The Deep South

           It was with a heavy heart that I left New Orleans, but eased my sorrow with the thought of Florida beaches and with the oath that I would return someday.  I drove all day through the legs of Alabama and Mississippi and spent the night on St. George Island in the Florida Panhandle.  Unfortunately, I shared my campsite with a rather rude raccoon that hissed at Charlie and I then stole the box of soup I had set out for our dinner!  So while it was off somewhere enjoying Organic Chipotle Sweet Potato Soup, I had a can of tuna on crackers and trail mix for supper…so not cool…

            Monday morning I went for a jog on the beach, which could only be described as pristine as I didn’t see another soul the entire time. I felt like I finally got my beach time because the waves were soft, the sand was clean and white, and broken seashells were strewn everywhere. Afterwards, Charlie and I set off for another long day of driving to Savannah, Georgia where we camped in a place called Skidaway Island State Park right outside of town. It was actually a really pretty place with maritime forest crowning all the campsites and I made us Cajun stuffed bell peppers in the fire for dinner. Yum!

            This was kind of a big event because as I turned north for Savannah I realized I was beginning my 3^rd and final leg of my journey!  Well, we wandered Savannah for a bit the next day where Charlie chased a million squirrels in Forsyth Park, and I stopped for lunch at a cute little café called the Sentient Bean downtown.  This functionally hippie establishment is cash only, but serves up delightfully unique organic vegan and vegetarian dishes along with loose leaf tea, real fruit smoothies, and an easy breezy vibe.  If you’re ever in the area, stop in for their tofu curry salad.  I know it sounds odd, but it’s amazing. 

After lunch we loaded up and were off to Savannah’s sister city of Charleston, South Carolina!  We stayed at a place called James Island County Park (so many islands haha), which is a really neat campground on the outskirts of town.  It is an interesting place with hundreds of enormous permanent light up…things…all over the park.  It has miles of trails weaving through thick southern forest, and a dog park with a small dog area (under 25lbs) where Charlie made a friend.

Wednesday morning after a jog through the surrounding fairytale forest, Charlie and I headed to downtown Charleston for some excitement.  We wandered the entire historic district all the way to the tip of the peninsula and back.  We checked out Marion Square, Rainbow Row, and Market Street and naturally, I found a sweets shop near the water where I got two macaroons. I had She Crab Soup and hearty bread for lunch at a café called Saffron.

When we got back to camp we went for another walk around the park and I gave Charlie a much-needed bath, after which he dutifully rolled in the dirt. The only bummer about camping in the South is that everything is damp in the mornings because if the humidity.  Whenever I woke up I always felt like I’d been sleeping all night with a wet towel over my face. Gross!!  However, the people here are wonderful.  I shouldn’t be surprised, because according to my guidebook, Charleston has been voted “most well mannered city in the USA” for 11 years and counting!! Everyone says hello, and good morning and it’s all “yes ma’am” and “no sir” and “I like the fried okra if you please”.  It made me feel like a true Southern Belle, if even only for the day.  And yes, down here they really do say ‘yall, and they say it a lot.

After Charleston, Charlie and I headed North to Jacksonville North Carolina where some of my good friends live with their brand new baby girl.  I was pleasantly surprised to see that they live in the outskirts of town (aka the boonies) in a small cottage/farmhouse. It had a big yard for Charlie to play in and room for a garden out back. We ran around Friday and did some errands and lots and lots of laundry on my part.  The weather had been unbelievably cooperative practically my whole trip and until I got to Jacksonville it was just perfect. Sunny day after sunny day slightly breezy and warm in the evenings, so I should’ve known something was coming my way, and it did! The last three days in North Carolina were spent holed up on the couch with the fam watching movies and drinking tea, while Hurricane Sandy gave us what for.

Although our rain and wind was enough to keep us indoors, it was nothing compared to what they were facing farther north.  So when I left Jacksonville on Tuesday morning, Sandy and I had a little chat.  I told her she was really messing with my travel plans and if she could hurry and pass through, it would be much appreciated.  She said she would talk to the cold Nor’easter Winds and Full Moon and see what she could do.  I had just put new tries on Stella the day before so I was ready for a rainy drive to Richmond, Virginia but Sandy kept her word and I had an uneventful, almost sunny even, drive. 

