3,177 miles later, we have arrived to our final destination; Tuscaloosa, Alabama. We left Olympia around 12:30am Thursday morning. I woke up to the sun rising over grassy hills somewhere in eastern Oregon. It didn’t take us long to realize that 48 hours of straight driving, with four people was not going to be an easy task. However, we were all in high spirits by the time we made it to Idaho. I am grateful that I took notes where ever we went because the actual time we spent in the car feels like a big blur now. I am sitting her question which days we did what! We stopped for lunch in Salt Lake City and walked around the capital building to stretch our legs. I certainly didn’t spend enough time in that city to make statements, but I can say one thing; the traffic was terrible and we were excited to get out.

We stopped for dinner in Moab, Utah – we had hoped to make it to Arches National Park by sunset but the sun was down before we got there. I was really looking forward to revisiting this ‘spot of time’ that I mentioned before, at the same time of day, so I was pretty disappointed that it was dark when we arrived. After di

Our ‘Bon Voyage’ picture.

nner I got us to New Mexico before I had to finally switch drivers. During that time – when I was driving, and everyone was asleep (or at least trying to), I had time to reflect on how I can in
corporate the travel with the time I spend at each destination. Each state is different – the smells, the color of the trees, the size of the trees, the type of stores and restaurants, and the way people drive, to the music played on the radio stations. There is so much to take in, to notice and to process – especially because I’m not sending a lot of time in these places just a traveler passing through. I noticed that I was overwhelmed by the vastness of each place. I began to doubt my ability to be an observant traveler, and quickly remembered that I brought myself on this trip – and there’s nothing I can do about that.

We stopped for breakfast in New Mexico where I made a point of ordering green chilies in my omelet. At this point in our trip – we weren’t even pretending to have had enough sleep. We took some time to freshen up in the restaurant bathroom and started again on our way. We drove through New Mexico, Texas and made it really far into Louisiana (of course, stopping for the best barbeque I’ve ever had in my life for dinner) before we decided to stay at a hotel in Alexandria, LA. We need sleep, we longed for a shower and a place to stretch our legs but we did not want to deal with the madness of the French Quarter just yet.

The next morning, I woke up feeling like a new person – with a full night’s sleep, a shower and a hot breakfast I was giddy with anticipation as we drove a few more hours into New Orleans. Louisiana in the day time is so gorgeous – the trees are green and like nothing I’d ever seen before, and because it is almost all swamp, the whole highway felt like one long bridge. Once we finally got into New Orleans the first thing I noticed was the houses. The architecture is like nothing I have ever seen before – it reminded me of any other city as far as proximity goes, as in the houses are nearly attached to each other. But the colors, and the iron work are unbelievable. As soon as we pulled up to the French Quarter there was a rush of smells and sounds that filled the car – it was so ready to be there and be in it.

Our first stop was Café Du Monde for beignets and coffee. So. Many. Beignets. And zero regrets. After that – it was one street perform after a po’boy. All day long we spent wandering around, listening to music, talking with different performers and visitors. My favorite memory of the night was our time at Fritzel’s European Jazz pub, were we drank bourbon and coke, ate pizza cones and listened to hours of jazz music. Despite the name of the club, the jazz band was made up of 20-somethings from Louisiana playing traditional New Orleans Jazz music. I got the chance to speak with them for a while – they were so friendly and willing to chat. In my next post I plan on going into detail about this day, and my time in gulf shores but for now the sunset on the river is calling my name and I would hate to miss it.