We left Crockett, TX at 7 am. this morning to get an early start. It was cool and misty like a West Coast spring morning. We drove to Corrigan, TX and found a donut and coffee shop that made their own fresh donuts just like Tim Hortons but small town US style. The negative about buying a coffee in the US, is that everyone uses coffee mate and not real cream but on the positive side a coffee is relatively inexpensive (with the exception of Starbucks ).
As we were driving down Highway 287, I noticed the white dogwood trees along the route and sure enough the next town called Woodville and their flag contained the dogwood. Who would of thought that BC’s provincial flower would be honoured here in Texas.
Inter Coastal Water Way Port Arthur,Texas
We thought we could get to the Gulf of Mexico at Port Arthur, TX but most of the coast line here is miles away from any roads and all we could find was the inter coastal water way. So we took Lucy for a walk along the waterway and met a friendly man from San Diego. The conversation begins like this “ I have a Maltese that looks just like your dog”. We have talked to many interesting people because of Lucy and the resemblance she has with their dog or just people wanting to say “hi” to her.
Plantation house in Port Arthur, TX
From Port Arthur we drove to Lafayette, Louisiana and went looking for the last of the Borden Ice Cream parlors mentioned in Wikipedia. But we couldn’t find it and instead we went to a restaurant called Ema’s for lunch and I had my first taste of shrimp creole on a salad. We also booked our hotel in New Orleans so that we wouldn’t have to waste time looking for a hotel when we got there. Thank goodness for wireless internet !
It was a bumpy ride from Lafayette to New Orleans as most of the highway was made out of concrete slab and we clickety clacked all the way down the highway. Also, big sections of this highway are built on long floating platforms or bridges due to the wet swampy water that makes up a lot of this area. Driving along these bridges felt like our car was souped up with pneumatic suspension like a “low rider” car.
Driving to Lafayette, LA
Having the new US phone has been a life saver and also provides us with Google maps while we are driving and finding our hotels a snap. We arrived in New Orleans around 5 pm., checked into the Whitney Wyndham Hotel and took Lucy for a walk to the French Quarter so we could do some laundry at a sister Wyndham Hotel. We walked around listening to the outdoor entertainers, but Lucy was a little agitated around all the noise and activity, so we just put her back in her travel carrier. This worked out well, so we could go into the bars and no one questioned what was in the bag and we just kept her at our feet. After we did our laundry we went back to the hotel and left Lucy there while we went back to the French Quarter for dinner and walked down Bourbon Street listening to all the live entertainment. The place was hopping and we enjoyed it more than Las Vegas. New Orleans is definitely a must see for anyone that is looking for a great place for a vacation.
Today we drove approximately 775 km for a total of 5,295 km to date.