oysters" on their menu and I've never experienced, that's right, experienced... not tasted, anything like it.  All four of us were acting like pigs trying to get to the next one.

Back at the hotel, this was Caleb's favorite spot IF the Impractical Jokers weren't on the tv.  The window had a wide ledge where he could look down from whatever floor we were on and see parts of the street.  We also played a lot of games of the card game Blitz in this room, admiring sunsets out the window.  We also had a view of the Hard Rock Hotel that collapsed last Fall and they had just recovered another body the week before we got there, and I believe the last known body, the week after we left.  That could possibly explain some of the smell in the French Quarter... just sayin'.

And so...   that messy looking building on the left of the photo where the crane is at, is the aforementioned Hard Rock Casino collapse.

Rob and Mom down for breakfast on one of the days...

I have no idea, because I wasn't there...  maybe where they ordered breakfast from?

I think we had a few breakfast's and coffee's from this joint, but it was always my bride handling this stuff.  If it were up to me we would have bread and beer (not for breakfast... I'm not an animal!) most likely...  The kids don't get the beer as that would be too expensive.

We had to try the original Muffaletta and we all liked it, although two of us didn't think we would (kids). What is a Muffaletta, you may ask?  You can read about that here!

  

One of their silly breakfasts...  The coffee isn't even black... there's no eggs, bacon or sausage, so obviously a waste of time!

Same...   although this looks like it has some promise.

The last full day there, the Rockstar had to go down and have breakfast with mom.  Note the similaraties about the coffee and lack of other essential items.

We played a lot of blitz when we were "stuck" with each other in small quarters.  Makes me think that we have too much bullshit in our lives that keeps us from doing simple stuff like this.  In fact, I don't think, I know...  More board games and more games as opposed to screens.  Me included.

More evidence of Caleb on the ledge...

More...  This was what happened betwixt commercials in the episodes of Impractical Jokers.

So, I had to get a more boring post out of the way before we get into some of the cooler things that we did that actually made me think more highly of New Orleans than I thought possible!  Hopefully the next several will be a bit more entertaining.