Day 13 - June 27, 2010

Odometer reads: 3132.4

Left New Braunfels, TX - mass campsite was actually pretty cool; everyone was either out at bars or passed out by around 10 p.m., so we slept fairly well. Actually got going by 9 a.m. (YAY) but stopped at Sweetie's Donuts for an old-fashioned donut for Kat and a smoothie for Smalls. Saw a few hungover teenagers from our campsite in the parking lot, and we'd never been happier that we act like we're 70. Texas was gorgeous and it smelled nice, seems fresh and there's alot of open land - they discourage littering big time and they keep it super clean. Headed northwest a bit to Bandera, TX, the tiny home of the state's best country fried steak, which Kat had for breakfast.

Hundreds of miles of nothing IS west Texas. We had planned to head straight to Roswell, NM, but after 8 hours of driving through hot nothing, we decided to spend the night in the Guadalupe Mountains National Park. This place was literally in the middle of nowhere at the foot of a mountain, and the stars were the best we've ever seen. Kat couldn't believe that they actually twinkled! We were up on a small hill, and had a perfect, unobstructed view of the sky and the horizon, where a beautiful lightning storm went on for hours. It was super windy, but Kat got the best night of sleep there for some reason. We drove 565 miles today, into another time zone.

Quote of the day: "This was totally worth the dirty."

Day 12 - June 26, 2010

Odometer reads: 2957.2 miles

T'was the day to leave San Antonio! So we did, and headed northeast towards Austin, but stopped when we hit New Braunfels for some tubing down the Guadalupe River. Was that a hoot. Lots of characters, drunk and high, short and tall, some seemingly unintelligent. It was hilarious and tons of fun, especially watching Kat's reaction to our surroundings. We were planted in the middle of a field called "overflow camping" with about 200 other people and their F-150s. We were admittedly worried at first but soon realized that floating down the river at a snail's pace was normal for many of the people that were there. People make a weekend out of getting drunk and tying 20 tubes together, and we soon found out that everyone was just there to have fun with friends. We floated down the Guadalupe for about 3 hours; the first hour was rather slow but we turned a corner and drifted into some rapids... Lift the REAR! It was quite exciting going down with our extra tube, holding our shoes, cooler, and camera. We attached it to our tubes with some twine and Kat named it Fat... it makes sense, a fairly useless and heavy material that slowed us down. Anyways, we hit a few more rapids and headed for the shuttle bus to take us back after floating by a guy who slurred a "Hello" and waved with a beer. Two more hours next to him and we might have watched him drown so we got out. The shuttle was fun too: a ride in a crammed white van with about 17 people hollering at the driver and laughing hysterically. It was genuinely funny and Smalls certainly felt like she was in the south again.

After putting some clothes on, we were definitely due for some food. We drove about an hour to Austin to test out another "Road Food" restaurant, Hoover's Cooking. The place seemed small from the outside, but when we entered it was loud and bustling with people. Our waiter, Stacey, arrived immediately with Hoover's fresh-squeezed lemonade in huge glasses (that were actually pitchers), and we ordered. Smalls got what she claims to be the best burger she's ever had, smoked and grilled and complete with green chile and jalapeno on top. We finished with a few award-winning mango margaritas and headed back to our camp-field for the night.

Day 11 - June 25, 2010
Odometer reads: same

Slept in and got up slowly - nice. Packed some things up and headed north a few miles to the San Antonio Natural Bridge Caverns for a tour of the caves. We were led by our fearless leader and recent high school graduate, Cheyenne, 180 feet down into the Earth for an hour and a half. The caverns were discovered by 4 college students from St. Mary's and have some structures that are over 40 feet high and 8 inches thick (pictured is one of the largest, The King's Throne), and they only grow 1 cubic inch every 100 years! We hiked through the wet caverns for about an hour and then visited the gift shop before heading out.

