Finally, Stone Mountain to... New Orleans! June 17, 2009

Getting to N'awlins, it finally felt like our road trip was really beginning.

We lucked out by just rolling through the bayous and into New Orleans around sunset. Being in the car with recycled A/C for several hours, we rolled down the windows and felt the warm, thick Louisiana air wave over us. Just nearly coming to a stop on the highway from a traffic stop, we were able to look around us and take in the scenery. Louisiana was the first state we had gotten to that there seemed to be a real change in the environment. It's definitely swamp land out there, with the trees and brush looking just how the air felt; thick, lush, heavy. Spanish moss dripping from trees and buildings.

Arriving to the actual streets of New Orleans, we navigated our way through dilapidated buildings, seeing many places that were never returned to after Katrina. We got to the hostel we were staying at, the India House, and felt welcomed immediately.

A a 20-something girl in two longs brown braids, wearing a red gingham jumper and gladiator sandals greeted us and from behind the reception desk and apologized for the fart smell that just entered the air - "dude, i'm sorry - do you smell that? i think the owner just crop-dusted us. our it's the cat. it's like 17 years old." we laughed, refreshed by her candor, and followed her in an exhausted haze as she showed us around. The India House has incredibly homey, yet completely interesting and unique, common areas, a great accommodating kitchen, washers and dryers, and a swimming pool that guests and employees alike can enjoy until 10 at night.

The India House has both co-ed dorms, and separate female and male dorms, depending on what you're comfortable with. They also have private rooms, which Ben and I opted for, so after getting a tour of the main house the red-gingham girl showed us to our abode. They own 3 or 4 separate houses that have the available private rooms, and ours was just two doors down.

Our little place was pretty perfect - a decent size, it was a good sized bedroom with a bunk-bed (full size on bottom, twin on top) with it's own full bathroom. The shower - huge. The whole place was newly done. You could smell the newness on everything - the floors, paint, bathroom. They supply you with sheets and towels if you need them, the sheets which go on top of the rubber sheets already on all the mattresses. This probably sounds weird to a lot of people, but actually it's a really good thing to find. Why? Because when you cater to many nomadic types, many possibly coming from not the cleanest conditions, bedbugs can run a muck. Long story short, rubber sheets = good.

Feeling the weight of an empty belly and the itch to move after being in the car, we set out to explore New Orleans a bit before we called it a night.

We decided immediately that we wouldn't drive once in our 3 day stay there, so we made use of the public transportation, taking the trolley car that runs up and down Canal St., making all the areas of New Orleans you'd like to be in very accessible for only $1.25 each way. (Another great thing about the India House hostel is that there is a stop for the rail car right outside of it).

Seeing that we were in N'awlins and that it was getting dark, the obvious choice to us was to hit Bourbon Street.

Immediately you're bombarded with bright lights, the smell of beer, and more T&A than you could imagine. Not my favorite place, but it was something to experience. After doing a full loop of what seemed to be the main stretch, we asked a gypsy-like woman manning the entrance of a bar where a good place to eat would be.

Thinking for a minute, she replied "Yo Mama's" and gave us directions down a side street. Dressed as a dive bar inside and out, we felt pretty good about the choice.

(Quite the selection)

We ordered some gumbo to share and got some hefty burgers, which they declare to be the "best in New Orleans, and maybe the world." The whole rest of the trip I craved nothing else but more of that gumbo, and the burgers were in fact amazing. The selection of beef on a bun includes the usual fare, but a select few may strike you funny, like the Burger Romanoff that's topped with sour cream and caviar, or the Peanut Butter Burger that's topped with bacon, and, of course, PB. You'll also be surprised to find that the burgers aren't accompanied by fries, but by either a baked potato or salad, a choice I really enjoyed. I stuck with the Bull Fighter burger (avacados, jalapeno, salsa) and a baked tater and was super happy.

We wandered a bit more after our bellies were filled with happiness, and poked in and out of some places. Ben had some brews, and I tried the local concoction given the name "Hurricane." Every place seemed to have their own way to make it - most tasty like cheap jungle juice you'd find out any frat party. However, some places did it right; pretty much any where that wasn't a crazy dance club or drink vendor.

To do the Hurricane right, here's the gem recipe:

1 oz white rum
1 oz Jamaican dark rum
1 oz Barcardi 151 rum
3 oz orange juice
3 oz unsweetened pineapple juice
1/2 oz grenadine syrup
crushed ice

The places that mess it up are the ones that just throw in Hawaiian punch or some other equivalent instead of the separate juices. And cheap liquor.

We made our way back to our New Orleans home, and crashed.

Keep on travelin,


C

North Carolina to Stone Mountain Georgia June 16-17, 2009

After bidding farewell to Chad, his family, and the Hershey Ice Cream guy, Ben and I were back on the road, originally bound for New Orleans, Louisiana. That drive, however, is about 11 hours long and we didn't want to punish ourselves like that, especially since driving on the east coast is as awful as it is. So instead of plunging straight through the night, we stopped in Stone Mountain, Georgia, which is about 10 minutes outside Atlanta. We stayed in a cheap motel for the night, I can't even remember where, and crashed immediately.

The thing that had made us decide to stop in Stone Mountain specifically was, crazily enough, Stone Mountain. It's basically the Confederate version of Mount Rushmore, which the images of Confederate President Jefferson Davis, General Robert E. Lee and Lt. General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson. The mountain is about 825 feet high, and the hiking trail to the top is 1.3 miles. Ben and I figured it was a good way to ease into our future hiking adventures, and to finally get the chance to break in our hiking shoes a bit.

Reaching the top, you get a great view of the entire Stone Mountain Park, and there's a visitors center there to get the necessary post cards, souvenirs, and water. There's also a tram lift that you could ride to the top and back down if you don't feel like trekking up.

Getting back down into the parking lot, we felt a little refreshed for burning off some of the toxins built up from spending so much sedentary time in the car. Getting some sandwiches for the road, we were finally off again and on our way to bubbly, loud, exuberant New Orleans.