4/14/2022 – 4/19/2022
On the 14th I didn’t do anything really exciting. I drove to Jackson, MS and went frolfing. The course was really nice. It was a pro designed course.
The 15th was also pretty boring. I walked around downtown Jackson. There wasn’t really anything interesting there. I saw the capitol and the governor’s mansion. Then I drove to Mobile, AL.
The 16th was actually interesting. First I went to the USS Alabama Memorial. That was really neat. Besides the battleship they had a bunch of airplanes, tanks, and artillery. I got to check another A-12 off my list.
After that I went to check out downtown Mobile. There wasn’t anything really exciting downtown. The two largest buildings were hotels for the cruise lines.. I did eat at Load Bier Garden though. The service sucked, but the burger was really good. After eating I stopped at a dive bar and met a girl that was on her way to New Orleans. We talked for about an hour before she left to beat the storm.
When I left the rain had mostly stopped and I went to Iron Hand Brewing. This was a tiny brewery that had a huge venue because they had to have a 50-50 liquor license. I hung out with a bung of volleyball coaches from the Mississippi Gulf Coast area. The server was either super high or retarded. She couldn’t handle more than one thing at a time. When I left, I paid, but she didn’t give me my card back. I went to Oyster City Brewing Company with the guys and realized I didn’t have my card. I rushed back and thankfully was able to talk to the owner and got my card back.
I finished the night at the Blind Mule, some dive bar that I found near Iron Hand. I met some interesting people there too.
The 17th was a hangover day. The 18th I drove to Biloxi, MS to get a Hard Rock pin then I tried to go to Stennis Space Center to see where they test the NASA rockets, but they wouldn’t let me in.
The next place on my list was New Orleans, LA. I really dislike this city. The French Quarter smells terrible, is really dirty, there is litter everywhere, it’s very touristy, and there are lots of homeless people. The downtown isn’t much better. The nicest part is the Garden District is the best place in the city. This is of course where all the rich people live in their giant old houses. The outlying parts of the city are pretty run down. Overall I give it a 3/10 hard pass. I did go to Bourbon Street to get a Hard Rock pin and watch some people, then I went to the waterfront, and then made my way back to the van. The first place I parked for the night was crazy loud. First a work crew showed up around midnight to set up some barriers, then a train went by that sounded like the tracks were in the van, I had to move. I found a spot not too far away for the night.
Today I walked around the Garden District. It was really nice, but that’ll happen when the houses start at $1 million. Most of the houses were from the 1800’s and I stopped at the famous mansions. The last one was where Anne Rice grew up.
After the Garden District I headed downtown to get a pic of the Superdome and the Smoothing King Center, what a terrible name. This is where the Saints and Pelicans play, respectively.
One of the more interesting things for me about New Orleans, is that four of the longest ten bridges in the US are in or around NO. Another is in Baton Rouge, that I plan on going over soon. On the 18th I went over the 9th longest, the Frank Davis “Naturally N’Awlins” Memorial Bridge. Today I crossed the number one and two longest, Lake Pontchartrain Causeway and Manchac Swamp Bridge respectively. I missed the number five, I-10 Bonnet Carré Spillway Bridge, as it was between the number one and two. Here is a link that describes these.
When I got to Baton Rouge, LA I went to the Louisiana Mall then Cypress Coast Brewing to finish the night.
