to Houston and back, 2010: days 3 - 8
And indeed, the next day we got to Houston. Leaving Baton Rouge, we wanted to hit a Cracker Barrel for breakfast since they serve oatmeal in the morning and we can get the kind of simple meal we want. I had found a Cracker Barrel along our pathway out of Baton Rouge through Google maps the night before and had put the address into the Elza the Gypsy (our GPS receiver -- get it? GPS -- GyPSy :). Well, it turns out that there's a "Cracker Barrel" chain of convenience stores in Baton Rouge that has nothing to do with the travel restaurants. So that didn't work out. :(
We got on the interstate and headed west, watching feverishly for a Cracker Barrel. The first one we came to was in Lafayette, Louisiana, which turned out to be quite serendipitous. You'll see how in a minute.
As we ate our breakfast, we noticed that right across the parking lot from the restaurant was a Drury Inn. On the return trip, we had been planned to stay in Lake Charles, about an hour further along toward Houston. However, we considered that if we stayed in Lafayette instead, we'd be that much closer to home and days two and three of the return journey could be that much shorter.
So after breakfast, we walked across the parking lot to the Drury Inn to examine it. It turned out to be the sort of place where we like to stay (i.e., nice), so we talked to Theresa at the front desk and she helped us make a reservation for Friday, April 9. Here's a picture of the Drury Inn and Suites in Lafayette, Louisiana.
In Tennessee, most folks say "le-FAY-ett". In Lousiana, they say "le-fah-YETT", like the French. Must be the Cajun influence.
As we drove along through the Lousiana countryside, we saw signs for "boudin" shops and "boudin" restaurants. Once we got settled into our hotel in Houston, I looked up "boudin" on wikipedia and learned that it's a kind of Cajun sausage.
The Sabine River separates Louisiana and Texas. Right across the border into Texas, we stopped at a welcome center (at a place called Orange, if you're following along on your map) and acquired a free map of Texas. The next two pictures are from the welcome center parking lot.
The welcome center looks out over the Blue Elbow swamp. There are lots of displays and information about the swamp in the welcome center.
There's a boardwalk out behind the welcome center where you can examine the swamp up close and personal, but not too personal.
We looked around a few minutes, then pushed on.
After driving across what felt like most of Texas (but was actually only a couple of inches on the map), we finally arrived in Houston.
Our hotel was in a part of Houston called Nassau Bay.
Nassau Bay is a small municipality that's part of the Houston metropolitan area. Most of it consists of residential properties with a handful of businesses along Nasa 1 Road (where the Johnson Space Center is).
The clouds look a bit threatening in the picture above, but we actually had very nice weather while we were in Texas. There was rain in the forecast for Wednesday, but as it turned out, that storm passed north of us and we really didn't get much in the way of unpleasant weather. The temperatures were comfortable and pleasant and the humidity was low. (When we were in Houston in June of 2006 (or '07?), it was exTREMEly humid and uncomfortable.)
We actually arrived a bit early and had to pass some time before our hotel room was available to us, so we walked around a bit and ran across this "art car" in a parking lot.
It had all kinds of figurines and plaques and stickers all over it. One said, "Cleverly disguised as a responsible adult."
Here are some pictures I took while walking around Nassau Bay during the week.
The one below is the entrance to a park right on the water (i.e., the Gulf of Mexico eventually).
These were a couple of ducks in the park. I wanted to get up close for a good picture, but they wouldn't hold still. Every time I got close, they waddled away, the silly things.
The meeting started Tuesday morning bright and early and continued through Friday at lunchtime.
One morning as I was riding to the IBM office for the meeting with my coworkers, Deryl and Vicky, we saw a tanker truck labeled "Sodium Chloride -- Texas Brine". I turned to Deryl and asked, "How is Texas brine different from any other kind of brine?" He smiled and said, "It's bigger."
We got on the road for home about 1:30 Friday afternoon and made it to the Drury Inn at Lafayette by about 4:00 that afternoon. We had a pleasant evening and night and ate breafast at the Cracker Barrel across the parking lot again the next morning. Anna, the cashier who processed my credit card after our meal, had a Cajun accent you could cut with a knife. Talking with her was fun.
After breakfast, we went back to the hotel, loaded the car, and went by the front desk to check out. Guess who was there to take our keys? It was Theresa, the same lady who had taken our reservation a week ago! It was fun recognizing her. She said she remembered us, too.
We were on the road about 7:30 am, with Elza the Gypsy telling us we'd be in Meridian, Mississippi (where we planned to spend Saturday night) by 12:15, just after noon. Arriving that early, we'd have to wait a while for our hotel room, and (the wheels are always turning) we realized that if we went further, day three of the trip home could be shorter. Hmmm!
So, at a time when Karen was driving, I asked Elza about our possibilities for a place to stay further along. Did you know there's a Drury Inn in Birmingham, Alabama? I didn't either, but Elza the Gypsy did. So, as we zipped along the interstate (with Karen driving), I pulled out my cell phone and canceled our reservation in Meridian (it was a Best Western) and made a new one at the Drury Inn in Birmingham. Ah, the wonders of modern technology!
