In keeping with the idea of a mini-vacation in the middle of our road trip. I only took one picture today. We spent most of the day relaxing. Kate got a pedicure, and I drove into town for a haircut. We hit the beach, had some lunch, then hit the pool. I did some reading on my Kindle, Kate watched some TV. We then had a nice dinner in the Riverview Lounge, and came back to the room to crash early. Today (Wednesday) we leave Sea Island and head to Charlotte, NC.
More to come
We started today in New Orleans, and finished in Jacksonville. For those keeping count, that’s 545 miles, our longest day yet.
This morning we had breakfast at Cafe Du Monde, famous for their Beignets and Coffee. Kate and I each had a Cafe Au Lait and a few of the scrumptious french donuts. While we were enjoying our breakfast, the biggest thunderstorm every rolled right over us. Partially flooding some of the streets in the French Quarter. We waited for a break in the storm by doing some more souvenir shopping. Kate was really upset that we had to do more shopping. When there was a brief pause in the storm, we made for the car, and walked through ankle deep water to get there.
Once we got our of New Orleans, the storm was chasing us East into Mississippi. We got far enough ahead to stop at The Shed for some BBQ in Ocean Springs, MS. The Shed was really great, amazing smoked chicken wings, and really cool casual ambiance. We got back in the car and started eating away the miles. Halfway through Florida we called my Dad and wished him a Happy Birthday. We did a quick refuel in Tallahassee and finally made it to Jacksonville.
On the agenda tomorrow, Laundry, Shopping (St John’s Town Center), and Sea Island. We’ll be staying in Sea Island until Wednesday afternoon. It’s the mini-vacation in our vacation. A few days without having to churn away the miles.
We started this morning in Galveston, TX with the rain. And the rain followed us all the way to New Orleans, LA. Galveston to New Orleans was about 6 hours with a 20 min ferry ride off Galveston Island. Just off the ferry we drove through Port Bolivar Peninsula, which was clearly devastated by a hurricane in the past few years. Lots of devastation and some rebuilding. We then made it back onto the I-10 and pushed East through most of Louisiana. Including a Mississippi River crossing and a drive by through Baton Rouge.
Once we made it to New Orleans, we checked into the Sheraton on Canal Street and got ready to hit Bourbon Street. We grabbed dinner at the Historic ACME Oyster Company. I started out with 6 freshly shucked oysters, and Kate started with Hush Puppies. I then had some Crawfish Ettoufee with fried tails. Kate enjoy a grilled chicken Po Boy.
We followed dinner up with a nice stroll down Bourbon Street. Now back at the hotel and hopefully an early bedtime. Tomorrow we have a pretty long drive to Jacksonville along the Gulf Coast.
Today we woke up in Austin. We needed to run a few errands before hitting our first target, Maria’s Taco Express. Great little taco place on the South Side of Austin. Best thing to eat there, Queso and Chips. Maybe the best Queso we’ve ever had.
Once we left Austin proper, we headed to Taylor, TX and the world famous Louie Mueller BBQ. You could tell this place has been making BBQ right, for a real long time. The town of Taylor was a small but cool little place. From Taylor we headed to Round Top, TX. Round Top is home to Royers Round Top Cafe. Known for great food and even better pie. Kate and I just split the pie sampler. We picked Buttermilk Delight, Cherry, Key Lime Buttermilk and Chocolate Chip, all were delicious and the people were just great.
We then buckled down and got our drive on, South East past Houston, into Galveston. We’re staying in the Hotel Galvez a historic hotel on the ocean. We grabbed a quick bite to eat for dinner and are now bunkering down in the hotel for an early night. Will post more tomorrow….
Saw the 1.5 million bats emerge from the bridge, checked out 6th street (what a party), and saw Extract at the Alamo Draft House Cinema. Great movie, Awesome Theater.
Today was a short day mileage wise. Which was nice since we’ve put in so many miles in the past few days. We explored some of the San Antonio points of interest, but the heavy rain kept us in the car through most of our site seeing. These sites may have included Ray’s Puffy Tacos and Big Lou’s Pizza.
After seeing an abbreviated version of the sites, we headed north-east to Austin. But we had to make a quick stop at The Salt Lick in the town of Driftwood, TX. You can see their smoked meats in one of the pictures below. I swear they could make a Vegetarian eat a dog, it smells so darn good in there.
Many people have been wondering what’s with all the food stops. And the answer is, we watch quite a bit of Food Network, and keep a list of places we’d like to try in the US. Since we were on a road trip anyway, we’ve been trying to stop by the ones we can. We’ve been doing a lot of sharing, to keep from getting too full. Sampling is fun.
