Day 22: New Orleans to Savannah

So after a stroll through the exciting Bourbon Street and a beer from an ignorant barman, I woke this morning at 7:15am to put some change into the meter for the car’s on-street parking. After returning to the hotel and indulging in some breakfast (which consisted of pre-packed cereal bowls and itty-bitty teency-weency muffins) I went upstairs to freshen up and pack up to go explore some more of New Orleans. I’d read online that Café du Monde was a famous place to go and be seen and something every tourist to New Orleans more or less had to do. So outside in the ridiculous humidity of the Louisiana morning, I topped up the meter for the car again and walked the mile or so to the café. It’s at this point I realised what people say by “oh the humidity” – up until then, I didn’t get it. But now I do. I was literally leaking all the way to the café. I’m sure people passing me (whose every forehead I checked for similarities) thought there must be something medically wrong with me, but alas, I’m just Irish – we’re used of being wet, but from rain, not sweat induced by what I like to call “not rain” or “sun” as the rest of the world know it.

Queueing up for a seat at Café du Monde is a bit of an experience. You seat yourself and then you’re served. So people began acting like swooping eagles to the next available seat, for of course, the place was thronged. A small band were playing to the assembled masses inside, a mixture of jazz, blues and honky-tonk melodies. The sun, shaded by the huge canopies, warmed the entire place and the chatter and din was mesmerising. Eventually an asian waitress came to take my order. Now I realise that the place is very busy and I’m sure they don’t have much in the line of an easy job, but as Yelp! reviews pointed out, none of them can really speak english. Being New Orleans, I had earlier assumed they just spoke French but alas, this lady could speak neither. Despite my best efforts, she took my order in error and I just did the Irish thing and let it slide. Minutes later, she walked in my direction with a tray of coffee and beignets, destined for others in her patch also. So what are beignets? They’re basically choux pastry triangles that have been deep fried instead of baked like their profiterole cousins. Smothered (literally) in confectioners sugar (icing sugar) they’re best eaten and served warm and fresh. To be honest, they’re a gimmick but none-the-less I ate what I was given and enjoyed the atmosphere. After fending off many glaring looks from people yet waiting to be seated, I got up off the chair and tidied up the plate of sugar that remained, cleared down my black pants (if you ever happen to go, like Conan O’Brien says on foursquare – “don’t wear black”) and left Café du Monde to the pigeons and the tourists. I took my ‘café au lait’ with me that I’d ordered in error, but alas had to dump it shortly after going back out under the sun’s rays BECAUSE IT WAS SO DAMN HOT!

Once all this excitement was over, I did have to leave New Orleans for the Atlantic coast. I passed many elderly people emblazoned with AARP paraphernalia and didn’t know it at the time but would later be told they were all destined to meet with Paul Ryan, the Wisconsin senator who’s running as Mitt Romney’s vice presidential candidate. Subsequently many of those elderly people walked out of Mr. Ryan’s address, largely due to his inept policy speaking (no prizes for guessing who I support in 2012!). I stopped by an old steam boat sitting on the Mississippi river which had a steam pipe organist attracting the attentions of passers by (it worked obviously) to board the tour boat. Sadly, I didn’t have the time nor the inclination to do so, so I walked back to the car, leaving traces of my DNA all over New Orleans as I melted along the way. My mission today on exiting New Orleans was to drive over the Pontchartrain Causeway, one of the longest bridge over water in the United States (and formerly the world until Asia discovered the technology to do it themselves – Pontchartrain is now the world’s 6th longest bridge). Spanning just over 38.5km it was something I’d always wanted to do, and I did. As I left the bridge deck to fetch some fuel for the thirsty Malibu, I fired up the Hotels.com app and after much perusing of both it and the maps, I decided to cement my Atlantic plans and book a hotel in Savannah, Georgia for two nights. I’d figured I deserved somewhat of a lay in one of the mornings, and so far I’ve only stayed in one place for more than one night since Chicago, and that was San Francisco where I woke early that morning out of sheer excitement anyway.