I stopped in Raleigh to meet my ex-co-worker and fellow wanderlust traveler, Olivia, for lunch at the State Farmers Market where she was selling pumpkins!  She is moving for high season to Patagonia, Chile to be a su-chef at a resort.  You go girl!  I enjoyed my final true southern meal of BBQ pork, fried green tomatoes, and peach cobbler while we chatted about all the places we want to see and our upcoming life plans.  The food was delicious while the talk inspiring and I set off for Virginia excited to leave the south and get enter the New England area!

P.S. My thoughts and prayers go out to all my friends and family who did get thrashed by Sandy.  Hang in there! The whole country is pulling for ya! Stay safe and let me know if I can do anything for anyone I am coming to see in that part of the country. :D

New Orleans

Thursday morning Charlie and I said good-bye and good riddance to Texas and put on our chillaxin’ sunglasses and headed east to New Orleans: NOLA, The Big Easy, the birthplace of Jazz and home of Cajun heaven, if you will.  Ravaged by hurricane Katrina in 2005 it is still known as the most laid-back city in the US.  A good friend told me the citizens pay taxes based on how much their property is worth so the whole city has a grungy rusted look and they keep it that way partially for the tax break and partially for the added character.  The dinge is just part of the charm. 

We checked in to the St. Vincent Guest House (which was more like a hostel than a hotel) in the Lower Garden District.  The place was dirty with worn sheets and the occasional baby cockroach, but an historic-beauty-under-the dirt like feel and it reminded me of my days in Central America so I didn’t mind a bit.  HOWEVER, I was informed by another guest that the compound used to be an orphanage run by nuns back in the day! I thought it was bogus, but sadly I looked it up…totally true!!! Ugh soooooo creepy…but I guess you can’t come to the most haunted city in the US without staying in a haunted hotel.  I like to think of it as the total package…gulp…

            After an early morning run on Friday I headed over to the World War II museum, which was only a few blocks away from my hotel.  I love history and am so glad I went! It is an amazing place with far too much to see in one day.  I was there for 3 hours and didn’t even explore all the exhibits.  In the adjacent building is a movie theater playing “Beyond All Boundaries” (A really emotional 4D account of the war starting post-Pearl Harbor through the surrender of Japan).  Spectacular.

            After working up an appetite I headed to a restaurant called Cochon for lunch and for my first taste of New Orlean’s legendary cuisine.  I was not disappointed. A warning to all vegetarians: stay away from New Orleans; you will starve to death. Their menu included everything from alligator mac and cheese laced with bacon fat to rabbit and dumpling stew.  I had an oyster meat pie and deep fried boudin balls (rice and sausage rolled into balls, breaded and fried) but wanted everything.  After I was nearly too full to walk, I waddled down to Canal street to hitch a ride on the historic New Orleans streetcar line bound for City Park.  It is the nations second largest urban park (bigger than Central Park) and absolutely lovely with multiple ponds and tons of birdlife.  It looks very swampy but elegant with bridges over the streams and cattails everywhere.

            When I finally got back to the hotel I met up with Mike, AmeriCore volunteer leader and Mr. Fix-It at St. Vincent’s.  He and I went and got some dinner in the French Quarter at “Huck Finn’s” and washed it down with mudslide daiquiris on Bourbon Street.  While I watched the pandemonium that went on there, I wondered where people like their booze more…the Las Vegas Strip or Bourbon Street New Orleans.  It’s too close to call.

            Saturday continued with fun as I started by wandering the heart of the French Quarter, Jackson Square, which is lined with artists, fortunetellers, street performers, horse drawn carriages, and lots and lots of people. I wandered up to the French Market where the air is thick with the smell of pralines, then down the river walk trail, which runs along the bank of the Mississippi River.  When my legs were begging for a break, I hoped a ferry across the way to Algiers.  Although sleepy compared to its compadre across the way and unspectacular, its streets are lined with the cutest antique houses I’ve ever seen.  Really detailed craftsmanship that makes for seriously unique architecture and continual vibe. 

After so much adventure crammed into two days only one thing sounded appropriate for the afternoon, a nap; which Charlie and I enjoyed until there was a knock at my door. It was Mike! With all the necessary ingredients to make fried chicken! He started up a cooking storm while Charlie and I waited salivating and took mental notes for future replication.  We had potatoes with onions and bell peppers for our side and chatted the communal kitchen at the hotel while I ate more than my fill.  Boy let me just say, it was amazing! KFC you have seriously just been put to shame!  After we cleaned up we walked back down to the French Quarter for dessert and what better place than Café Du Monde.  It has been a French baking/ coffee establishment since 1860 and still serves up the best beigets in town.  We each ate three (generously rolled in powdered sugar) and washed them down with hot coco.  What a wonderful day.

