![\"Our](\"http:\/\/blogs.evergreen.edu\/amysmusicalcity\/files\/2015\/05\/IMG_3596.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nOur ‘Bon Voyage’ picture.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
nner I got us to New Mexico before I had to finally switch drivers. During that time \u2013 when I was driving, and everyone was asleep (or at least trying to), I had time to reflect on how I can in 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 \u2013 we weren\u2019t 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\u2019ve 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.<\/p>\n The next morning, I woke up feeling like a new person \u2013 with a full night\u2019s 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 \u2013 the trees are green and like nothing I\u2019d 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 \u2013 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 \u2013 it was so ready to be there and be in it.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1259,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[],"tags":[99],"geo":{"latitude":33.2098389,"longitude":-87.5691757,"description":null},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/musicalcities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/900"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/musicalcities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/musicalcities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/musicalcities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1259"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/musicalcities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/musicalcities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/900\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/musicalcities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/musicalcities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/musicalcities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\ncorporate the travel with the time I spend at each destination. Each state is different \u2013 the smells, the color of the trees, the size <\/em>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 \u2013 especially because I\u2019m 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 \u2013 and there\u2019s nothing I can do about that.<\/p>\nOur first stop was Caf\u00e9 Du Monde for beignets and coffee. So. Many. Beignets. And zero regrets. After that \u2013 it was one street perform after a po\u2019boy. 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\u2019s 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 \u2013 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.<\/p>\n