Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Family Road Trip - Day 5

Wednesday, May 27
Miles Traveled: 524 Miles (2304 Total)
States Visited: Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida
Cost of Gas: $2.39 (Bay St Louis, MS)
Breakfast: Really sad hotel breakfast
Lunch: Louisiana seafood miscellaneous platter in Breaux Bridge, LA
Dinner: Whataburger in Destin, FL
Sites: Louisiana Food
Lodging: Beachfront house in Mirimar Beach, FL

We woke to thunderstorms. The breakfast was sparse and questionable.

We had worked out that we needed to add about a quart of oil for every hundred miles we drove--which worked out to a little over 2 quarts every half tank. That wasn't too inconvenient, as we usually needed a break about that often from driving just to stay sane. Not too inconvenient, but it totally negated the cheaper gas we saw after leaving Utah.

Today we drove across a little bit of Texas, and then Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and finally into Florida. The landscape changed from flat high desert, to rolling hills, to long tree lined tunnels through evergreen forests.

For lunch we ate at a place called Crazy Bout Crawfish Cajun Cafe in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana. It was one of those restaurants that had local art for sale on the walls. I really liked a series of angels decorated with tiny gears and other metal machine parts. I almost bought one. I almost do that.

The food was a lot of fun and not like anything we had ever had before. Several of the patrons had a platter heaped with nothing but crawfish, but we went for variety with the Seafood Platter--it included catfish, alligator, gumbo, crawfish jalapeno cornbread, something called shrimp etouffe', crawfish boulette, crawfish pie and I forget what else.
We'd already eaten a lot of it when we remembered to take a picture.

We also got a kids meal for Rosie, and a burger and fries to share. Rosie's meal came in a little wooden boat which she loved so much, we bought it for her birthday which was in two days. It even came with some rough hewn wooden oars.
Geaux Louisiana!

In Mobile, Alabama we went through a tunnel--we'd gone through a couple before on our trip and I instigated my family tradition of holding your breath through tunnels. This one turned out to be pretty long--halfway through, Meredith exhaled and then said, "Just breathe, everybody. I already gave my soul to the demons."       ???

We got to Florida about dinner time and stopped to eat at Whataburger. It was really yummy. The size and price of the burgers was about half again as much as a Wendy's would be. We saw this restaurant a lot in the south, though this was the only time we ate there.

Wilsons beat us to the beach house by an hour or two. We thought we'd be there sooner, but the traffic on the narrow road leading out onto the peninsula was really crowded and slow. It was great to see them and talk, but we were all so tired by the long day of driving that we were in bed by 11:00.
Joey and Katie's family got there just after midnight but we didn't hear them.





4 comments:

Katie said...

Hurray! A post! So is that what happens if you breathe in a tunnel? I'm going to be more careful about holding my breath!

kate said...

Haha! How did we not hear this Meredith quote before?! That's going to be a new tradition. "Hold your breath, kids, so the tunnel demons don't get your soul!" so fun to see what you did before you got to us.

Clint C. said...

Yay, Meredith! I love it when kids get older and say interesting things. :) Edith I really love your narrative. I hope we see each other a lot more now that we live a little closer.

PhilHale said...

What a fun, fun trip statistical breakdown and narrative. Really loved the menu at the Crazy Bout Crawfish Cajun Cafe, and what was on your platter. Laughed out loud at Meredith sacrificing herself so the rest of you could breathe. Can hardly wait for the next installment.