Hitting the Interstate highway and nodding agreement with the GPS’s “turn in a thousand miles then hang left for another few hundred” I settled in for another fairly epic journey. Today’s trip was going to cost me about 11 hours of my life and many many dollars of fuel. I had planned to stop into Tallahassee on the way just to see the place and say I’d spent some time in Florida, but as I crossed into Mississippi, I got an urge to get some barbecue (hey, it’s not like I’m ever going to see it in Ireland!). Out came the iPhone and to my delight, the top rated BBQ joint in Mississippi State was just 50 miles ahead of me, just off the Interstate. Added as a via point, my mouth began to water with anticipation (it’s always good to have a goal to work toward or drive to in my case!). So the place I was looking for was called ‘The Shed’ and to my utter shock and amazement, it did exactly what it said on the tin in terms of décor – it was indeed a shed! Strolling thorough the plywood saloon door, I ordered up a sampler plate to get a taste of everything, took my seat outside behind a sleeping cat (seriously!) and waited for my ‘cue. Minutes later I was fending off an eager fly as I devoured the stunning meats and potato salad (which was made with baked potatoes and bacon – made all the difference, believe me!). Stopping myself before I had the chance to find a job nearby and settle down, I decided to split and get back on the road. But the sleep was catching up on me and at about 5pm I pulled into a highway rest stop to stretch my legs. I think what got to me most today was the heat, and even at that early evening hour, it was still very balmy out. By now I’d crossed into Florida and aside from noticing that from Alabama to Florida all the rest stops advertise themselves as having ‘security’ (makes you wonder why they’d need it!) this was one of the cleanest I’d seen. It’s amazing how much effort goes into one of these rest stops, but how little human presence is needed to maintain them. Such a fuss was made about the motorway services on the M1 and M4 in Ireland, you’d wonder how they took so long or cost so much, when all that’s really needed are some rest rooms, vending machines and picnic tables, just off the highway.

Back on the road, it was getting disheartening to see the overall progress on the map. I still had a long way to go even to Tallahassee! I’d contemplated just skipping it as a stop, but advertising kicked in and I remembered that Dairy Queen (mind you it took me a while to twig that the DQ brand was in fact Dairy Queen!) had this ice-cream ‘McFlurry’ thing called a Blizzard and I figured rather than give myself more caffeine, maybe I just needed to boost my sugar levels (I’m mainly drinking water on the trip to supplement the leaking but it does nothing to perk you up). After what seemed like an eternity in the drive-thru I spotted signs to the State Capitol and learned something new, the capitol of Florida is Tallahassee! But traffic (and road works) really put a hex on my plans to see it and I couldn’t afford to keep waiting in line, so I got out of town and back on the highway. The GPS had other ideas, wanting to divert me onto a series of state highways away from the Interstate. I had assumed this was because a toll lay ahead and I’d set the GPS to avoid that, but after a few minutes messing around I discovered that the GPS just figured it was a faster route – maybe if I was awake it was, but I needed the comfort of knowing the Interstate wouldn’t be too curvy and stuck to the route. Literally hours passed and I was thankful that the car has satellite radio or I’d go mad. It’s such a comfort, and as I listened to a CNBC documentary about Ken Starr’s downfall in New York a few years ago, and listening to re-runs of the Rachel Maddow and Ed Schultz shows on MSNBC, I was shortly on the approach to Savannah. Finally pulling the car into the parking bay at 0140hrs EDT, I’d laid down over 11 hours behind the wheel and crossed the widest parts of Florida and Alabama, and passed through Louisiana, Mississippi and pretty much all of Georgia (Savannah lies on the border of Georgia and South Carolina). All in all, over 700 miles was travelled and over $60 of fuel was spent. Checking in and heading for bed, I finally nodded off around 3am and allowed myself the luxury of the first morning in bed since late August.