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Tuesday, June 4th 2002 |
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New Orleans, LA to Austin, TX |
Weather: Sunny Hot and Humid... High of 95 |
Total Miles To Date 2,022 miles |
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Money spent today: $111.76 on two night hotel stay in New Orleans $52 for gas $5 at McDonalds $24.90 for over nighting packages $15 for dinner
Total Spent Today $208.66
Total Spent To Date $675.08 |
Once again, awake...asleep.. awake...asleep.... from 6:30 till finally up at 8.... checked out at 9 and waited for my car....finally on the road at 9:35 and heading down Rte 10 West So, I drove by the Superdome...have you ever driven or been in a dome...It's a very weird look..it's almost like they're hiding something... About 10 miles outside New Orleans on 10W, there's an amusement park that's not labeled...and I mean not labeled at all...no sign off the exit, no sign in front of the place...Well, anyway, it looks like a nice little water/amusement park. I still can't figure out how this whole area exists...everything is built over the water...there are certain parts that look like towns that have been flooded and all you see are tree tops......there are even a line of concrete platforms built into the marshes just to be able to connect electrical wires.. As I drove a little more and got into farm country I ended up seeing tons of bi-planes just flying around doing stunts...that was kind of random and nice to see after a boring drive... Close to the end of Louisiana is a town named Lake Charles...and for no reason whatsoever there's a Harrahs Casino & Hotel....it's a really nice place on a lake, but it's been built in the most industrial part of town...not very nice to look at 1:15 Central Time and I'm in Texas 3:30 Central Time and I'm in Houston.....Houston is a weird stop for me...I didn't have any plans to go to Houston but I had to overnight some tickets...So basically, I'm going to Houston just to send some mail. The first thing you notice about Houston is that it actually has a skyline. It rivals Atlanta's, but it's more centralized...I even had the opportunity to drive by the Un-named stadium (previously known as Enron Field)...The people were friendly enough....I sent my tickets and got on my way... 4:30 I'm on my way back on track out of Houston...wait....can it be...yes, yes it is...Houston has rush hour traffic.. 4:50 I finally weasel out of traffic and head up onto route 290 West Ok, so 290 is a local road that goes through farms, ranches and that's about it...but think about it this way, it's a local road with traffic lights and a speed limit of 70. what's even stranger is there are driveways on this road for houses....how do you bring yourself up to 70 mph from your driveway to the street? Well, it doesn't matter...there's no one on this road....it's 120 miles of nothing!!! Imagine blowing down an empty local road doing 80...That part was fun Now these ranch's I past....wow... some of them were as big as Hartsdale...that's one piece of property......all this property, with all these cows and horses...and one tiny house in the middle.. So, I stopped for gas in some town named Elgin...This was a gas station in the middle of nowhere!!! It's literally as you imagine it....a small gas station on a barren dirty road...yup..that's what I was thinking...Texas Chainsaw Massacre...I went in to pay and I saw five or six old men sitting around a barrel just chatting...this is in a gas station. ..strange.. 7:25 I get into Austin....time to find a place to stay....There are actually a couple of camp sites around with tenting, but it's way to hot...it's still 85.. I drive around downtown Austin and start calling the hotels I pass..Ok, hotels costs are ranging from the first call of $170, to the next of $100..then $79......ok..time to stay on the outskirts of town.. ok...a Days Inn...$69....are they kidding me? time to keep going I drive a little further up and find a little Ramada Inn....$44...this is acceptable...or so I think.. I should have been tipped off right away, but I guess sometimes it takes me a while...I check in and then park my car in front of my room. Out of nowhere this crack head chick is asking me for money to take a bus home...I throw her some change and she literally she disappears as fast as she appeared...Ok..i can deal..this happens in NY. I get in my room....drop my bags on the bed and go to turn off the lights..most of them don't work...ok..so, i don't mind the dark...what else? the air conditioner barely works..the smoke detector has been ripped out of the ceiling....basically, this place sucks...but you get what you pay for... I should have camped...I can't get why for roughly the same amount of money I got some a great room in the French Quarter of New Orleans and some really shitty room in the outskirts of Austin....I can't believe this is all because here lies the University of Texas... At this point, I'm too tired of driving to go out...I'm going to stay in my room, study Austin and venture around tomorrow... Remember cities outside of New York don't take more than a day to explore completely... There are some caverns and caves I hope to explore, a place called the Congress Avenue bats where a million bats depart every day at sunset and there is some artesian swimming hole.. C YA
notes: I drove by a town named, "Frog City"....I have no joke for that one ....it just sounded funny... For my country friends....should I find it weird that Tracy Byrd is doing Beaumont Hyundai commercials on the radio Should I find it scary that the Texas State Police wear cowboy hats I've come up with two reasons of why the south still has Civil War re-enactments 1. they're trying to figure out what they did wrong 2. they're hoping one of these days the outcome changes I drove thru a town named, "Ledbetter"...maybe this is the place Eddie Vedder was talking about...who knows what he says in his songs.. you know you found a good station when they play 2 crowes songs in a row (yes, it was two fer tuesday, but i still love it) |
Total Miles Traveled Today 514 Total from Sunday's Trip from Atlanta to New Orleans 492 |