Dash to New Orleans.

In keeping with my habit of renting a car and driving forever, I finally decided to see the Gulf of Mexico. I took Hayden with me to ease the pain on “the Mama”.

The trip down started a bit late. I didn’t get going until after 9am. Driving down to southern Illinois was uneventful other than a bad bit of rain south of Decator. I eventually got off the US road and onto the interstate around Salem. Nothing of note other than all the snails around the Arby’s when we stopped for a bathroom break. It only took about 30 minutes before traffic stopped. I mean, it moved occasionally, but at most about1 mile an hour. I decided that I’d seen too many people get stuck in a ditch trying to turn around and I got off on the next exit, around Herrin, IL. 

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=herrin&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=45.957536,65.126953&ie=UTF8&ll=37.818734,-88.948746&spn=0.180083,0.254402&t=h&z=12

The apocalypse seemed to have happened. I had noticed the trees down but I thought it was because there was a storm previously in the week. Was I wrong. There were power lines down and semis trying to backup, hopefully not back to Carbondale. Very interesting pictures.

OK. I finally got my way out of that mess, on to finding a bathroom and somewhere that had power…not until Missouri. I figured I had to get to Memphis before I stop for the night. Long, boring drive. I find Illinois more interesting.

The Motel 6 in West Memphis…meh. Smelled bad there. South Memphis wasn’t any better. Bad storm that night though.

The next day we had breakfast at Waffle House and got stuck at the back parking lot and had to tell a police officer to move his car so we could get out. Drove like mad to get to New Orleans. We went over the causeway (longest bridge over water) and headed for Mobile. There are some amazing bridges down there. Too bad it’s a stupid place to live. As we were headed to Mobile, I realized that I haven’t seen the Gulf yet so we headed to the beach. When we did see it, it was a ruddy brown. Probably due to the river there. There was a ship works there too.

We didn’t get to Mobile. We went in to Alabama, just to say I’d been there, picked up a state map and headed back to Jackson, MS. The drive home from there was uneventful, except I HAD to stop at Cairo, IL. That place should be torn down. And the Fort Defiance park…underwater. I laughed pretty hard at that. What a place. Sheesh.

http://maps.google.com/maps?t=h&hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=36.988306,-89.151637&spn=0.002845,0.003975&z=18

Go to the north to view the city, and to the south and east to go over the bridges. I also have my shots of, well, the river, that used to be Fort Defiance.

That’s about it. Had a great time and put on 2050 miles on the Kia Rio that I rented. Good car, cheap trunk latch.

http://groesser.multiply.com/photos/album/20/New_Orleans_Dash