2,800 Plus Miles Later Part I

Off to an adventure...

The Southern Experience of my USA road trip with Stephen was a success.  It was a success because we're both alive due to the fact that we did not kill each other or were killed in some random state like Mississippi.  I was also able to achieve another goal when I ate something I've never had before, but I'll get to that later.

I landed in DC and flew to Fayetteville, NC in what was allegedly an airplane.  I'm sure I've seen bigger school buses and what kind of plane has steps on the door for you to walk up to?!?  Stephen picked me up from the airport and I'm pretty sure I drove by three Bojangles by the time we got to his sister's place.  I'm not sure why there needs to be three in the same town, but whatever floats the boats of the North Carolinians.  This was my third trip to Fayetteville, but I'm not sure why I was still so surprised by many of the trashy things I saw.  I did meet the cutest four day old baby though!

Piedmont Park

Atlanta Botanical Garden

 After some lunch and a endless hours of television on some network that I never heard of, we were off to the ATL.  We got to Atlanta around 10pm and went straight for some food.  We found this place called Marlow's Tavern in the Midtown area where I may have possibly had the best shrimp and grits ever.  I'm not really a fan of grits, but the way they did it up...I can't even begin to explain how I could eat that everyday.  After some drinks, we headed back to our hotel for an early morning exploring Piedmont Park.  The park actually puts Central Park to shame.  Mostly because it's so clean and there's all these athletic venues that one can use.  They also had this botanical garden that pretty much charged an arm and a leg to get in, but what the heck?  How often is one really in Atlanta?  What should have really been a quick tour of the park became a much longer stay as my photographer friend needed to take artsy shots of anything that would look good on a picture frame.

If someone can tell me what the license plate number says, please let me know.

Bourbon Street, Gator Tail, and the Infamous Trollies

 After a hot afternoon in Atlanta, we made our way down and west to New Orleans, or as they would say down there: N'Awlins.  We had to drive to Alabama on the way down and one interesting fact about Alabama is that everyone is a Crimson Tide fan, but when you look at the people who are in the pick up trucks driving it, they don't look like they could have gone to college at any point in their lives.  Anyways, I digressed.  We got to N'Awlins around 6pm thanks to a time zone change and boy was it crazy to still see some post-Katrina neighborhoods.  I'll have to admit, my first and last impression of NOLA was that it's just dirty.  Like Fremont Street in Las Vegas dirty...or maybe even worse.  We got to the hotel and it could not be a more perfect location: across the street from the French Quarters, three blocks from Bourbon Street, and across the street from Harrah's Casino where I lost $6.  It was also a couple blocks from the St. Charles River and the Superdome.  I'm not sure how I got that kid of deal for like $65 a night, but I'm not one to complain on a deal.  It was at Old N'Awlins Cookery where I tried gator tail for the first time, both fried and blacken.  I knew that if anything, this road trip would allow me to enjoy great regional food.  We also ordered a fried seafood platter in which I had catfish.  If anyone is wondering, gator tastes like chicken.

The following day, we went about an hour west of NOLA and ended up at the Evergreen Plantation.  It was by far the coolest thing I've ever done.  Not cool because I thought slavery was cool, but cool because I got to witness in a sense a part of history that we were taught.  It was also the set for Django Unchained which Stephen was really excited about.  Let me tell you something, there is nothing more eerie than walking from the master house to the slaves quarters.  There's this feeling you have that you knew shit went down at some point.  I also learned a lot of Louisiana and Creole history like how they are still governed by French law and that's why they call their counties "parishes."  I also learned that the port between New Orleans and Baton Rouge is the biggest port in the world.  That I need to actually check up on.  Finally, I learned the true definition of "Creole."

To be continued...