So I see that I didn't post anything about the last few days of our trip - we made it to Lawrence, Kansas (didn't manage to catch up with the Winchesters, though) and to the Mall of America in Minneapolis (Bloomington, actually - large, grand, repetitive and expensive, as can be expected). It was just lots of driving without many interesting stops - thank heavens that Jessica loves to read to us, it really made the time go by!

Kansas was the only state where we saw a sign on the way out - "Leaving Kansas, Come Back Soon" - which gave us a chance to say that trite, over-used line "I don't think we're in Kansas anymore, Toto"!

This was definitely the trip of a lifetime, but apparently it was only Phase One - look out, California, here we come in 2011!

Home Sweet Home!

Well, here we are, 11,605.5 km later, home - safe and sound! Mind you, we seriously thought about taking a wrong turn at Albuquerque and heading back to Louisiana - but we were nowhere near New Mexico so we just decided to come home. While it is good to be home where two out of three cats are really happy to see us (Hermes hasn't willingly shown his face yet), it is also "boring", as Jessica puts it! We have had so much fun over the last 3 weeks, and it is going to be hard to get back to normal life.

Civil War Trails...

We were on the road very early this morning in teen terms (mid-morning to the rest of us, 10:30 am). Our first stop was at Nathan B Forrest State Park in Tennessee. Gen. Forrest was a famous Confederate Civil War general whom Jordan had written a paper on for his American History class. Very interesting stuff if you are a Civil War buff, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathan_Bedford_Forrest

Interesting, when we pulled into the parking lot, the trip odometer read 9,000.0 km exactly!

From there, we were headed to St. Louis, Missouri. Much to our surprise, the trip took us through a bit of Kentucky and also Illinois, before we hit our hotel here on the outskirts. Since none of us have anything interesting to say, that's all for today!

I'm going to Graceland, Graceland, in Memphis, Tennessee...

Or then again, maybe not. Man, I would have thought Elvis would have picked a less seedy area to live in! Actually, by the time we got to Graceland, things were closing up for the day, so we decided that we would rather press on than stay in Memphis. Having arrived there in the midst of rush hour traffice(I cannot for the life of me figure out how we manage to time our arrivals in these major centres so precisely), it didn't exactly endear itself to us. Apparently, Memphis is big enough to have 40 Burger Kings (or so the sign said)! So we carried on, and we have stopped in Brownsville, Tennessee for the night.

We were sorry to leave Louisiana, and really want to go back there sometime - it is definitely on our list of "do-overs"! The only negative I can think of would be the rain, every single night! Outside of that, New Orleans did not disappoint! Tomorrow, we continue homeward, with a stop at Nathan Bedford Forrest State Park.

Here lies Nicholas Cage/Camping with Gators

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM/GRANDMA!!

So, no post yesterday because we weren't up to much, just a bit of exploring and booking some tours. Today, however, we definitely made up for it! We started out by heading down to the French Quarter to catch a Cemetery/Voodoo tour which began at 10:00 a.m. We managed to get in quite the tour of the French Quarter, as well, because we got lost trying to find our starting point and got lost again trying to find the parkade where the van was. But we did get to our tour guide in time. Anna Ross Twichell (call me Anna Ross, "two words, not hyphenated - I am definitely a Southener") took us on a walking tour of the St. Louis Cemetery Part I (there are 3 parts), which included some very interesting things, such as the grave of Marie Laveau, the Queen of Voodoo, and the grave of Nicholas Cage - oh wait, he's not dead yet! It is his crypt, though, as he is a resident of New Orleans (apparently he lives in Ann Rice's house now, though he used to live in the most haunted house in New Orleans). Burial space is at a premium here, so you need to know well in advance where you will be buried, we did see a number of examples of individuals who have purchased their crypts and are still alive. Nicholas Cage's, however, was definitely one of the more ..... interesting ones. We took a walk from there to a Voodoo Priestess' temple, where we got to sit down and listen to her chat for a bit.

