Who needs a hotel room or a campsite when there are rest areas?!?

Everyone was a late riser the next morning.  We finally got our acts together and headed over to Reanna’s apartment complex to hit the pool.  Robyn and her daughter also joined us and we had a great time goofing off and lounging around.  It was a beautiful day and, certainly, no one was in the mood to do anything more strenuous than toss the beach ball around.  Afterwards, Jimmy and I went back to Brian’s place where we cleaned up and started getting our bags together since we had to leave the next day.  Eventually we ended up back at Reanna’s where she had prepared a great dinner for all of us – we were so spoiled!  We all got some good laughs looking through the pictures from the night before too.  Reanna had taken a pretty amusing video of all of us at one of the bars with my camera.  Nothing like self-entertainment.    We called it an evening pretty early and Jimmy & I headed back to Brian’s to chill out and watch a movie.

The next day Brian and Reanna wanted to have lunch one more time before Jimmy and I hit the road.  They took us out to Manitou Springs.  It’s a bit of a hippie town, which Jimmy and I always appreciate.  We walked around a few of the shops, grabbed some lunch, said our goodbyes, and hit the road to New Orleans.  We had such a great time with Brian, Reanna, and their friends.  They were such gracious hosts!  We missed them as soon as we parted ways.

This was going to be a very long drive.  Since we had skipped our stop in Austin, we had no place to stay the night.  We decided to just drive until we couldn’t stand it anymore and then stop at a rest area to catch some zzzz’s.  The route from Colorado was going to take us through parts of Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas before we finally reached Louisiana.  I drove for a lot of this leg of the trip but I finally had to give up about 40 miles from Texas.  Jimmy had already fallen asleep some time ago and I couldn’t keep myself awake enough to be safe.  I pulled over at a rest area, we rearranged some things in the car, and crashed out … me in the back seat, Jimmy laid out in the passenger seat.  It was definitely the worst sleep of the trip but probably the most necessary.  I was uncomfortable almost the entire time and worried that someone would bother us, especially with the sunroof open so we could get some fresh air through the night.  After a few restless hours we were back up and on the road.

One of the first places we hit was Dallas, Texas.  Dallas is everything I ever thought it would be and, of course, like any good “Yankee” I learned everything I need to know about Dallas from watching “Dallas” on TV with my parents when I was a little kid.    Jimmy and I were both struck how everyone in Texas seems so thrilled and proud to be from there.  More so, certainly, than any other state I have ever visited.  Also, every single office building in the near vicinity of Dallas is plated in mirror-glass.  The only thing left was to run into the Ewings and all of my wildest Dallas dreams would have come true.  Tee hee!

We arrived in New Orleans around 6pm and checked into the Inn on Bourbon.  This hotel is right on the corner of Bourbon and Toulouse … prime French Quarter real estate.  Nothing like arriving at your next destination and being immediately surrounded by bars, strip clubs, and the Huge Ass Beers To Go shop.  YAY New Orleans!  The hotel, in general, and our room, more specifically, was lovely.  This may have been compounded by our night at the rest area in Oklahoma but, nonetheless, we were happy campers.  We immediately got ourselves cleaned up and ready to head out.  We had some dinner at one of the Bourbon Street restaurants, Le Bayou, and then hit the streets like good NOLA tourists.  Some of you may not know, but New Orleans is my favorite place and I was so thrilled to finally be sharing it with my baby brother.  We had a blast, of course!