Day 5: New Orleans to Austin

After waving goodbye to La Quinta, we headed north out of the city and towards Texas. We encountered quite a bit of traffic between New Orleans and Baton Rouge due to road work. This made for a slow start to the day. Fortunately, Nate went to the library and borrowed several books on tape which he then burned onto his iPod. Hooray! Illegal literature for all! We began listening to a book called "Trouble" by an auther with the last name of Kellerman (as the book is not with us, and the iPod is only providing his last name, this is all I can tell you for now). We had no trouble feeling drowsy while we idled in traffic, BECAUSE THIS BOOK IS SERIOUSLY DISTURBING. Despite being thoroughly grossed out by the content at times (Dad, Nate had to call "aardvark" on more than one occasion), we were happy to have some entertainment. My brother also made us some sweet road trip mixes, which have been great for passing the long hours on the road.

Anyhow, we arrived in Baton Rouge and had a lovely lunch at Subway. We have decided that Subway is the official restaurant of our road trip. Actually, Maggie has decided that...but Tommy is going along with it. Maggie enjoys playing the Scrabble game and currently holds a 5-0 record of winning us cookies and/or free drinks. I guess their horrible marketing scheme has been successful (listen for devilish, echoing laugh of the corporate masterminds at Subway).

Finally, we hit Texas. But clearly not before Hurricane Katrina, as the entirety of the border area with Louisiana looked not unlike the apocolypse. Or a zombie movie. Take your pick, though they are about the same I suppose. We stopped at gas station after gas station, only to discover that the windows were blown out, or they didn't take credit cards, or the people working inside looked like the undead and we dared not disturb them for fear of the consequences. Maggie was on the phone with her mother during one such excursion and her mother questioned, "Do you see any criminals?" to which she responded with a resounding "ALL I SEE ARE POTENTIAL CRIMINALS AND PEOPLE WITH SCHIZOPHRENIA." Anyhow, at last we discovered a functioning truck stop where we fueled up, or as my Dad might say "stopped for some petrol". (Am I spelling that right?) However, several observations: 1. Everyone else in the gas station looked as if they had just walked out of a coal mine, 2. They had a bowl of raw, stinky eggs sitting next to each cashier, and 3. there were enormous tanks of ice throughout the store full of cans of beer, which the coal-miner looking people were buying and the flagrantly getting behind the wheels of their cars. Now, I know very well that these folks were not working in coal mines, but perhaps some other kind of work like with oil or something that created the dirty dirtiness. Perhaps their jobs were as bad as those of coal miners, as they were driven to drink on their way home.

Anyhow. Here was the conversation that occurred between a large, burly oil/coal man in front of me as he interacted with the sallow-faced, sad looking, stinky-egg-selling cashier.

Oily coal man: Hello, darlin'. How you been doin'?
Egg lady: Fine. No horrible. My life is horrible. But everyone knows that so its no secret. Anyone 'round here could tell you that.
Oily coal man: Uh, sorry 'bout that.
Egg lady: Sorry 'bout what?
Oily coal man: Your life? Can I just get a pack of Pall Malls?

I am not making up that interaction. I immediately headed for the door, telling Tommy to abandon his slim jim and potato chips because the mojo in that place wasn't work the risk.

After many more hours of driving, we pulled into Austin. We were warmly greeted by Theresa (Tommy's cousin) and her two boys, Jalen and Tice. The five of us ventured out to "Chuy's", a Tex-Mex restaurant with a salsa bar built inside the trunk of a Cadillac. Pretty cool! Maggie had shrimp rellenos and Tommy had an enormous meal called "The Elvis Presley" which consisted of a sampling of different dishes. It was delicious. We were happy to be out of the car and again with family.

Pictures:
1. Tommy delighted in this grocery store, which he felt shared the name of his and his brother's fantasy motorcycle gang--"Hell's Hebs" (short for Hell's Hebrews, for all you gentiles who didn't get the joke)
2. Houston. From the car. Yes, our day was this boring.
3. You cannot imagine our sweet delight in being residents of the HOV lane during rush hour in Houston. This was a picture meant to capture the relative hell in the lanes next to us.
4. What happens when Tommy has the camera in his possession too long.
5. Theresa and Maggie. Maggie looking IN THE STRUGGLE after day of driving.