Also, thanks to everyone who has been commenting, facebooking and tweeting us. Sorry if we don’t get to respond in a timely manner, but most days by the time we get to the hotel our goose is cooked. Luckily today we got into Austin pretty early, and while Kate takes a short nap, I’m trying to catch up on all of our correspondence.
Tonight we are going to watch the nightly bat migration from the Congress Street bridge, then have dinner and a move (AT THE SAME TIME) at the Alamo Draft House Cinema.
Yesterday and today were both mileage heavy days. Yesterday we went from Flagstaff to Roswell (523 miles), and today from Roswell to San Antonio (526 miles). Let me quickly summarize the two days…
Tuesday
We woke up in Flagstaff, AZ and found our car battery dead. We suspect the accessory outlet didn’t turn off, like it’s supposed to, and the electric cooler ran all night, draining the battery. A friendly traveler gave the car a quick jump, and we were on the move again. Although knowing the battery got completely drained made us wary of turning the car off all day, but more on that later. Before leaving Flagstaff we got some pretty good takeout from Brandy’s Restaurant and Bakery. They made one heck of a Caramel Vanilla Latee, and some pretty kicking breakfast potatoes. After eating in the parking lot, with the car running (battery), we started east on I-40.
Along the way we stopped at Meteor Crater, AZ. Site of one of the best preserved meteor impact locations in the world. It was 500 feet deep, 4000 feet across, and 2.2 miles around. We also stopped at the Petrified Forest National Park, and drove through The Painted Desert. The petrified forest is actually trees that were crystallized, with pieces scattered all over the desert.
We made it into Albuquerque around 7pm or so. We stopped to fuel up, an when we got back to the car noticed that the battery still seemed to be low, having problems turning the engine over. This was after 300 miles of driving. So we stopped at the local Autozone, and had them test the battery. Turns out the battery was a goner. In order to replace the existing battery, we had to unpack the entire car, and remove the back floorboards. Borrowed some tools from the Autozone guys, and changed my first battery ever. Kate and I were pretty proud of ourselves. We then celebrated with dinner at the Monte Carlo Steak House. It’s actually a Steak House / Liquor Store. One of the best steak dinner of my entire life. Simple & delicious.
After dinner we hit the road again and headed to Roswell. Three hours later, we checked into our motel and crashed hard.
Wednesday
Woke up in Roswell, NM. Checked for any signs of Alien probes. Luckily we found no evidence of Alien tampering. First stop of the day, UFO Museum and Research Center. Pretty interesting 30 mins. I had been here before, but it was a new experience for Kate. Funny place. We hit the road again and headed towards Carlsbad, NM where we had lunch at Danny’s BBQ. It used to be a Dairy Queen and BBQ Pit, but I guess the BBQ pit was more successful so the DQ is gone. After Carlsbad it was south towards Texas. We crossed the Texas border and headed east towards San Antonio. On the way to San Antonio we drove through some pretty crazy Thunderstorms.
Made it to San Antonio around 9:30 PM, checked into the Westin Riverwalk (nice place), and headed out to Mia Terra, an awesome historic Mexican place about 1/2 mile from the Hotel. It was a full blown South of the Border experience, with Mariachi’s, Mexican Pastries, decor, etc. Dinner was awesome, and we brought some pastries back to the hotel with us. Getting ready to head to bed now.
Tomorrow: Alamo, Riverwalk, then drive to Austin
Quick Note: All the pictures posted thus far have been from my iPhone. It takes some pretty good pics. We’ll post our good ones from Kate’s camera later.
Below are the pictures (and a video) from today. Yesterday’s pics were already posted.
So far today we, got a jump for dead battery, ate take out in flagstaff, saw a metror crater, went to the petrified forest, saw the painted desert, drove to alburquerqe, replaced the battery in the magnum ourselves, and are now sitting down to a steak dinner in a liquor store.
More tonight…
First off, please pardon my somewhat lack of updates today. Most of the day was spent in areas with poor cell coverage. After struggling to find an interesting place to eat in Phoenix early in the day, we eventually found Roberto’s Mexican Restaurant inside a Shell Gas Station. Kate proclaims it the best breakfast burrito of her life. It was pretty tasty.
We then headed north to Flagstaff, in the Arizona High Desert. By High, I mean 7000 feet of elevation, which made it a much more reasonable 75 degrees, compared to the 100 degrees in Phoenix.
Passing Flagstaff we headed East 30 miles then north another 60 miles to the Grand Canyon. Boy was it Grand! Pretty magnificent place.
Then back to Flagstaff for dinner and bed. Tommorrow is a long day. 8 hours of driving, from here to Roswell via Alberquerqe.
