1000 Places

I've met some new people and given them the URL for this blog, but if you're looking for my travel blog

CLICK HERE

and there will be new posts every few days for the next month or so as I recount my recent trip through the American Southwest.  Non 1,000 Places posts will be showing up in the next few days.  :)

A Small Sampling

I should've taken a picture of every plate of food I ate on this journey because it was all (BBQ Spaghetti, excepted) DELICIOUS.  Here are a few shots of the southern hospitality we enjoyed.


Rocky's Hot Chicken Shack, Asheville, NC


Huck Finn's Catfish, Chicken and Steaks; Pigeon Forge, TN


Juleps at Churchill Downs


Interstate BBQ, Memphis, TN


BBQ Shop, Memphis, TN



Biscuits & Blues, Natchez, MS  (the biscuits were the best part of the meal, but I don't have a picture of them.  Thanks, Cort, for this pic!)


Cafe du Monde, New Orleans, LA

Gators and Friends

When T3 drove through Louisiana on their way to Texas back in March KiLee had texted that I should consider stopping at Gators and Friends on my way through.

Nate had really wanted to stop, but given their hurried pace, the challenges with a certain 2 year old, and the fact that it wasn't open for summer hours yet they didn't.

Initially, I hadn't planned to stop here either.  It was about 2 hours out of my way (had I been coming directly from New Orleans) and wasn't prepared to end with a 9 hour drive.

Since we ditched New Orleans and mad it Baton Rouge on Saturday Gators and Friends was back on the schedule.


Medium sized alligator pit.



The have a baby zebra, born in February:


And a baby camel:


A bunch of goats:

You can buy cups of animal feed, and these goats are definitely trained.  Whenever someone approaches they jump up and stick their necks out the fence - even if you have no food.


Tiniest goat.


Please, sir, could I have some more

The capybara:




And about a bazillion mule deer:

I secretly suspect that the goats and deer may contribute to the care and feeding of the gators.


This gator is so big that he can't haul himself out of the water - hasn't been able to for over a year.

We saw the Big Alligator Feeding:







This is their second biggest gator.  He can barely haul himself out of the water; it was actually sort of hilarious.


Phew!  That was hard work!

And then, the whole reason for the visit ...

I HELD A BABY ALLIGATOR!



The belly of a baby gator is surprisingly soft.  I can see why people have them made into boots.

Cort told me that the alligator had peed once already, so when I felt something weird against my leg ...

Turns out, it was only the claws on its hind foot.

Nate is totally jealous!

Louisiana - In the Rain

I've been avoiding posting about this day for a long time because, well, it just wasn't very much fun.  It was supposed to be fun.  Really fun.  But circumstances conspired and it was a no-good, very bad, horrible bad day.

Initially this was to kick off a weekend in New Orleans, crossing another 3 things off The List, but instead it was a trip cut short.

First, it was pouring rain all day long.  I don't know if you've ever met my GPS, but she really likes to take me on semi-scenic drives.  I don't generally mind, but when it is pouring rain I kinda would like a highway, know what I'm sayin'?

Second, there had been car problems.  You may have read in previous post either here or on 1000 Places that I'd actually taken the car to a mechanic to make sure it wasn't leaking something vital, and the next day we discovered it was actually leaking from behind the dashboard into the passenger foot well.

Third, between being incredibly worried that my car would strand us somewhere in rural Mississippi or Louisiana, and driving for two days on rural, unfamiliar roads in the pouring rain with low visibility my nerves were officially shot.

Finally, add those shot nerves to an already stressed and frayed psyche that hasn't been sleeping well, has been worrying about another a) cross-country move, b) unemployment, c) finding appropriate housing and employment, and d)financial concerns (hey, I'm going to be unemployed was really sinking in), and I was thisclose to a legitimate nervous breakdown.

We actually did brave Oak Alley Plantation, rain and all.  It was an interesting place (and I'm sure you've seen it in loads of movies), but we basically did the house tour and left.  Did I mention it was pouring rain?