Left the caverns and went to Lulu's Bakery and Cafe for lunch. The place was packed, and the waitresses all could easily have been related to one another - loud, sassy, and busy. Smalls finally got her country fried steak, and loved it, and Kat had the best burger ever. We also found out at some point that we needed to be on a wait list for an infamous 3 pound cinnamon bun - needless to say we got on it pretty quickly. 45 minutes later, an enormous, warm cinnamon bun was presented to us on a too-small plate wrapped in plastic wrap. The picture explains it all.

We again rolled ourselves out of the restaurant, bun in hand, and down the road to the Alamo to actually see it during operating hours. Explored the Alamo for awhile, especially the courtyard behind the building - gorgeous gardens and trees. We read spots of the posted history and listened in on a couple of tour guides' speeches and looked around inside a bit; the building apparently had quite an influence on the surrounding architecture of downtown San Antonio and the Riverwalk.

Left the Alamo and grabbed a few groceries on our way home to the motel for our first real night in of the trip. Lazed around in the room and watched Cesar Milan and a History Channel special on the USS Reagan for several hours and devoured the rest of our guacamole before dozing off.

Day 10 - June 24, 2010

Odometer reads: 2752 miles

Up early, refreshed from our 500 mile drive the previous day, we checked out of our Flatonia motel and made our way down the road a bit to Shiner, Texas! Or as they claim, "The Cleanest Little City in Texas"; it was an adorable, small town with a population of about 2070 people. It had obvious German influence, including the city park named Welhausen Park and the Spoetzl Brewery that churns out millions of Shiner Bock 6-packs every year. Natually, Smalls bought a specialty brew to store in the cooler.

Left Shiner and headed about 50 miles west, finally completing our long journey to San Antonio. Decided to look for a Waffle House for brunch, since Kat has never eaten there and it's apparently a pretty important Southern experience. Once again, Kat's GPS "Tonya" led us to a non-existant destination, so we grabbed a few burgers for lunch instead. We explored a little bit and found a motel about 15 minutes away from downtown San Antonio and the Riverwalk. Found a Sports Authority and finally got a pair of hiking shoes for Smalls, got some ice for the cooler and headed downtown to see the Alamo and Riverwalk. Of course, we arrived 30 minutes after the Alamo closed, but we got a few good pictures nonetheless. Walked a few blocks to the Riverwalk and strolled down the river under huge, charmingly out-of-place trees and past dozens of adorable shops, nice restaurants, and gorgeous hotels. Every 5 minutes or so, one of several riverboats would buzz by with about 20 passengers and an enthusiastic guide/captain rattling off facts about the Walk.

We looked around for Lulu's Bakery and Cafe for a bit, only to be told by a nice family that it was a little out of walking distance and probably closed, so we decided to save it for the next day. Lulu's - the famous and popular home of San Antonio's best country fried steak and a notorious 3 pound Cinnamon Bun - was on the list of must-do's while in San Antonio. We made our way back to the car and took a short trip down the street to Rosario's (also recommended by the nice family), a Mexican restaurant in a seemingly-deserted part of town. Long story short, we ate way too much, but it was too good to leave on the plate; hands down the best Mexican food either of us have ever had. Note: if you make your own guacamole, try putting feta cheese in it. We rolled ourselves out of the restaurant and into the car, got to the motel and crashed immediately.

Day 9 - June 23, 2010

Odometer reads: 2255 miles

On to Texas! Woke up early, turned in our sheets and parted ways with the India House and all of it's lovely personalities. Lots of friendly people in New Orleans, even the tourists from all over - I think the city's laidback attitude rubs off on visitors. Enjoyed New Orleans and had a great time, but we've got to get back to camping... plenty of money was spent on souvenirs, food, bed, and drinks.

