Friday, January 19
Well….it’s still winter in the south and they have no idea what to do. We left San Antonio on Thursday heading for New Orleans. But because of the side trip we had to take to Austin to fix Lynn’s work computer, we only made it as far as Lafayette, LA. The temperature was in the low 30s, but it was sunny and there was no wind, so it really wasn’t too bad. At least we didn’t think so. The locals on the other hand weren’t very happy. The hotel parking lot was a sheet of ice and when I mentioned it to the Assistant Manager who checked us in, he said that yes, he knew it was icy but since the sun didn’t hit that side of the parking lot there wasn’t anything he could do. When I suggested getting a bag of sand or kitty litter, he looked at me as if I were crazy.
Interstate 10 was shut down for 155 miles between Lafayette and New Orleans because of ice. Once again, the strategy was to keep the road closed until the sun came out and hopefully melted the ice. It still wasn’t open on Thursday morning when we left for New Orleans, so we had to take the longer way around to the south.
After getting to the New Orleans area, we decided to first visit the Chalmette National Battlefield but when we got there it was closed. You guessed it…. closed because of the cold. There was a side gate open so we were still able to get in, but we had to walk so we only got as far as the first cannon, took our pictures, then turned around and went back to the car. We figured that we couldn’t have gotten into the Visitor Center anyway so why bother walking too far.
We got to our hotel just after noon, so we walked to the WWII museum for a visit. Have you been there? It is an amazing museum; the #1 tourist attraction in New Orleans. When you buy your ticket, you’re given a dog tag of someone who served in the war. There are several places in the museum where you can hear the story of your hero. It was very cool. We were there for 4 1/2 hours and only went through one building, but it was the one with the Road to Tokyo and Road to Berlin exhibits. They took us through all the major battles of each campaign with artifacts, videos, sign boards, and stories of the people who served. It really was incredible. There was so much to look at that we spent nearly 2 hours in each of the exhibits. We also saw a movie narrated by Tom Hanks that chronicled the war from Dec 1941 until the end of the war. Being the history buff that he is, Peter was in heaven but even he had difficulty absorbing all the exhibits. We could have easily spent several more hours there, but the museum closed at 5pm so we headed back to the hotel.
We decided to only spend one night in New Orleans but after we checked out this morning, we stored our bags and went out for a walk in the French Quarter. We stopped at the Visitor Center where Lynn was able to get her passport stamp for the battlefield before heading to Jackson Square. By this time the temp was into the 50s, so it was actually a very pleasant morning. We wandered around the French market then down Bourbon Street where we had drinks and a shrimp po’boy. We wanted to stop at the Jazz Museum, but it was closed because…right again…the cold. We realize that they don’t have the same infrastructure to deal with the weather that we have in Chicago but seriously, it wasn’t that cold. Anyway, we had a very nice time in the Big Easy before hitting the road again around 1pm.
It’s now Friday night and we’re settled into our hotel in Pensacola, FL. Because we only spent one night in New Orleans instead of the two, we’re one day ahead of schedule. After looking at the map we decided that there was nowhere else we wanted to visit between here and Orlando, so we changed our reservation at the resort to arrive tomorrow instead of Sunday. We’ll spend 8 days there before heading to Tampa for a couple of days prior to leaving for Costa Rica.
That’s it for now. Have a great weekend and we’ll chat soon.