Travel Musings Part 2

Happy Friday the 13^th.  I actually graduated high school on Friday the 13^th and I think I turned out well.  I was born Thursday, July 12^th and my superstitious father did not want a Friday the 13^th baby.

Part 1 of my adventures is here.

Day 3: Auburn, Alabama to Jennings, Louisiana

This was easily the hardest day of travel.  I had nothing to look forward to except sitting in a car in solitude for an entire day.   The rest of the drive was starting to take its toll on me.  It reminded me of the third lap of a mile race…you just want it to be over.

After waking up and running on the Auburn Campus, dad and I headed down for breakfast.  The eggs in Alabama were more of cheddar cheese with a side of eggs.  It was 5 parts cheddar, 2 parts ham and 1 part egg.  It was also delicious.

The coffee was hard to come by in Alabama and the first gas station (at 8:30 am) did not have any.  I knew this might be the start of an exhausting day.  The gas station did have a wide selection of beer ready to be purchased though.

After getting coffee around 11 we continued on the drive.  We weren’t making awful time but we weren’t making that great of time either.  Around 1pm, we found ourselves starving so we got off the high way. only to find there are no restaurants on the side of the road.  By this point I was hot, tired, thirsty and hungry.  Those four combined probably made me the most miserable person to be around and it may be good I was in the car by myself.  We finally just stopped at some bbq joint because the parking lot was really crowded.  (It must be good if it’s crowded right?)

We got back on the road around 2 and continued our driving.  I don’t remember if I had mentioned that a few days before we left we determined my AC in the car does not work properly.  It just blows around hot air.  This meant the entire drive I was roasting in my car.

So that made day 3 pretty miserable since the deep south is hot.

Insert about 5 hours of hot, mindless driving miles.

Around dinner time we were just going by Baton Rouge.  Perfect dad and I thought. There would be plenty of places to stop and eat and we wouldn’t be struggling to find somewhere.  Then when I led the way I put us in the wrong lane.  We ended up going over the Mississippi river and past Baton Rouge.

If you have ever crossed the Mississippi then you know the next exit is 20 miles away because you go over a Bayou with alligators and god knows what else down there.  Similar to our lunch experience I spent the next 20 minutes being annoyed at myself.  We finally stopped at the first exit and located a nice Cracker Barrel.   Dad casually mentioned: Oh did you see those 10 foot alligators on the side of the road?

By that point we decided to drive another 30 minutes and stay in Jennings.  We had thought we might get to Texas that night but neither of us wanted to prolong the day 3 drive from hell.  Thank goodness for foursquare which was able to map me to a hotel.

So with that dad and I went to bed right when we got to the hotel so we could get to bed and start a new day.

Day 4: Jennings to San Antonio, Texas

Jennings was no different and we woke up with another morning run.  I have complained about heat and humidity but Louisiana really takes the cake.  Props to any runners that run the summer throughout that state and I don’t think I’ve ever sweat that much in my life.

After the longest and coldest shower of my life, dad and I headed down to breakfast.  The eggs at this hotel were cheesy scrambled eggs with ham.  As I went back up for seconds I noticed the lady adding something to the eggs.  She was literally adding sticks of butter.  She stopped me and said “Hold on honey I am going to make this taste better than any hotel breakfast you have ever had”.  I told her they already tasted better then Upstate NY eggs and that prompted her to tell me about her family living in New York City.  After about 15 minutes of conversation and a new best friend I ate some buttered eggs which too her credit were the best eggs of the journey.

After breakfast, taming my afro and stopping at a gas station and casino trucker combo we headed off for San Antonio.  It wasn’t more then 90 minutes that we finally reached Texas.

My final destination! 

Just kidding, I still had 400 miles but we were in Texas.  When they say everything is bigger in Texas…they aren’t lying.

After begging dad to take some photos of these life moments, he said “don’t you want that bear…your instagram friends won’t know you made it without him.”  Good play dad.

Since I was riding my “I’m in Texas high,” the next couple of hours went by rather quickly and I found myself ready for lunch around noon.  Dad and I stopped at Which Which in Dallas, which (ha) is the coolest sandwich place I’ve ever been.  I recommend it.

After lunch we got on the open roads towards San Antonio and the speed limit went up to 70.  I noticed a policeman sitting on the side of the road and as soon as I drove by I said “Aw shoot”.  For some odd reason I had a sneaking suspicion he was radaring (which he was).  How am I going to explain this one?  Sir, I was following that uhaul and we were going the speed limit.  I wasn’t tailgating, texting or anything.  I was rapping Nicki Minaj though.

About a minute after I pass him I see his lights go off and him speeding up.  My heart literally plummeted.  Then out of great relief (to me at least) he went over to left lane and pulled the guy next to me over.  I have never been more relieved in my life.  I don’t exactly have the best driving record and don’t need another ticket. After taking a minute to calm down, I realized dad and I were only going 65 so I don’t know why I was worried to begin with.

The next couple hours went by without any sort of excitement.  We stopped at a rest area with nature trails (apparently “jogging trails” are common at rest stops in Texas).  Dad and I mused for a while and continued to San Antonio.

Upon arriving (and getting lost for a while) we made it to the hotel.  The only good luck I seemed to have on this trip was that Tim was flying through San Antonio and was able to meet us. It was extremely lucky that his flight led him through there. He even ended up staying (all coincidence) in the same hotel as us.  It was the most random, weird but obviously good occurrence of the trip.

He really wanted to take as many photos with me as possible to update his facebook. After relaxing for the evening and getting food for the half marathon we headed to bed.  Not before getting “14 karot cake” for dessert because my best races come from eating a massive amount of sugar prior.

You can read about the half marathon here. Cliff notes version: hottest most humid race of my life but still fun.

Questions for you:

Do you have a good driving record?

No and I hate driving.  (I can’t even beat around the bush with that one)

Favorite way to eat eggs?

Besides the sticks of butter I do enjoy omelets.  I really like eggs in general so there isn’t a way (I don’t think) that I don’t like them.