Day Ten - Hammond LA to New Orleans to Tupelo MS

We awoke Wednesday morning in Hammond LA. Both Victoria and I liked Louisiana and especially the Hammond area. This is the view from our hotel window.

After eating breakfast and packing up the car once again, we headed south to the Big Easy. Upon arriving at the Visitor Center, we were informed how easy it would be to walk the entire French Quarter from there. We parked the car and made our way across many streets, including the well-known Bourbon Street...

...to Jackson Square...

...over to Cafe Du Monde...

...where we got our obligatory bag of three beignets...

...and ate them while they were still warm on the Moonwalk with a beautiful view of the Mississippi River and New Orleans.

As we started to walk back to the Visitor's Center and the car it began to sprinkle. We made it back to the car without getting too wet and headed north out of Louisiana into Mississippi. We drove across Lake Pontchartrain on I-10, picked up I-59, stopped briefly in Hattiesburg (without seeing Hattie), picked up Highway 45 in Meridian, and ended our day in Tupelo MS, the birthplace of singer Elvis Presley. More about that tomorrow, I'm sure.

Day Nine - Houston TX to Hammond LA

Tuesday morning, packing up again and heading to breakfast at Cracker Barrel with Monika before escaping Houston.

We travelled without incident through Beaumont TX, Lake Charles and Baton Rouge to Hammond LA, about an hour north of New Orleans.

Once in Hammond, we checked into our hotel and proceeded to Tommy's on Thomas for my birthday dinner. I chose the Muffuletta pictured below. A traditional style muffuletta sandwich consists of a muffuletta loaf split horizontally and covered with layers of marinated olive salad, mortadella, salami, mozzarella, ham, and provolone.

After dinner, Victoria and I walked a couple of blocks to Eddie's Famous Frozen Custard and shared their speciality, a Tangi Turtle. I was NOT counting calories today :-)

Wednesday's plan is to drive down to New Orleans for a brief visit and then head north into Mississippi.

Day Eight - Corpus Christi TX to Houston TX

Monday morning found us packing up and getting ready to leave Darren's place in Corpus Christi. A brief rain shower accompanied us on our departure.

We had a late lunch in Katy TX with Jeff & Shelly Dyk, old friends from our 1980s Wichita days. They were our "chaperones" on one of our first dates.

After our late lunch, we made our way to the home of Victoria's best friend from high school, Monika. This is where we stayed Monday night.

Tuesday we plan to make it from Houston TX to the New Orleans LA area.