Last Days - Philly 2008

Dont remember if I mentioned the jelly fish Quinn and I saw when we walked the beach in the morning. Not many shells around but there were plenty of the clear funky looking round things on the beach. We drove thru Biloxi Mississippi but the road was still so torn up and the whole place still a bit of a mess we headed up to I-10 and took it into New Orleans. New Orleans was strange too there were entire neighborhoods that looked abandoned and this you could see from the freeway. We made it to the french quarter and walked around for about an hour. Its a very neat place with alot of live music around and very colorful painted houses. From New Orleans we took the mississippi road toward Baton Rougue and hit 3 plantations. The first one we stopped at was Oak Alley Plantation. The oak trees were an amazing site at this place. The house and history was interesting. We next stopped at Nottoway Plantation. The house was very diffrent from the last one and alot bigger. The grounds werent as impressive but the history was neat. The last one we stopped at was by far the best, Haumas House (http://www.houmashouse.com/). The lady who gave the tour was amazing she was walkin talkin historian with a loud humorous personality. She had some amazing statistics on the whites and blacks that owned slaves in the south. The grounds of this plantation were beutiful, flowers were in bloom, water flowing everywhere. The plantation is actually a residence so you can sit on the furniture and touch the stuff, she even played the ancient piano for us like it was nothing. The house had a spiral staircase that was amazing, to think they built it so well back then without all the technology of today. After the tour it was getting a bit late, they have a restaurant on the premisis that is reservation only. We asked if there was any availability and there was so we at dinner there. It was very charming eating in the old building, the food was supurb we were able to try alot of diffrent things. I must say we got the bread pudding on which I hadnt ever had before and it was delicious. It was the end of a perfect day. We stayed just out side baton rouge that night.

The next day we started the lovely drive accross texas. We made it to Lochart between san antonio and austin in the early afternoon to meet with Joes friend Tim. From there we figured wed stop in Ft Stockton, since its practically the only stop between san antonio and el paso. Anyway we got there around midnight and every hotel was booked. Aparently they struck oil or some nonsence like that. Anyway we were to tired to go any further, the next town Van Horn was about 2 hours away so we just parked it at the next rest area, grabbed the blankets and slept in the car.

The last day was all driving across more texas, new mexico wasnt too bad you are across it quick. We then stopped to visit a friend Jim in Bisbee, AZ. Interesting town, cute downtown. Strange the huge hole in the ground where they do the mining on the way into town. After Bisbee we stopped at the Mariott in Tucson for dinner, it was a wonderful place to eat they had a large assortment of seasonal, local and organic food on the menu. There is another place in Tucson a bit north called Mcclintocks Id like to try one day, aparently its reservation only and they were all booked when we went thru. Will have to hit it in the summer when all the snowbirds have left. So thats our trip we made it back in one piece. The subaru we rented worked well in all weather conditions and boy did we hit it all. Not sure we will take another mid winter road trip, but we saw alot of nice places with very few people around.