            While at the hostel I ran into another fellow traveler, Jason (who also owns an adorable black and white Chihuahua!), down for the weekend from St. Louis.  We met up early for breakfast at an Irish restaurant before I took off Sunday morning.  It was delicious (naturally) and an amazing way end to my stay in an amazing city.

            I should probably say I almost didn’t come to NOLA because I was told it was so dangerous.  Allow me to set the record straight.  It is exceedingly dangerous for your wallet, horrifically perilous for your midsection, and mildly annoying for your moral values. Do you have to be careful and aware? Yes. Do you have to keep your wits about you? Yes.  Just like any other city it has its good and bade sides, but for the most part, is meant to be enjoyed not feared. 

New Orleans has soul.  I’m not talking about beauty or street cred or glamour (although it has those too); I mean a real deep soulful feel.  It probably comes from years of historic turbulence and continuing superstition mixed with healing due to Katrina, but you can hear it at night in the clubs and in the river barge horns.  You can see it on the scared buildings and in the faces of those who call them home.  It’s everywhere and it seeps into your very core, absorbing you into the city.   You feel while your there, however short of time, that you belong to the city, it to you and you share all the same history and trauma.  New Orleans is a city unlike any other. It takes the cake, and the gumbo, the jambalaya, the beignet, the bread pudding, and the whole hog… whatever it is, New Orleans takes it all. 

After spending a few days stuffing myself into Creole bliss, keeping the very best of company, and walking until I thought my legs would fall off, I thought; could this be this place for me? Maybe.  It’s a definite possibility.  Could I see myself as a big southern woman sitting on the porch of a turn of the century home drinking iced cucumber water on a hot afternoon? Without a doubt.

Texas Part 2

            

         The VW dealer was good on its promise and I was out of Temple by noon.  Charlie and I drove through 5 hours of terrible rainstorm and atrocious Houston traffic and finally made it to Galveston around 6pm.  Now for those of you who have a very dear place in your heart for Texas, you can leave the blog now; I do not intend to be kind.  Ok so Wednesday started off decent enough with a nice run along the seawall followed by a yummy bowl of oatmeal (my choice breakfast).  I got on my bathing suit and grabbed Charlie and we headed down to the beach.  This is Galveston; we’re talking here, like on the gulf coast…so we trekked down waves only to be shocked to see “No Swimming” signs posted everywhere.  The beach was ugly and covered with trash and seagull doo-doo.  Confused (because I heard nice things about this beach) we walked a little ways to see if the signs went away. Nope, all along the whole beach, NO SWIMMING!!! By then (only 10am) the humidity was beyond stifling and I thought well, if I cant get into the water, then I am going somewhere air-conditioned, so I skipped ahead to my afternoon activity. 

I had read about a place called Moody Gardens which advertises itself as an amusement/educational park and my hotel front desk said it was a must see, and let me tell you it is not any of those things.  It has a half way decent aquarium with a cool penguin exhibit and I got this neat video of some sea lions.  I took a ferry which, takes you on a tour of a small patch of water (not a lake or a river, maybe a swamp) to see the wondrous sights of Galveston, such as parking lots, a freeway, a Home Depot, a McDonalds, as well as countless other dingy building and big box chain stores.  Oh what a sight…it was truly breathtaking… L Before I left I saw a 3D movie about sharks, which was actually pretty neat and informative (no sarcasm).

I know it sounds pleasant enough but the entire time I was constantly pestered by small children left unattended by their parents and suffocated by the overwhelming smell of people wearing too much perfume amplified by the humidity.  The water tastes like a swimming pool, there are waste baskets everywhere yet garbage is strew everywhere and I feel more than comfortable saying the food is absolute s***.  It is all fried, fatty, and foul.  Most of it is slathered in sauce or grease or both.  When I got some lunch, I ordered a shrimp salad but what actually I got were canned shrimp drowned in mayonnaise on a bed of wilting bag lettuce with overripe avocado on the side for which I was charged $15.  It’s a salad, on the gulf coast…are you serious?! Canned shrimp??!!I was less than pleased…