Oak Alley was built by Jacques Telesphore Roman, a wealthy Creole sugar cane planter, for his new wife in 1839.  Prior to the opulent Antebellum mansion someone had planted the 28 oak trees that lined the path from his cottage to the Mississippi River.  Mrs. Roman was from New Orleans and a city girl to her core.  She hated living so far from the city and eventually left Oak Alley to return to the Crescent City.  When she heard that her husband lay dying, she rushed back to Oak Alley, but he was already gone, and thus began decades of neglect and disrepair.

In 1925 Oak Alley was rediscovered by Mr. and Mrs. Andrew and Josephine Steward.  Josephine began the amazing restoration, and began the first antebellum restoration of plantation houses along the River Road.  Josephine loved Oak Alley and worked tirelessly to restore it to its former glory.  Shortly before her death in 1972, Josephine created the non-profit Oak Alley Foundation in order to ensure the home and property would remain open to share.

One cool thing about the tour was that we were allowed to take picture INSIDE the house.  That, my friends, is super rare...  We mostly missed the first room because we joined up with a tour that had already started.


Welcome to my dining room, please enjoy your GIANT silverware.  Silver was expensive so rich people liked to show off their wealth with over sized utensils.


That thing hanging over the table was a combined air conditioner and shoo-fly.  A servant would stand in the corner and pull the rope from the moment guests were seated until dinner was over.  The key was to keep it in constant movement, but not move it so fast that the candles went out.  The tiny crystal bowls along the table were filled with sugar.  It WAS a sugar plantation, after all.


Looking along the alley from the dining room.


The mosquitoes could be bothersome.  They were within yards of the Mississippi River.






The cradle is original to the house.




This piece of door is original to the house, and lists all kinds of information, names, and dates, of various owners, servants, and workman through Oak Alley's history.


The money shot from the second floor balcony.














Magnolia tree in the formal gardens on the other side of the house.


You may have to view this in its original size, but you can definitely see that it is raining.


Better prepared than we were.


From the road


After Oak Alley, we drove into New Orleans (still determined to forge ahead as planned) and into the French Quarter.  It was packed.  It was raining.  There were no parking spots (and if you know me at all, you KNOW about my weird phobia re: parking).  I was on the verge of a breakdown.

I made an executive decision to cancel New Orleans, check into the hotel, and drive to Texas the next morning.  Cort suggested that we look into hotel options further north to save money and decrease the amount of driving we'd have to do the next day.  She used her awesome Marriott knowledge to cancel the hotel without the cancellation fee, and book us a room in Baton Rouge.  Ironically, a hotel we'd passed earlier in the day, but didn't expect to ever see again.

While she was finishing up with that, I pulled into a mall parking lot, and ate lunch at Chick-Fil-A.  Yes, a MALL, ON VACATION, AT A CHAIN RESTAURANT!  This is sure proof of how close I was to that breakdown.  After the CFA we found a Cafe du Monde (I was feeling slightly more sane...not sane enough to find the original Cafe back in the French Quarter, but...slightly more sane) and had beignets and hot chocolate.





And then drove to Baton Rouge, in the pouring rain.

Peabody Hotel - Memphis

The Peabody Hotel in Memphis is really famous for one thing... the ducks in their lobby fountain.

We had a "rest" day in Memphis to do laundry (and worry about the car, if you are me), with nothing really planned except eat bar-b-que, maybe go to high tea (did not do), and watch the duck walk.  The ducks walk twice a day, at 11:00 a.m. they walk from their luxury penthouse (byway of the elevator) to the fountain, and at 5:00 p.m. they walk back upstairs.

We got there about 45 minutes early, and by 5:00 p.m. it was PACKED.  Also, the ducks walk really fast, so it was hard to get decent pictures.  

Ducks in the fountain

The fountain was A LOT smaller than I thought it would be.

The Duckmaster!





They block off an elevator for the ducks to travel on, and this (along with the massive crowd) seemed to really annoy several of the Peabody's guests.  To that I say, "Seriously, they are FAMOUS for the ducks.  Don't stay here if you think the ducks will be inconvenient to your plans. Loser!"

For the video you'll have to go:  HERE!