Texas, Gators and all that Jazz

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The only sign of life anywhere nearby was a conveniently placed taco stand opposite.

Our usual 6am rise for the hotel breakfast. No cereal on offer today, so we had our first Waffle. Quite a skill to cooking them.

Today we set course for Amarillo, Texas via New Mexico. The first thing we needed to do on the road was to stop at the state line for our now customary photo with the new state we are entering and then it was onwards towardsTexas.

Fuel in Americahas averaged so far at around $3.45/gallon which converts to around $0.91/litre. Compare this to Australia where you can pay anywhere between $1.35/litre in the city up to $1.70/litre in remote country towns, and it is no wonder no one our age can afford to road trip around Australia.

New Mexico presented the first pre-pay only, un-manned Shell station we have seen, literally bowsers with credit card slots. The only sign of life anywhere nearby was a conveniently placed taco stand opposite.

Another healthy meal on the run. A simple small cheeseburger meal ordered by Bree turned into quite an ordeal. Two cheeseburgers, a medium fries and a drink container large enough to store an extra tank of fuel in the boot with free refills include. It makes you wonder!

We stayed 1 night inAmarillo, woke early and got on the road towardsAustin. The rise at 6am proved to be dark so a bit more sleep was added. During our travels over the past 10 days we have discovered that America has the most deluxe of rest stops; the one we saw today had a tornado shelter – always be prepared.

The drive through Texas was amazing; the road was filled with trucks loaded with wind turbine propellers and stands. We made it to Austin and planned on hitting the bar scene, at 7pm I was asleep and Bree was waiting for the dryer to finish, party animals!

Trip advisor suggested the best areas for us to see around Austin – SoCo and 6^th street. SoCo was once a run down area with seedy by the hour hotels, apparently frequented by members of congress – ‘South Congress Street’ (SoCo). A great strip of funky shops and trailer park eateries and Guero’s Mexican, great food washed down with a Corona and a mango margarita for the lady.

We hit up 6^th street that night, filled with bar after bar the road is closed down after 11pm. Music in every second bar and people everywhere provide such a great atmosphere, the 38 degree heat on 1 rooftop bar did not.

Our first experience of torrential rain was as we headed for New Orleans, this place was at the top of our list when we decided to do this drive. With getting lost in Houston, the rain and roadwork’s we added about 2.5 hours to today’s drive.

With hazards on and going fast not really an option it was a matter of making the best of the drive, the drive intoLouisianawas an amazing site. The Atchafalaya basin is the largest swamp in theUnited States, 32km wide and 240 km in length. We took the Interstate 10 Bridge 29km across this to finally arrive inNew Orleans.

Our first day was spent exploring the French quarter, a busy Sunday started with us spending 30 minutes. Beautiful architecture, funky shops and plenty of places to sample a mango daiquiri as we strolled around checking out local artists paintings and listening to jazz music on every corner.

I told Bree we should check out an area called French Street that night, having agreed we typed it in the map and off we went, all we could find was a residential area, where the effects of Hurricane Katrina were still very evident and after enough driving around Bree finally worked it out and let me know the area was Frenchman Street. About 2 minutes from where we had been all day, we were over it by this stage and went back to the hotel.

We spotted the famous Bourbon Street on our travels, most of the street was closed off for cars but we saw enough to know this was the area for prostitutes and body paint, a crazy Sunday night was in full swing for a lot of people.

After waking up with no plan for the day, Bree soon sorted us out with a full blown air boat tour on the Jean Lafitte Swamp National Park (even found a $10 each discount). Jean Lafitte Swamp Tours upgraded us to a private boat of 6 people rather then the advertised 24 and we were soon on the water.

These things go fast. Our guide weaved us in & out of the banks and over anything that floated in our way. Buoys, logs and mounds of dirt were no feat for the airboat. We found 3 gators and fed them marshmallows, the largest and oldest was around 55 years old. Louisianaas a state has the highest alligator population, currently sitting at around 2 million.

Our slow speaking local guide explained to us that the TV series ‘Swamp People’ is filmed pretty close to where we had cruised around. All too soon we were off the boat and back into the city.

Our time in this great city finished all too soon and the next morning we would be heading onto our next adventure.

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Comments

[Sydney Side Jimmy]

That shot is unbelievable! Great job guys!