boe4fun - 6-4-2011 at 08:29 AM
Hola Nomads, Here's a synopsis of our most recent adventure. We started out leaving the SLO airport early morning of May 6th flying, then connecting,
most of the day until we arrived in Memphis, TN Friday evening. We spent the weekend relaxing and visiting our son Lucas and his wife Jessica. Lucas
had borrowed our Ford Ranger pickup truck this past Christmas to transport most of his belongings back to their home in TN. The next week was spent
touring around TN, driving around the state, visiting Nashville and doing tourist stuff like the Country Music Hall of Fame. We stopped at two civil
war battlefields (Stones River and Shiloh) and the Jack Daniel's distillery in Lynchburg (which is in a "Dry" county) on the way back to Memphis. We
got back by Friday night to spend that weekend with the kids before we started back cross country. We got to spend a lot of time with Luke and Jess
and we able to experience much of the local flavor and cuisine of the area (Memphis has great BBQ and fried chicken, plus the blues on Beale Street).
Monday was spent cleaning out the truck and doing laundry and packing and readying for our trip west.
We left Tuesday morning and drove south to New Orleans. We didn't take the route that followed the Mississippi River as much of the area along
the river had problems with flooding due to the heavy rains and the consequent swelling of the river. We spent that night at the Doubletree Inn in
Kenner, near the Louis Armstrong International Airport near New Orleans. Since we had visited the "Big Easy" on a number of occasions before, we
bypassed driving into the city proper. We had discovered a "Mom & Pop" place called the Harbor Seafood Restaurant and Market on one of our
previous trips. The food there is fantastic, and many of the items on the menu ARE ORDERED BY THE POUND! Needless to say, we had food left over for
snacking on along the way, and we had bought a collapsible cooler to keep our food cold. We spent the next two days driving through the heart of
Cajun country in south-west LA, and got as far as Galveston on the TX gulf coast that next afternoon. The extensive damage caused by Ike, which hit
this area a couple of years after Katrina, was mostly cleaned up, with most of the houses having been completely rebuilt. We stopped at a restaurant
named "Gaido's" which we discovered on a previous trip, famous for (of course) seafood. (Food will be a recurring theme in this report, as it seems
that we mostly planned our route back home based upon various places to eat that we've discovered over the years). After leaving Galveston we drove
down the coast to Rockport, near Corpus Christi. Of course we found a place to eat that the locals told us about. Sawdust floor, a 3 piece band, and
food to die for.
The next day we spent a long time on the road, since we had to cross TX from the southeast corner to the northwest part of the state. We spent
one night in Del Rio, and got on the road early the next day to get to Carlsbad, NM by the next afternoon. Along the way we stopped at the Judge Roy
Bean museum in Langtry, TX. Seems that the movie that starred Paul Newman some years back was based on an actual character from the wild west. We got
into Carlsbad early enough in the day to get our passes and go down on the elevator to visit the "Big Room" and then returned that evening after
dinner to see the bat's evening flight out of the cave. The next morning we took the Nature trail down into the cavern and returned to the surface
via elevator. We arrived in El Paso by that afternoon and were able to have a nice stay with Shelley's brother Steve and his wife Karen. This was,
of course, after we stopped at Chico's Famous Taco's in east El Paso (world famous cuisine, of course). We spent the next three nights there, just
relaxing and catching up, reading and watching DVD's. We left Thursday morning and got as far as Casa Grande where we spent the night, and made it
into Poway by Friday afternoon to visit our daughter Courtney and her husband Jonathan, and of course our first grand-child Will. From there it was
back home to Margaritaville and the multitude of chores we have waiting. All in all, a great trip.
goldhuntress - 6-4-2011 at 01:23 PM
Man, that sounds like fun! 
BajaBlanca - 6-4-2011 at 02:00 PM
nice trip - photos ????