How to Expect the Unexpected

The driving is getting easier.  And harder.  You might ask, "How is that possible, Joanna?  You've been in your car too long.  You're going crazy!"  I've still got loads of driving to do, so lets hope I'm not going crazy yet.  But alas, I'll come back to my theories on the difficulty of driving in a moment.  First, I have to start with last night.

I planned on being in Dallas for 3 days.  In those 3 days I was able to visit used bookstores, antique shops, the Gospel for Asia offices, downtown Dallas, downtown Carrollton, see my cousins, bake, watch a movie or two, blog and a handful of other things.  But, the one thing I hadn't done yet was eat at In-N-Out Burger.  Shoot, I didn't even know they had one in Dallas until my aunt suggested it.  And quite the perfect suggestion it was.  We loaded up all of us into the van last night and headed for Frisco, Texas which was only about 20 minutes away from Carrollton (This is upping my Cities I've Visited Tally).

the majesty!

Now I've been to In-N-Out a few times.  Every time it is awesome.  Every time I think to myself, "Man, it'd be awesome if this was in ABQ."  And every time I thought that the simple little menu which included a tiny selection of burgers, fries, and drinks was all that this quaint little burger shop had to offer.  I was dead wrong.  A few months ago I heard a whisper of a little thing called "Animal Style".  What is this nonsense? I thought to myself.  Little did I know that it was the thing that took In-N-Out from pretty cool, to AWESOME.  Animal style is simply a way to get your burger or fries.  Basically, they smother your fries with melted cheese, thousand island dressing, and grilled onions.  Holy. Crap. So. Awesome.  It looks a little something like this:

the deliciousness before

the deliciousness after

And it was worth every minute that those calories, fat, and preservatives shaved off of my lifespan.  For real.  Now my cousins were In-N-Out virgins.  As such, a grand time was had for all.  Clara (who is half my size) nearly ate more than I did.  It's just that good.

But enough about In-N-Out.  We made it home and everyone decided to watch Newsies.  Man, I do love me some Christian Bale.  Unfortunately, he can't really sing.  And Newsies is a musical.  He also has a pretty shoddy New York accent.  And Newsies is set in NYC.  But he's hot.  And he can act.  That was apparently enough for Disney.  Well played, Disney.  I nearly fell asleep halfway thru though, and I had a big day ahead of me, so I called it quits and went to bed.

I had every intention of leaving Dallas by 8am.  This did not happen for 2 reasons.  First, my uncle said that would be in the heart of rush hour.  (What a shame. Now I get to have to sleep in!)  Second, one of the marvelous things about roadtripping with yourself is that you're the only one who calls the shots as to when you leave, how you leave, and what route you take.  So I rolled out of Dallas closer to 9:30am.  My aunt (btw, Thanks!!) made me an awesome bagel sandwich, coffee, and peaches, we had a nice little chat, the said a prayer for me, I loaded up my car and I was off.

Now, I decided before I had even left ABQ that I was going to get some sort of gaudy souvenir from every state that I drove through.  Originally I had planned on buying a Starbucks mug from each state.  So I started my drive to Louisiana by going to Starbucks.  And buying a gaudy mug that says "DALLAS".  Yippee.

Getting out of Dallas wasn't a problem.  My GPS got me out fairly easily.  Traffic wasn't too bad, and in no time I was out of the city limits.  East Texas is quite a bit greener than West Texas.  There are trees.  Its actually quite lovely.  But most of my drive was though Louisiana.  Here's where it gets fun.  See, I learned on my drive from EP to Dallas that I can go about 300 miles before I *really* have to pee.  That means I can eat breakfast before I leave, drive for 300 miles, stop to pee, get gas & eat, and then I'm back on the road for the other 300 miles of the drive.  (I'm trying not to drive over 650 miles in one day if I can help it.)  So that's what I did today.  Dallas to Alexandria, Louisiana was about 320 miles.

louisiana welcomes you with this super lame sign

Now my GPS (who, btw, is now named Matilda.  Don't ask me why b/c I frankly don't know) wanted me to go down I-49 to Lafayette and then hang a left on I-10 which takes you straight in to New Orleans.  Well I decided that I'm only doing this once, and I might as well take a risk or two now while I've got the chance.  So I decided to take US-90 instead.  It added a few miles and I figured an extra hour or so to my trip.  I was WRONG.  US-90 is a highway, but only for some of the time.  It starts off as a street which goes through the middle of Lafayette and has stoplights.  Then it eventually turns in to a highway.  What I didn't realize is that I'd eventually have to get back on I-10 anyway, and to do that meant waiting in a BIG line of cars all using the ONE lane that it took to take a DIFFERENT highway to get to I-10.  And that was just the beginning.

So I finally make it to I-10, about 15 miles outside of my destination in New Orleans, and traffic comes to a standstill. You have GOT to be kidding me.  The traffic starts to move, but only just.  We're creeping along.  My back is hurting and with ever start and stop I'm wondering why on earth I insisted on buying a car with a stick shift. (What was I thinking??)  In the midst of this, I start to notice that its not rush hour.  Every other possible direction of traffic, save the one I'm on, is going at a normal rate.  So I start to wonder if there's an accident.  I think that the best option is to just stay in the lane I've chosen: the middle one.  We creep some more, many more minutes go by, and I finally see the culprit: a stalled semi in (yep, you guessed it) THE MIDDLE LANE.  Curses!

that's the line of cars I was stuck in.

So I get out of the lane, manage to get around the semi and everything opens up beautifully. I think, "Hooray! That's over and done with."  And low and behold, traffic stops again!  Same thing.  Just the direction I'm going.  This time I see a siren coming up on the shoulder.  So I get off I-10 thinking that surely my trusty GPS will find me a different route not involving that cursed highway.  BUT NO! I get off and Matilda tries very very hard to get me to make a U-turn and get back on I-10.  So here I am, exhausted, confused, angry, and alone in my car yelling at my GPS to find me another route.  But she's a machine! She can't hear me! Finally she takes me down a residential street lined with cops.  I keep heading deeper into New Orleans, hoping I'm going the right way.  She tells me to turn.  I turn.  She tells me to turn again.  I do. And guess where the crafty wench is taking me?  BACK TO I-10!  I gave up.  Put me back on the damn freeway!  Thank God we were past whatever was holding I-10 up.  The last mile was quick and I made it to the Bed & Breakfast that I'd booked right next to the French Quarter.

And that was the excitement for the day.  No one got hurt, I learned a little bit about my navigating abilities, a little bit about my GPS, and a little bit about my sanity.  I come to find that if I'd just stayed on US 90, I would have avoided I-10 altogether.  SO! Learn from my mistakes, New Mexicans who intend to drive to New Orleans!

But here I am.  At my B&B, very tired, and very ready to sleep.  But hungry.  So I went to eat at this swanky little place called Eats.  My tremendously overpriced chicken sandwich was delicious, and now I'm back for the night.  Tomorrow I intend to explore the French Quarter, get me some beignets at Cafe du Monde, and generally just relax.  It's on to Florida on Sunday.

compliments of Eats in the French Quarter

Wow. Sorry that one was so long!  But I had to record my driving mishap(s).  Learn from my mistakes!

TALLY:
miles driven: ~1,500
time spent in my car: 21.5 hrs
cities visited: 9
cities slept in: 3
states driven in/through: 3

PS.  OH! thanks to my super cool new iPhone 4, I was able to see my niece & nephew tonight and talk to them.  Poor Gabi seemed really confused, but it was awesome to see them & my parents.

gabi was confused. tyce was fixated on the phone.

PPS.  Here's my completely random picture of the day:

this is me planking on my car. don't ask.