baton rouge

capitol building



mississippi river





view from capitol building

capitol gardens

jazz statue

i can just touch it!

capitol building

 Thursday 6th October 2011

Today we started out in Port Allen which is just on the out skirts of Baton Rouge.  We could see when we arrived that there was a very tall building in the cbd area that we knew we wanted to visit.  Once at the motel we looked up the building and found out it was the Capitol Building and it had an observation level that was free to go to. That was definitely on our list before setting out for New Orleans.

Designed by Huey Pierce Long its a 34 story, 450 foot art deco building which was completed in 1932.  From the top it gave a great view of the Mississippi River and the suburbs of Baton Rouge.  There is a garden area in the front of the building which is laid out beautifully.  This garden has the tomb and statue of Huey Long as he designed and pushed for the building to be built and he was ironically shot and killed inside the building in September 1935.  Long was the 40th Governor of Louisiana and was loved for his radical populist policies.

We grabbed some lunch before setting out for about a two hour drive to New Orleans.

riverwalk market place

fudge factory

canal st street car

bourbon st

anything goes on bourbon

that little red string on the side was the widest part of material

howlin wolf den bar and grill

We arrived at our motel at just after 3.30pm and when I booked it in the morning I either made a mistake reading the description or booked the wrong one.  We were in the slums and it was bad, I checked in and went to the room and it got worse.  The motel was meant to be close to the city, within walking distance of the sites and was meant to be 3 star.  After getting to the room and realising that we cant walk around the city from here I cracked out the computer and looked at the booking and some more motels.  I ended up booking another place in the city paying extra money and checked out of the shit hole we were in.  $120 wasted but who cares, how much is a kidney really worth!

We got to the Hilton Garden Inn and checked in, it was beautiful and was only about 5 minute walk from Canal Street.  We walked towards the city and located the Riverwalk Market place which was very empty of people.  We walked through slowly looking at the shops when we came to the 'Fudgery and Fun' where a fellow was turning fudge.  He was a comedian, or at least he thought so, he got everyone sucked in to watch him as he paid some of us out and made us do stupid things all for free fudge.  We stood there around half an hour and he was actually really entertaining.

We walked down to Canal Street and then down to Bourbon Street.  Bourbon Street was packed, people every where.  It was a great atmosphere and felt a little like Vegas without the casinos.  Anything goes in Bourbon Street apparently!  We ended up walking around for a few hours before making our way back to South Peters Street which is where the Hilton was and we found the 'Howlin Wolf Den and Grill Bar.'  We had some drinks and some food for dinner trying a local delicacy, boudin balls.  They were really yummy and hit the spot.  Went back to the room and planned what we were going to do on Friday.

port arthur

bronte on the levee at port arthur

replica of janis joplin's porche

old main street of port arthur

me on the levee/boardwalk

janis joplins home where she grew up

the bridges leading out of port arthur

raised roadway goes for 13 miles

water everywhere

Wednesday 5th October 2011

Today we awoke at Beaumont and we were heading to Port Arthur which was about 30km to the south, basically on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico.  Port Arthur has a canal that was dug which is part of their levee and port system.  Thats about as technical as I get on that topic.  The town once had the largest oil refinery in the world.  Now, the main street that was, looks like a ghost town, with all the shops and buildings empty and in ruins.  It seems like the city has moved from where it use to be to further on the outskirts.

The one main tourist attraction is Port Arthur's Museum of the Gulf Coast.  The museum has a large amount of anything that is famous to the area including people who grew up and who were local to the area.  Janis Joplin was one of those who was born and raised here and there was a fair amount of memorabilia attached to her.  We also visited her house where she lived as a young girl.  Jimmy Johnson was also born here, he was a competitor on Survivor and was the coach the Dallas Cowboys football team from 1996 to 1999.  If you watched Survivor Nicaragua in 2010 you will know who he is.

We got some lunch at Subway and then started to head to Baton Rouge in Louisiana which is just a little west of New Orleans.  We headed out of Port Arthur and over one of two massive bridges taking us to Bridge City.  As we travelled closer to Baton Rouge the road had a section for about 15 miles that was elevated, consisting of 2 individual roads, one each direction with a large gap in between.  You can see in the photo above the water in between.  It was kind of weird driving on a bridge for so long.

We arrived to where our motel was meant to be on the GPS and we could not find it.  We drove around for 1 hour as the motel was right near 4 main roadways with a number of exits leading onto and off the main roads.  The traffic was stupidly busy as well to make it worse.  As it tuns out the GPS got it right in the start and the motel had just changed its name and not changed over the sign yet.  What a waste of time looking for our motel that was right there!

We went to Applebees for dinner and then into Walmart for a look around.  I bought a Casio calculator watch straight from the 80's which is very cool.  I looked at them in Melbourne before we left and they were $50, here only $18, bargain.

Tomorrow we drive to New Orleans where we will spend two nights.

deloreans at houston

12 deloreans in a row!

newly built delorean from new old stock parts

engines in warehouse

Tuesday 4th October 2011

Today we wanted to go to the main DeLorean dealer at Humble Texas.  It was only about 15km from where we were staying.  Once we pulled up we were greeted with 12 DeLoreans in a row with another 2 close by.  We could see into the warehouse and the racks of all the new old stock from the original factory from when they closed in 1982.  We went in to the show room where there was another 2 cars and we could see through the glass windows into the workshop where there were another at least 10 cars.  More than 20 DeLoreans in one place was very special to see.  Had a chat to Alexia and purchased some stainless steel cleaner, soap and scourer for my car when we get home.  Lots of goodies in the show room to look at but I really didn't need anything at this time.