When we last left off, we had just sat down to a Bbq dinner in Venice. Dinner was great, then we hit the road and headed east, out of LA. A quick pit stop in Palm Springs turned into a real quest, and 45 min later we were back on the road. We battled the California desert, crossed into Arizona and forged ahead arriving in Tempe around 10:30 pm.
Found our hotel to be truly awesome!!! It’s a new cost effective chain by W Hotels called Aloft. We the walked across the street for a late dinner at the last in-n-out we’ll see.
Sitting in in-n-out now writing this post. More to come tomorrow…
Sneak peek… Grand Canyon
So far today we ate at Pink’s Hotdogs in Hollywood, saw the Tar Pits, went to the Santa Monica Pier, and are now eating at Baby Blues BBQ in Venice. Pictures of some things below, but first a video of where we are currently eating our dinner:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fp14pxzzbYo
After dropping Kate’s car off around noon, we started making our way to the coast and south. With a few quick detours we ended up on the PCH heading South. We kept the car on the road and made it to Santa Barbara around 8. Decided to have dinner on the pier at “Moby Dick’s”.
After dinner it was back into the car to LA. First stop, Hollywood! Pink’s hotdogs. The line was so long, and we were so tired, we decided to try again tommorrow. Made it to the hotel, finally in the room and ready to crash.
We finished up with the move last night, the had a great dinner with Jim and Luma. This morning we need to repack the magnum, the drop Kate’s car off for transport. The we start heading South. First stop Santa Barbara, then on to LA where we will spend the night.
We are both pretty sore from the move, but excited to begin the road trip and finally move home. We’ve been dreading the move for so long, part of me is still dreading it, even though it’s done.
Gotta roll out….
Took a break from packing for one last dinner at Los Altos Grill. Dip Duo, Ceaser Salad, Bandera Style Chicken, Corn Bread, Prime Rib sandwich, banana cream pie, oreo ice cream sandwich, YUM!!!
Our California adventure started here 23 months ago, it’s bittersweet that it ends here. New adventure starts Saturday with our road trip home, through the southwest.
We’ll be moving back East in a few days, and as we did when we moved West, we’ll be trying to keep everyone updated on the trip here.
Using a combination of iPhone, Wordpress and Twitter, this site should contain short posts on what’s been happening. Photo’s of the trip. And tweets (right hand side) with Map Links to our location.
Test post from iPhone.
Testing the wordpress app to see if we can use it on the road trip to keep everyone updated.
I recently downloaded an iPhone game called “My Brute”. The documentation was non-existent and my google searches didn’t return much. So I figured I would write a quick Blog Entry on the game.
First off, you don’t control the combat. It’s automatically controlled by the game. You only get to select your opponent. When you first download the game you can create up to 3 Brutes, and each Brute only gets five fights per day. You can have a maximum of 8 brutes, but you don’t get them until you get more followers.
Starting your dojo… When you first start the game, you are asked to create a dojo. You get to name the dojo and choose the school of fighting. The schools are as follows: Viper, Cat and Bear. Each school gives different benefits. Then when you select a master you get the benefits of their dojo.
Creating your Brute(s)… You get to select your Brute’s name and can customize their appearance. None of this affects their abilities.
Fighting… The only aspect of fighting you get to control is the opponent. Once the battle starts you just sit back and watch. If you win a battle you get 2 experience points, if you lose you get 1 experience point. Experience points earn you levels, and levels randomly earn you either improved stats, special abilities, weapons or pets.
Followers/Students… You can increase your Brute slots by getting students/followers for your dojo. Essentially other people with the game add you as a master by providing your master code. When a person gets a master, they get 3 days of double exp, a new arena, and a second school of fighting. When you have students you get exp bonuses as they gain levels, and you get additional brute slots.
If anyone is looking for a master feel free to use my code: EGDBDIFE
Kate and I have finished preparing the guest room, we are officially ready to accept Visitors! Don’t wait! Plan your trip(s) now. We are in fabulous Menlo Park, CA. Here are the distances and driving time to just a few fun places:
Downtown San Fran
Fisherman’s Wharf (Ferry to Alcatraz) – 35.2 mi or about 47 mins
Lombard Street (World’s Most Crooked Street) – 34.9 mi or about 46 mins
Surrounding Area
Muir Woods (Redwoods, plus Golden Gate Bridge Drive) – 51.1 mi or about 1 hour 12 mins
Los Gatos (Interesting Little Town in the Hills) – 24.9 mi or about 33 mins
Monterey Bay Aquarium (Top 5 Aquariums in the World) – 92.1 mi or about 1 hour 42 mins
Napa Valley (Wine Country) – 77.7 mi or about 1 hour 33 mins
Sonoma (Wine Country) – 102 mi or about 1 hour 58 mins
Lake Tahoe (Skiing, Watersports, Donnor Pass) – 231 mi or about 3 hours 56 mins