All the customer service people everywhere seem unamused, unhelpful, and to hate their lives (as would I if I lived here).  The drivers are needlessly aggressive and seem to pride themselves in jumping the lights, so allow me to give a quick lesson in “southern gentlemen” etiquette: just because you call me ma’am doesn’t make up for the fact that you flipped me off in traffic or blatantly starred at my chest as I was walking…jerk.  And for the love of God can someone tell Michelle Obama to double up on her childhood obesity campaign down here, cuz something ain’t working…

            Ok I think I am done now.  Moving on…

Texas Part 1

             Every thing is definitely bigger in Texas including the problems…but luckily so is the help… I drove for 8 long hours from Santa Fe to Abaline, TX through a whole lot of nothing.  I know I have said that before but this time I mean it, NOTHING.   Charlie and I found ourselves in Abaline State Park, a lovely enough place after seeing hours and hours of…you guessed it, nothing.  We set up camp for the night and had avocado on toast for dinner.  Sunday morning I was only 6 hours outside of Galveston and ready for a day on the beach, so I went for a run before loading everything up and getting on the road for what I thought would be another long day of driving.

            It was a long day, but not of driving.  I read a computer screen saver once that said “Most of the things you worry about never actually happen.”  I thought, yeah, you know that’s true!  Just not in my case today.  I have been joking about breaking down in the middle of Texas since the beginning of the trip because it’s remoteness and reputation for redneck ruffians makes seem most undesireable, so maybe I jinkxed myself, or maybe it’s just rotten luck….

Stella broke down about 3 hours into the day in a place called Gatesville.  Heard of it? Yeah didn’t think so…neither had I, or anyone I’ve ever known!! Anyway, I coaxed her into a Walgreen’s parking lot right off the highway where a nice man and his wife helped me push her out of the way.  After stopping she wouldn’t even start again so I called the only place open on Sunday (AutoZone) to see if I could have someone come run diagnostics on poor Ms. Stella.  The owner said because of the Sabbath he was alone in the shop but would call his son (not an AutoZone employee) to see if he could come look at it. 

Thank God for knowledgeable car-men!!! He determined my car wasn’t getting any gas and I pretended to know what he was talking about as he explained I would have to have it towed.  So I busted out my shiny-new-never-been-used AAA card and in about 2 hours Stella was loaded onto the tuck.  The tow guy was the nicest man ever and we chatted about the football game he was watching before I ruined his Sunday afternoon as he hauled us to the car doctor. The nearest Volkswagen dealer happen to only be about 30 miles away (lucky!) so we took her there to be looked at first thing in the morning.  The tow guy even gave me a ride to the Super 8 across the highway, for which I rewarded him with a jar of applesauce and a million thanks, because that was all I had to give.  He seemed excited.

            So for the rest of the evening, I watched cable and Charlie tried to exterminate all the flies in our foul hotel room (mission not accomplished). It think there may be drug deals going on in the back...door locked, check…deadbolt, broken…fingers crossed, check…

Ok so Monday was a win! I found what I am almost certain was a water bottle partially filled with urine in the parking lot and smashed a large cricket in the corner of my room.  If you know me, then you know that was quite a feat as I am mortally terrified of crickets, grasshoppers, cockroaches, moths, and all other bugs that are totally harmless to humans; and yes, I screamed when it crunched under my shoe.  Really though it was the biggest even of the day. I tried to take Charlie for a walk but seeing as this hotel is off a freeway exit on a tiny island of pavement there was nowhere to go unless I wanted to get smashed myself. So we settled for continental breakfast and a marathon of Law and Order .  Admittedly not my most favorite part of the trip but on the bright side, the shop said my car will be really to roll again tomorrow which is fantastic news, because missing my morning run is bumming me out. 

            But hey, this is what it’s all about right?! What’s and adventure without a room that smells like cigarettes and is filled with bugs? Without trying to strategically cross 6 lanes of highway to get my dinner? Without the creepy repair man “fixing” things in the parking lot all the time? Without wondering if my bathtub is coming away from the wall because the building is so old or if it’s because a body is hidden behind it? Without those things, why, it’s hardly an adventure at all is it now?    

            Haha you know me; I get carried away. It’s not so bad and honestly Charlie and I have enjoyed the downtime after so much go go go.  Everything happens for a reason and for whatever reason I was meant to stay a few days in Temple, Texas.  Maybe it’s so now I can give an honest opinion about which WWE wrestling champs are legit and which are wussys, because that conversation comes up so often in daily life.  But hey, that’s all that’s on at 2pm on Monday afternoons apparently, so you never know…I could win a game show with that knowledge and then I’ll be thanking God above for Temple, Texas and all it’s charm…