Bourbon Street via the ICW??

Hey, we're taking a detour here, from our water trip to a ROAD TRIP! 

 Yep, we left the boat at Atlantic Yacht Basin in Chesapeake, VA, grabbed a Hertz rental car and headed west.  Then south, then further west, then back east, south some more, northeast and, well, you get the idea.  What started out as a one week trip from Virginia to Indiana for some family time, morphed into a full-fledged road trip, spanning three weeks, 4,000 miles and 16 states!  Needless to say we are super grateful for Hertz, Hilton and Marriott points.

 

We paid for one month's dockage at Atlantic Yacht Basin, as that was the cheapest way to go.  Great rates and a really safe place (hurricane-wise) to leave the boat, so we had no trepidations.  Then back to Indianapolis for some always-the-best family time.  Our nephew, Luke, was visiting from Portland so that was the perfect excuse to check in with our Hoosier family.  My mom hosted the family at the ISO's Symphony on the Prairie, which turned out to be a very wet experience.  But the orchestra stayed dry and kept on playing, so we hunkered down under ponchos, garbage bags and even under the tables to try to escape the rain.  Great fun and terrific music, even while wet.

Looking good in those garbage bags!

Hiding under the table to keep dry!

 

Gary and Linda, Cindy's brother and sister-in-law, had everyone over for an afternoon and evening, so the food, fun and games, as in corn hole (a family tradition), continued.  Olivia and Terry surprised us by being that day's corn hole champions.  We had dueling pontoon boats.  Olivia took honors in fishing.  We celebrated Kathy's birthday.  We ate, played, visited and laughed.  Family! 

Ally and Ryan

59 and holding!

  The cousins love being together and we all spent as much time together, as possible, over a long weekend.  Cindy's mom, Jean, was right in the thick of things and her Sunday brunch comments were quite a hit with the grandchildren.  One highlight was the Friday night midnight arrival of Seth's girlfriend, Alina, visiting for two months over the summer, all the way from her home in Moscow. 

Ahhh, young love.

 

From Indy we headed south to Memphis, to visit where we used to live and where our eldest, Ryan, was born. 

Our first home, 4795 Roswell Drive, Memphis, Tennessee

We had not been there in many, many years and it was quite fun to visit old haunts.  Then it was south through Mississippi, west through Louisiana and to our next stopping place, Montgomery (Houston area), Texas, home to our Texas family:  Thad's mom, Jean, his brother Dale and wife Bette, their daughter, Cathy (lives in Austin), son, Stuart with wife, Gracie, and girls Courtney and  Cailey.  Plus lots of dogs!  It was, to put it simply, a wonderful visit with our family that we do not see nearly enough.

Gracie and Courtney

Cathy and Jean

Dale, Bette, Stuart, Gracie & Cailey

 

Time to head back east, but first we had a great day and a half in New Orleans.  I had never been there so was quite anxious to visit.  Our hotel was in the French Quarter so we were able to walk all over the place.  The weather was a bit uncooperative, as it rained very, very hard late the first night and a bit during the next day, but we just soldiered on and dried out back at the hotel.  Though Bourbon Street itself was a bit, shall we say, different from our usual routine, it was all great fun. 

Eloise is cuddled by musician "Steamboat Willie"

Mmmm, pralines, heavenly good!

Eloise on a NOPD horse

Beautiful French Quarter Houses

 

From New Orleans we decided to take the scenic route and drive along the Gulf coast.  We so loved seeing the water and stopped at a beach to give our legs, all 8 of them, a stretch.  We have had Eloise along the whole time and she is getting to be one well-traveled canine.  Thank heaven she is small as she rides on a pillow on the console of the rental Camry, right between our two seats.  And, being small, we are able to, dare I say it, sneak her into the hotels.  We have discovered that there is a HUGE pet fee in most hotels.  Do not lecture me here.  I am trying to not feel too much guilt over the sneaking business. 

Guess who is hiding under the towel, inside this bag??

 

Another road trip highlight was the next evening, in Mississippi, when we stayed in the  Biloxi area and visited the Margaritaville Casino. 

Alas, Jimmy Buffet was not there that night

Me and my gal, Dolly

Hey, did you know they give you money to play with?  Yep, we each got player's cards, preloaded with $10 of the casino's money.  But it is sad, as it is not like the old days, with those wonderful slot machines you load with quarters and then pull the big ol' arms down.  Now you just put your player's card in the slot and push some buttons.  Not nearly as fun.  I did not have the slightest idea what to do but there were friendly people to help me out.
We chose two machines to play, one an Elvis and one a Dolly  Parton (imagine me picking those two!), and I made big money off the casino's ten dollars.  I wish.  But still, I came out ahead, by a whopping $5.60.  Plus, I found a nickel on the floor, so I actually ended up with $5.65!   Before gambling we did the buffet.  Yes, the infamous casino buffet.  We actually first got those player's cards to enable us to get a $5 discount off the buffet and did not even know we would get it preloaded with casino money.  What a great place!  They pay you to play their games.  And heck, the buffet food was pretty darned good, to boot.


My big casino winnings!

So now we are in the process of heading back to our boat.  We miss her.  We have loved, absolutely loved seeing family and having fun along the way, but we are ready to get back into our travel routine. 

 

Thanks for going along with us while we detoured slightly, well greatly, off our ICW route up the east coast.  We were not planning to be gone three weeks but we are grateful the Lord had it in mind for us, all along.  He's a lot of fun like that, isn't He?

Are these really that much different?  I think not.