That change in plan added about two and a half hours to our travel time. With stops here and there along the way, we got to Birmingham just after 3:00 pm, right at checkin time. The folks at the Drury Inn knew we were coming and were ready for us.
So here we are in another Drury Inn, in Birmingham, Alabama, and tomorrow it will only take us a little over four hours to get home. The trip has gone very smoothly thus far.
We got on the interstate and headed west, watching feverishly for a Cracker Barrel. The first one we came to was in Lafayette, Louisiana, which turned out to be quite serendipitous. You'll see how in a minute.
As we ate our breakfast, we noticed that right across the parking lot from the restaurant was a Drury Inn. On the return trip, we had been planned to stay in Lake Charles, about an hour further along toward Houston. However, we considered that if we stayed in Lafayette instead, we'd be that much closer to home and days two and three of the return journey could be that much shorter.
So after breakfast, we walked across the parking lot to the Drury Inn to examine it. It turned out to be the sort of place where we like to stay (i.e., nice), so we talked to Theresa at the front desk and she helped us make a reservation for Friday, April 9. Here's a picture of the Drury Inn and Suites in Lafayette, Louisiana.
In Tennessee, most folks say "le-FAY-ett". In Lousiana, they say "le-fah-YETT", like the French. Must be the Cajun influence.
As we drove along through the Lousiana countryside, we saw signs for "boudin" shops and "boudin" restaurants. Once we got settled into our hotel in Houston, I looked up "boudin" on wikipedia and learned that it's a kind of Cajun sausage.
The Sabine River separates Louisiana and Texas. Right across the border into Texas, we stopped at a welcome center (at a place called Orange, if you're following along on your map) and acquired a free map of Texas. The next two pictures are from the welcome center parking lot.
The welcome center looks out over the Blue Elbow swamp. There are lots of displays and information about the swamp in the welcome center.
There's a boardwalk out behind the welcome center where you can examine the swamp up close and personal, but not too personal.
We looked around a few minutes, then pushed on.
After driving across what felt like most of Texas (but was actually only a couple of inches on the map), we finally arrived in Houston.
Our hotel was in a part of Houston called Nassau Bay.
Nassau Bay is a small municipality that's part of the Houston metropolitan area. Most of it consists of residential properties with a handful of businesses along Nasa 1 Road (where the Johnson Space Center is).
The clouds look a bit threatening in the picture above, but we actually had very nice weather while we were in Texas. There was rain in the forecast for Wednesday, but as it turned out, that storm passed north of us and we really didn't get much in the way of unpleasant weather. The temperatures were comfortable and pleasant and the humidity was low. (When we were in Houston in June of 2006 (or '07?), it was exTREMEly humid and uncomfortable.)
We actually arrived a bit early and had to pass some time before our hotel room was available to us, so we walked around a bit and ran across this "art car" in a parking lot.
It had all kinds of figurines and plaques and stickers all over it. One said, "Cleverly disguised as a responsible adult."
Here are some pictures I took while walking around Nassau Bay during the week.
The one below is the entrance to a park right on the water (i.e., the Gulf of Mexico eventually).
These were a couple of ducks in the park. I wanted to get up close for a good picture, but they wouldn't hold still. Every time I got close, they waddled away, the silly things.
The meeting started Tuesday morning bright and early and continued through Friday at lunchtime.
One morning as I was riding to the IBM office for the meeting with my coworkers, Deryl and Vicky, we saw a tanker truck labeled "Sodium Chloride -- Texas Brine". I turned to Deryl and asked, "How is Texas brine different from any other kind of brine?" He smiled and said, "It's bigger."
We got on the road for home about 1:30 Friday afternoon and made it to the Drury Inn at Lafayette by about 4:00 that afternoon. We had a pleasant evening and night and ate breafast at the Cracker Barrel across the parking lot again the next morning. Anna, the cashier who processed my credit card after our meal, had a Cajun accent you could cut with a knife. Talking with her was fun.
After breakfast, we went back to the hotel, loaded the car, and went by the front desk to check out. Guess who was there to take our keys? It was Theresa, the same lady who had taken our reservation a week ago! It was fun recognizing her. She said she remembered us, too.
We were on the road about 7:30 am, with Elza the Gypsy telling us we'd be in Meridian, Mississippi (where we planned to spend Saturday night) by 12:15, just after noon. Arriving that early, we'd have to wait a while for our hotel room, and (the wheels are always turning) we realized that if we went further, day three of the trip home could be shorter. Hmmm!
So, at a time when Karen was driving, I asked Elza about our possibilities for a place to stay further along. Did you know there's a Drury Inn in Birmingham, Alabama? I didn't either, but Elza the Gypsy did. So, as we zipped along the interstate (with Karen driving), I pulled out my cell phone and canceled our reservation in Meridian (it was a Best Western) and made a new one at the Drury Inn in Birmingham. Ah, the wonders of modern technology!
That change in plan added about two and a half hours to our travel time. With stops here and there along the way, we got to Birmingham just after 3:00 pm, right at checkin time. The folks at the Drury Inn knew we were coming and were ready for us.
So here we are in another Drury Inn, in Birmingham, Alabama, and tomorrow it will only take us a little over four hours to get home. The trip has gone very smoothly thus far.
posted by GreenSkink at 1:22 PM
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