The 5 minute conversation between Brent Saner and I last Monday went like this:
< bts3685> pleia2: come to new orleans with me on saturday!
< pleia2> bts3685: too hot :(
< bts3685> my car has a/c!
< pleia2> bts3685: you’re driving down?
< bts3685> yes
< pleia2> haha, wow
< bts3685> and i can give you a plane ticket back
< bts3685> but i’m moving, remember?
< pleia2> cool
< pleia2> yeah
< bts3685> i need SOMETHING to pull the trailer, and i don’t think the airlines would let me hook it up to a jet
< pleia2> that would be lulzy
< bts3685> yeah it would
< bts3685> so? roadtrip? whaddya say?
< bts3685> IF YOU COME I CAN SHOW YOU THE TRANSVESTITES ON BOURBON ST!
< pleia2> cool
< pleia2> I’d need to figure out a way to get home from PHL
< pleia2> when I fly back, Sunday night?
< bts3685> whenever you want
< pleia2> and driving down all in one shot on Saturday?
< bts3685> yes but it’ll be fun
< pleia2> hehe
< pleia2> well, I have never been to NOLA before
< bts3685> \o/
< pleia2> ok, sounds fun :)
And the rest was history! I’ve been taking advantage of every opportunity to travel this year, and a free weekend trip to New Orleans is perfect. Oh, and interesting side note, a road trip together is sure far from our first interaction back in 2007. Hahaha!
Brent picked me up at 8AM on Saturday morning and we began the drive down. We took 81 so it was pretty much the same trip I took earlier this year to the Southeast Linuxfest. Taking the diagonal route through Virginia was the longest leg of the trip, toward the end there was plenty of “please Virginia, let me out!”
Once out of VA we trekked through Tennessee, where we stopped for gas at this awesome travel plaza:
You can see Brent’s car hooked up to the trailer there too, but there is a better picture here. The poor little v4 Saturn held up impressively well during the trip though, even if gathering speed and climbing hills was sometimes a challenge, and the gas mileage was terrible. No breakdowns! Not even any scares! The weather was beautiful too, while Philadelphia was steeped in 90+ degree weather, the south was only in the 80s, with the breeze much of the trip was comfortable with just the windows rolled down a bit.
Around midnight Brent needed some sleep and I took the wheel for the first time during the trip. My leg of the trip took us through the northwest corner of Georgia (the first time I’d been to the state since I left as a baby! Over 25 years!) and through much of the Alabama leg of the trip. Most notable about my drive? Lack of light pollution! While driving I could look up in the sky and see so many stars! In spite of growing up in an area with very little light pollution, these past few years it’s been far too infrequent that I’m in such places. As much as I love cities and see myself living near (or in!) them for the foreseeable future, I do miss the stars.
Brent took over again after about 4 hours when we needed gas and I proclaimed exhaustion. Luckily that seems to have been plenty of time for him to sleep, as he was wide awake for the rest of the drive into NOLA and I was able to get a couple hours of sleep.
He woke me up as we approached NOLA. There were some crazy clouds (ok, not so much crazy as – so many different kinds at once!):
That was taken just a few miles before getting on the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway. Wow. I love bridges. And this one? Just, wow! It’s huge! And apparently the second largest in the world. Very cool. Oh, and crazy-wild clouds cause random downpours. Most of the sky was blue, but several times during the day a few of the clouds decided to rain, what a place.
Once over the bridge we navigated to the Tremé neighborhood where Brent’s new home is! He’s living with a few others at their newly purchased House of the Rising Son, I took a lousy sun-mangled photo of it (and Brent standing outside it):
So we got there around 8AM, which means we’d been on the road a good 24 hours. Google Maps says the trip should take less than 20, but when you figure in a trailer that you’re not supposed to go over 55MPH with? Yeah, that added a few hours.
Shortly after arriving his house mates showed up and we unloaded the trailer, chilled out for a bit and then ventured down to the French Quarter. The plan was to hit Cafe du Monde for some beignets, but since it was a beautiful Sunday morning the place was packed. I am now a bit disappointed that I missed out on it, but at the time I was so tired I didn’t care much where I got breakfast. Instead we ended up at EnVie espresso bar & cafe, where I got a yummy eggs, bacon, buttermilk biscuit and homefries breakfast (and didn’t come close to finishing it!).
From there we did a little more wandering around the French Quarter and then made plans for my departure. So soon? Alas! My flight was at 3:20PM. So we dropped off the trailer and headed up to the airport. I will say now that flying out of the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (MSY) was a wonderful experience. I was through security in just a couple minutes (no line!), everyone was friendly and courteous and they had free wifi! I had a layover in Fort Lauderdale and was back in Philly by 9:20 (Southwest had us there a full 30 minutes early, well done). My friend Mike from NJ was nice enough to pick me up from the airport and swing by Wawa on the way back to my apartment so I could get some food before crashing into bed. Thanks Mike!
This road trip and the exhaustion that followed on Sunday does mean I got almost no project stuff done this weekend, and very few emails replied to. I’m hoping to get through much of my backlog this week, but I’m going out with a friend to see a movie Tuesday night and then MJ is visiting for a long weekend (squee!), so some stuff might have to wait until next week.
Tuesday, Aug 18th, 2009 at 4:17
Sounds like a great trip! I’ve never been there. I’ve alwyas wanted to go. I love road trips too!
I have to say MSY to PHL via FLL is certainly the scenic route. lol