Day 10 – Lake Lincoln State Park, MS to New Orleans

Last night was the most miserable night that we’ve spent camping yet. I was lying there in the tent in the stifling, humid heat of southern Mississippi listening to thousands of tree frogs calling out for mates and hundreds of the loudest cicada type bugs you could imagine just waiting for a bear or an alligator to wander up the hill and have us for a midnight snack. Sweat was pooling on my chest as my ears strained to hear the slightest sound of branches breaking signifying a huge animal ready to pounce. With the background noise of frogs and other night creatures, it was similar to those “scientists” who listen for radio signals from outer space. I just couldn’t handle it anymore so I reached out to Sandra via text to tell her that I love her and miss her. It was an exchange of text messages that I’ll never forget my entire life. The written word...even via text message...can be so powerful. Life is all about balance.

I was still reveling in the thoughts that those wonderful words created when I heard it. Definitely branches breaking...and they were right outside the flimsy netting on my side window of the tent! I heard the “bear” step on the 4” of tarp that stuck out from the side of the tent...my heart started pounding as I sat upright and hit the side of the tent to scare the “alligator” away. Like that would work. I see through the shadows of the full moon a big old jack rabbit scared shitless running headlong through the brush!! I sure took care of that “bearigator”, didn’t I? Adrenaline is a good thing – in the middle of the day as you’re trying to stay awake while taking your CPA exam or while taking computer certification tests or something like that. Not a good thing at midnight while trying to sleep in an Indian sweat lodge! I said to Dylan who was also having problems sleeping, “it’s ok, it was just a rabbit”. He was snoring. I listened to my heart beating in rhythm with the night.

So…I’m sitting here writing this blog. It’s about 8AM, fairly quiet and minding my own business when a yellow jacket drops from the trees right next to the laptop. It was hanging onto what looked like a bugs wing or something. I took aim and flicked it away. Well, a couple minutes later, I’m sitting here doing a few updates to MS Office when I feel this incredible bite on my foot. I look down and a yellow jacket has just stung my foot!!! Payback is a bitch!! Dylan has been warning me for days not to wear my sandals around camp but I’ve ignored him….up until now! OUCH!! It still stings. I’ve been stung a few times before and, other than stinging for a few hours, they don’t bother me much. Let’s hope it’s the same for Mississippi yellow jackets. I need to get my son up out of bed and get the hell outta here!!!
We have a relatively short drive today. We’re heading into New Orleans and will be staying at our first hotel of the entire trip. Clean sheets, air conditioning, tv, air conditioning, high speed internet, air conditioning. By the way, did I mention that we’re really looking forward to air conditioning tonight?

Dylan drove virtually the whole distance into NO. I55 becomes this gigantic bridge for about 20 miles before it drops into the city. Underneath this bridge was the bayous surrounding Lake Pontchartrain. Little homes up on stilts...amazing lifestyle. We arrived at New Orleans and were greeted by our first traffic jam of the trip. It appears that people here have just as much trouble merging lanes as in LA. We also got hit with only our second bout of rain the whole trip. We could see the storm clouds brewing on the horizon but, up until now, we have pretty much been spared. It was only a quick downpour so we hoped for the best. By the time we reached the Visitor's center, the rain had stopped.

We found our hotel, Hotel St. Marie, and then headed out into the French Quarter. Our hotel is about a half block off of Bourbon St. so we were centrally located. The first place we went to was Cafe Du Monde which Dylan had heard of on the Travel Channel as having the best doughnuts in the world. I agree!!! We scarfed down 3 beignets and had a couple iced coffees and we were in 7th heaven. We figured that we should prolly eat a good lunch rather than just doughnuts so we took off in search of a restaurant that caught our eye. We ended up at the Original French Market Restaurant and Bar which had stood in that location since about 1812 or something like that. Very cool. Dylan and I ordered 2lbs of crawdads and proceeded to wonder what the hell we were supposed to do with them when they arrived at our table. When I ordered, I asked the waiter, "are these spicy?" (I'm such a dumbass) In his N.O. drawl he answers, "nah, deez aren't spicy t'all" Yeah, right!! He sat over in the corner with his waiter buddies smiling at us as we looked up on Google as to how to eat crawdads properly (twist the tail off, suck the head, then squeeze the meat out of the tail) and proceeded to devour the entire two pounds as our lips became branding irons of heat!!! Unbelievable taste, though. Really fantastic.

Off we went towards Bourbon St. It was about 3PM or so and the wind had started howling as a storm cell moved over the city. All the shop keepers were literally boarding up and heading indoors. We eventually found ourselves alone as we walked the streets of the French Quarter up to Bourbon St. Very weird feeling and quite spooky. A few minutes after we arrived at Bourbon St., it started raining. Happy day! Bourbon St. reminded me of Avenida Revolution in Tijuana during the 80's...though not quite as dirty. Hundreds of tourist shops all selling exactly the same things. One thing I did like, though, was that you could get your booze to go! I ordered a beer ($10.50!!!) and walked the streets with my son. Very cool. It was still rather early in the day so not too many people were out and about. There was only one band playing on the whole street so we stood outside the door and listened. It was early, so the bouncer guy invited us in as long as Dylan sat at one of the tables in the front. It's all "over 21" so this was a rare treat! We sat there and listened to a great band play 70's covers and proceeded to high five ourselves on finally making it to N.O.

We walked around a bit, I drank a lot more, walked around a bit, I drank more, then we decided to have some dinner. We had a fantastic dinner of seafood in a great restaurant right across the street from Larry Flynt's Barely Legal Club!! We were entertained during dinner by the overweight mom with Cesarean scar jiggling her flabby, white, cellulited, ass in a way too small G-String bikini outside of the Club. Everyone in the restaurant was quite entertained by watching that train wreck. After dinner, I was beginning to feel the beer and the food so I talked Dylan into going back to the hotel room for a little nap.

Got up and went back out at about 9PM...what a change!! The street was blocked to cars and people had come out of the woodwork. Bands were playing at virtually every little bar and the place was alive. I drank more and we had a great time people watching and enjoying the vibe. The night ended with another trip to Cafe Du Monde for some beignets and decaf iced coffees. Fantastic!!!