3000 Miles In The Right Lane

We're finally getting the feeling that this trip is actually going to end some day soon. No offense to you desert rats, but Eric and I just aren't the biggest fans of the desert. The big skies and open spaces are great, but as soon as we started seeing trees there was an obvious sense of relief in the truck. Now I'm just waiting for my Washington-raised skin to rehydrate. I haven't blogged much the past few days so I'm going to do a bit of catching up.

We had a good Thanksgiving with Jason in El Paso. We watched 2 somewhat unsatisfying movies that day- one about origami on Netflix (weird) and that new movie Lincoln at the theater on base (boring) but had some good laughs about them, especially the origami movie. The best part of the day was definitely our delicious dinner. We had an early dinner at a place out of the city called Cattlemans which is its own ranch/private zoo. As we drove in we saw deer, coyote, and a very patient horse whose job was standing in the parking lot. The place was surprisingly busy considering it's remote location. We needed to try their famous steak but it was Thanksgiving so we settled on just ordering a feast- 3 of the traditional Thanksgiving dinner platters with pumpkin pie for dessert and a steak that weighed more than a pound and came with 3 sides. We left that place stuffed so I'd say we had a very successful Thanksgiving.

After 2 evenings in El Paso we spent a night in Austin. I'm pretty sure Eric and I both fell in love with the city immediately. This might sound like some hippie dippy B.S. to some of you, but the place had good vibes that I could feel as we drove into it. We ate at a pretty trendy (some may call it hipster) Mexican place that offered guacamole and salsa tasting, street corn, margaritas with good alcohol, and a bunch of those dishes where you read them and don't understand what half of the description means but you order it anyways. We spent the rest of our evening wandering around with the college crowd on 6th street. There was live music in a good portion of the bars which was what originally attracted us, but we had more fun after realizing the place was completely catered to bar hoppers- no cover in most places and they even block cars from the road every Friday and Saturday night so people can freely walk back and forth across the street (there wouldn't be enough room for all the people on the sidewalks anyways). Austin feels more like San Francisco than any other city in Texas but ultimately it just feels completely unique.

After a late night we got up early and made the long drive to New Orleans. I had been to New Orleans a few years ago on a volunteer service trip through my college and had been dying to go back to Bourbon Street since I turned 21. We were told by hotels that there was a big college football game at the Superdome, but nothing could have prepared us for what we experienced. All car access to the French Quarter was blocked so we figured it was fairly busy. We started with dinner at a Cajun/Creole restaurant where we had crab legs, fried rabbit, and jambalaya. After dinner we headed straight for Bourbon Street. On the 2 minute walk we witnessed one girl get arrested and try to escape from the cops and another girl vomiting, so we started getting a better idea of where our night was headed. I don't really know how to describe the rest of our night to you but I'll try. When we first got to Bourbon (around 10pm) there were so many people we could hardly move, and almost everyone had a drink in their hand (New Orleans has very lenient open container laws). It was pretty obvious that the party had started early in the afternoon and we needed to hurry up and get a drink. We walked into a random bar, ordered margaritas in plastic cups, and joined the party, just walking back and forth down Bourbon street and taking it all in. It didn't take Eric and I long to figure out that our skin color was a minority which was, to that scale, new to both of us. Not an issue, just a different feeling from what we're used to. I think it's safe to say that 95% or more of the people there were black. We had a few laughs when we walked into a bar called Bourbon Cowboy and almost everyone was white. Eric had the idea of getting a six-pack of local beer to share as we walked around the madness. The rest of the night was spent popping bottles open on windowsill ledges in front of cops on horses, striking up short conversations with strangers, people watching, silly dancing...definitely one of the most fun nights we've spent together.

I think I'm all caught up now. Right now we're in Montgomery, Alabama at a low-key sports bar so Eric can watch the Ravens game. Our plan tonight is to make it to the Atlanta area and drive the rest of the way to Swansboro tomorrow. We've seen such a variety of things on this road trip which we both absolutely love, but we're ready to settle down in one place for a little while.