Then we had to hotfoot it down the bridge across Lake Pontchartrain over to Slidell, to catch our boat for a tour of the bayou - which means slow moving river. FYI, swamp literally means flooded forest. The alligators just didn't stop coming, we saw tons of them. We didn't get to see the male, though. One of the females came storming out to meet us with her back up out of the water, turns out she had babies that she was trying to protect. Gators appear to love hotdogs and marshmallows, as that is what our guide was feeding them. There were no mosquitoes at all, though there were lots of dragonflies (Taz does have the right idea - apparently they are the reason the bayou is clear of mosquitoes). It also did not have a bad smell at all, in fact it was odour neutral (another misconception about swamps). The tour operator took us for a run down the West Pearl River, where we saw a blue heron, lots of turtles sunning themselves, a tiny chameleon, and evidence of Hurricane Katrina....

We are totally exhausted, but all quite happy with the day. Tomorrow the trip home begins....with a few stops of interest along the way!

Today is Plantation Day!

From New Orleans through Baton Rouge to St. Francisville, via Plantation Row - DEFINITELY worth the trip! We stopped at Oak Alley Plantation (http://oakalleyplantation.com/), where Jacques and Celina Roman built the home of their dreams along the mighty Mississippi. All I can say is "Two parts bourbon, one part homemade mint syrup".....one more thing off my personal bucket list! Don't worry, Mom, I bought some mint syrup to treat you to a mint julep when we get home! Since the legal drinking age is 21, the kids were treated to Abitas Root Beer, made with pure Louisiana cane sugar - quite a delightful treat! Three hundred year old oak trees lined the walkway to the front entrance of the home, an absolutely amazing site!

After we checked into a hotel here in St. Francisville, we headed out to supper at Magnolia Cafe where we all tried something a bit different - Jordan and I went for various types of po' boys, and Jessica had a fried shrimp sandwich.

Then, off to The Myrtles (http://myrtlesplantation.com/index.html) for the Mystery Tour. Lots of interesting stories about hauntings and visitations at different times, especially one about Chloe visiting on Hallowe'en! No excitement for us, though we will want to wait until we check out our pictures because apparently the camera may pick up things not otherwise visible to the naked eye. Unfortunately, we were unable to take pictures of the interiors of either plantation home, so we will have to rely on our memories (I'm screwed).

Tomorrow, it is back to New Orleans for a couple of days, where we are planning on doing a few tours, a graveyard/voodoo tour and a swamp/bayou tour by boat - the next couple of days promise to be a lot of fun!

N'awleans

Well, here we are in Metairie, Louisiana, a suburb of New Orleans. We are in a lovely hotel, where I plan to stay for the rest of the day - I don't want to drive anywhere, I don't even want to move! It is very hot and humid here, but that was to be expected. Ironically, it has been so hot and humid for the last 2 weeks that we are used to it by now, and are ready to deal with the notorious Gulf weather (provided no tropical storms rear their ugly heads, lol). All I want to do is shower, rest and plan our next few days here in the Gulf area. Last night our cheap hotel room in Alabama didn't have a working shower, so today was a bit, ummmmm, icky......

We drove through a bit of Mississippi on our way here, and all I can think of to say is that southwestern Alabama and southeastern Mississippi roads consist primarily of bridges and causeways, with tiny stretches of actual highway in between. Then, the drive across Lake Pontchartrain was definitely amazing!

Comic aside for today- we have seen a lot of IHOP restaurants lately, or as Jordan calls them - the International House of Pancakes. He refuses to abbreviate it, because he says it sounds more like Steve Jobs' dance club or Steve Jobs' pet rabbit than a restaurant!

We weren't able to get a room at the Myrtles Plantation, mainly because there is only one room available (the Caretaker's Cottage) which would sleep more than 2 people. So, we are headed there for their 6:00 pm tour tomorrow evening, and we will just find somewhere in Baton Rouge to stay the night. Then, we will be headed back to New Orleans for a few days, to do some exploring of St Louis Cemetery, the French Quarter and Bourbon Street. We are totally pumped for this!