Got in the car and started driving. Drove... drove some more. We crossed Louisiana and made a large dent in the mileage we needed to cover for the day but Texas is BIG, and we still needed to go halfway through it to get to San Antonio. We decided to pull "Road Food" out and find a place to go in Houston for lunch and settled on a little place called William's BBQ. Finally got to the exit and made the 15 mile trek off the highway to get there, only to find a lonely slab of concrete and the restaurant's old cooker. Somewhere along the line, Outback's unlimited pumpernickel bread came up in conversation, so that became our new destination. The next hour was frustrating, full of packed highways like this one, and to sum it up in one perfectly appropriate quote, Houston was "like driving through hell" - Momma Shiner. We finally got there and ate like it was going out of style - probably scared the waitress a bit...

Drove for a few more hours through a great sunset and countless miles of grasslands, finally stopping at a motel in Flatonia for the night. The place was a little downtrodden, but after ten hours on the road, any bed was great.

it's been awhile...

So we finally found some internet! Apologies for asking you guys to follow us and then not updating... we're going to try not to get ten days behind again :)

Day 8 - June 22, 2010

Odometer reads: same

Woke up late in the morning to rain showers and overcast skies and ventured out to find the New Orleans city park and botanical gardens, which both had unexpected price tags. Luckily we found a beautiful tree park one or two blocks over with huge, 200 year-old trees, including our favorite tree, pictured here (Smalls is extra tiny, on the lower right). After climbing the trees and exploring the playground, we headed downtown to Decatur Street for a little last-minute shopping. Included in the trip: another stop at the Kupcake Factory and two more amazing philly cheesesteaks from Mr. J's. With full stomachs, we drove through the rest of the French Quarter and explored some of the streets we hadn't yet seen - Royal, Decatur, Dauphine and Dumaine Street were all gorgeous, definitely the jewels of the city. Antique shops and cafes everywhere, not to mention all of the beautiful big houses with wrought iron gates and balconys. We had to drag ourselves past the building pictured below, with apartments for sale for much less than they're worth (as apparently all of the properties are since the floods).

Headed back to the India House to watch TV for a little while and make dinner, and be lightly harrassed by the staff to attend their Jungle Juice Party on the back porch at 8 p.m. The had live music, a guitarist and singer from Columbia named Carlos, who was touring America for a month. We swam in the pool, split a bottle of wine and made a few friends, particularly with the owner of the hostel, Paddy - a British beach bum who moved to New Orleans 18 years ago and took over the India House from the previous owners. You can tell he's always the life of the party; loved to tell stories about his dog and where he was when Katrina hit: drunk in a bar buying the rest of the crowd drinks.

It was a great night and an awesome place to stay, highly recommended to everyone and anyone who travels to New Orleans.

Day 7 - June 21 2010

Odometer reads: same

Woke up late and grabbed a power bar for breakfast on our way out the door. Figured we saw a lot of the French Quarter the previous day so we decided to go to one of the cemeteries in town. On a map of there are half a dozen cemeteries to go to, we chose the biggest ones, the Metairie and Greenwood cemeteries. The two were divided by a highway and it was a bit difficult to find the entrances but we figured it out, improvisation is sort of the theme of this trip as we are slowly realizing. These cemeteries were really cool, we drove through them for about an hour, passing enormous intricate tombs that held entire family lines. There were thousands of stone crosses and statues and huge, old oak trees throughout the cemeteries, which each stretched probably a half-mile in each direction.

We left the cemeteries and explored a different part of town and came across Mr. J's Po-Boy restaurant, with the BEST philly cheesesteaks in America, for real. We'll have to see if Mo can find one in Philly that beats it. As nasty as it sounds, hot mayonaise made the sandwich.

It started pouring again while we were ordering and eating the po-boys (New Orleans' name for hoagies, apparently), and soon we attempted to find our way home on our own without Tonya, Kat's GPS... it eventually happened.

We hung out, took showers and got ready to go out with Smalls' bunk-mate, Camilla Griffith of London. Went to dinner at La Bayou on Bourbon Street where Smalls tried their fried alligator po-boy: for everyone's information, it tastes like fishy chicken. Not bad. We explored the nightlife of Bourbon Street, had a few drinks and bought some souvenirs, and even stopped in at Fat Tuesday's for a beer. Took the streetcar home around 12 and all headed to bed for the night.