From there we travelled to Beaumont which is now only about 500km west of New Orleans.  There is a small town called Port Arthur that we are going to checkout tomorrow.  Had Chili's for dinner tonight which was really very nice, it's kind of a grill/sports bar setup.

southfork

view of dallas from our room

southfork

me at the front door

the house

the driveway

the house does look beautiful

longhorns

jock ewings lincoln continental

Monday 3rd October 2011

Today we wanted to visit Southfork Ranch which is where a lot of the hit TV show 'Dallas' was filmed.  It was only about 25km north of our motel and was an easy drive out the freeway.  We arrived at Southfork and drove along Hogge Rd which passes right by the front of the property.  The house looks fantastic from the roadway.  They run tours through the house every hour or so and we decided to go on one.  There is also a small museum with some Dallas memorabilia and bits and pieces about the Ewing family.  Now I'm no Dallas fan as I am way to young to remember it!!! but it was worth the trip.  As it turns out they are in the middle of filming a brand new season, season 14.  The spoilers have been filmed at Southfork and all the big actors have returned for a full season.  The show will now revolve around JR's son and Bobby's son as the oil barons.  I am sure that Australia will get the show in time to come.  It is scheduled here in Summer 2012.  There is a Lincoln on display that was driven in the show by Jock Ewing, it is such a cool car as you can see by the photo above.  We ate lunch in the 'Miss Ellie deli' and then we hit the road heading for Houston.  It was only going to be about a 3 hour trip.  We did have one detour and that was to pass by the Dallas Mavericks fan shop and buy a t-shirt for a friend back home.

dallas

some city skyline



dallas free trolley to uptown



section of road where jfk was shot

building where oswald shot from.
far right window second from top

skyline of dallas

art in the city

Sunday 2nd October 2011

Today we decided to spend the day in the city. We drove into the city and parked the car just near the start of the free Dallas trolley which took us through the city to uptown. The trolley ride was pretty good and the uptown part of the city is the more cosmopolitan part with some really nice eating places and really fancy shopping. We got off the trolley and had some lunch before a quick walk around some shops and then back onto the trolley to arrive back where we started.

From there we walked through the city to the west end district to Dealey Plaza which is where president John F Kennedy was assassinated. We walked around the area reading the various plaques etc before making our way to the Sixth Floor Museum which is where Lee Harvey Oswald was positioned with his rifle when he fired at the presidential party as they made their way along Elm Street back on 23rd November 1963. The museum was very interesting after seeing the other museum in Boston a couple of years ago. This museum looked mainly at the assassination aspect. It is quite sad when you watch the old videos and look at the investigations that took place after the killing. In all we spent about 2 hours in the museum before we walked back to the car.

Made our way back towards the motel and dropped into the local shopping mall for a look before getting some dinner. Once back at the motel I went for a spa and a swim before going back to the room and watching some TV.

Tomorrow we head to South Fork which is only a few miles from where we are staying and then its off to Houston.

odessa tx

jack ben rabbit and bronte

jack ben rabbit in the centre of town

odessa meteor crater museum

second crater

path through centre of crater

watch out for rattle snakes!



crazing amount of road signs

Saturday 1st October 2011

Today we had a look around Odessa Texas before we set off again.  The towns biggest draw card is a meteor crater where a meteor hit the ground about 65000 years ago.  The crater is not all that big but you can ceratianly see where it has impacted the ground.  When the meteor strike occurred it is believed that the crater was 550 feet in diameter and 100 feet deep.  The crater has filled with dirt and rocks over the years and is only about 6 feet deep.  While walking around and through the crater there are signs telling you to watch out for rattle snakes.  I spoke to the lady working in the information desk and she said they see 6 to 8 rattle snakes a month.  I really didn't want to see one on our walk.

The other attraction is an 8 foot tall jack rabbit which is named the Jack Ben Rabbit.  He sit just off Lincoln Street basically towards the centre of town and is really very cute!

Dallas is only 550 km away and we have booked two nights there.  The drive was pretty good on the freeway however the speed limit today was 70mph.  115 km/h is just not fast enough after doing 130 the prior day.  We made it to Dallas at around 6.30pm and tackled the highways.  The road network in Dallas is amazing, I thought I had seen the most amount of roads all crossing together already but here it is just amazing and the tomtom is difficult to understand with so many exits and on ramps.

one of the many criss cross of highways

texas

 mexico, so close you could touch it!

 pumps as soon as we got into texas



80mph =130kmh



Friday 30th September 2011

Today we had a long drive from New Mexico to Texas.  We were planning to travel about 750km taking us to a place called Odessa.  Not much to see along the way as the country is pretty flat and dry.  However once we got to El Paso we travelled along the freeway and to our immediate right was Mexico.  It was so weird to see such a contrast in living so close that we could nearly touch it.  We have lost another hour today as we travelled into Central Time after going into Mountain Time yesterday.  It now 2 hours ahead of LA so its getting harder to get up in the morning!

Went for dinner at Red Lobster which was really nice for a change.  Tomorrow we travel to Dallas where we will spend 2 nights before continuing east.

90% of the days trip was at 80mph which makes the distance seem less when you are going so fast.