right on bro!

I spent yesterday morning walking around the French Quarter. It was pretty much empty except for workers and a few tourists. Went to Cafe du Monde near Jackson Square, where old Filipino ladies in white paper hats were serving chicory coffee and beignets in a great outdoor cafe. I’ve never had beignets before - they were really tasty.

Went back to the hotel, updated the blog, checked out, left my bags in the car, and then went to Mother’s Restaurant for an early lunch. My brother recommended this place and it turned out to be excellent - an old counter-top joint serving po’boy sandwiches, that reminded me of Phillippe’s in Los Angeles. The roast beef sandwich was excellent. I have to say, the South so far has been the best for food - Athens, Biloxi, and New Orleans.

Popped into the Harrah’s casino right down the street for a minute and played craps for a grand total of two minutes - rolled one point, then seven’ed out, took my money, and left. Walked back to the hotel, got my car, and then it was goodbye, New Orleans.

The day’s destination was the McIlhenny’s Tabasco factory on Avery Island, out west on highway 90 through the bayou country. It started raining again, and as I approached Avery Island, it turned into a complete downpour, and I ended up having to drive real slow. Paid my 50 cent toll at the island’s entrance, and then here I was.

The Tabasco factory was okay. I was the only one there, and the tour guide spent five minutes explaining how tabasco is made and how Edward McIlhenny started up the brand back in the day. Then she left me in a theater to watch a 10-minute video describing again how tabasco is made, the global reach of the Tabasco brand, and encouraging watchers to patronize the country store and buy their new chipotle tabasco. I learned that tabasco is mashed up and aged like whiskey in used oak barrels from the Jack Daniels distillery, except the tops of the barrels are covered with a layer of salt to prevent crap from getting in during the 3-year aging process. Then I got to see part of the bottling plant, which was pretty cool. I shot a couple of movie clips of the bottling, but unfortunately they’re too big to upload right now.

That was it for the day, really. I got back on Interstate 10 (the same 10 that goes all the way to Los Angeles) and headed west. Stopped for a wholly uninspiring dinner at Walker’s Cajun Restaurant in Jennings, which turned out to be a Cajun version of Denny’s. The weird thing about the 10 is that there are all of these little casinos on all of the highway exits. I looked in one it was all video poker machines. After I left Jennings, I ended up driving into a full-on thunderstorm, which was really nerve-wracking - rain was coming down so hard it was impossible to see again, except for when the lightning flashed. I was going to drive to Houston last night, but ended up stopping in Beaumont because it was so bad. Picked up some food from Whataburger (local fast-food chain), and that was it.

So, I’m at the part of my trip where I don’t have any stops planned. I could just stay on the 10 and quickly drive back to Los Angeles, or I could mess around the last three states I have left to pass through. (If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know.) I’m not particularly anxious to get home - this trip has been cool and I could spend even more time just kind of driving around and checking things out. But I do have to get on with my normal life at some point, and somebody callled me yesterday about a job. We’ll see.

Photos from yesterday are here!

How come nobody’s updating their blogs?