On our way back...

We all got a good night sleep and I got a nice long hot shower, even though we got a late start it was great morning. While the girls were loading the van I took Robbie and cruise around and found a shopping center. I found a carousel shoes and a discount clothing warehouse. I didn't get a chance to go look inside of them but what I saw from the outside looked pretty cool. I got a text from Karen saying that they were loaded up and ready to go. I cruise back and we decided to go to Walmart because we needed a few things. We ended up getting more than a few things but things that we really need it. We were looking for some St. Patrick's day shirts but we didn't see any. We still have until Saturday so hopefully we will find something. We cruised downtown and saw the cutest puppy outside of the candy store. His name is Wilbur and there was a sign that explained all about him so we thought that they were trying to get rid of him but they weren't . We cruised around for a while looking for souvenirs and then ended up eating at this place called The Redneck Gormet,the food was awesome. I had a pulled pork Sandwich, Brunswick stew and some fried mushrooms. Kelly and Karen had a turkey, bacon and spinach wrap… Karen had fries and Kelly tried fried Green tomatoes. We found a couple of T-shirts there that said something funny on them, I don't remember what it was. We loaded back up in the van, without our new friend Wilber and headed for Greenville Alabama. We ended up staying in another Hampton Inn which was very nice. We had a good night sleep, in fact I missed both episodes of intervention. We got up and headed for Slidell Louisiana. We drove and found a really nice little restaurant called Southside Café. It was pretty much in honor of Hurricane Katrina and the big fire, It was an awesome tribute. The food was really awesome. I had a cup of seafood gumbo, and Kelly and I split a soft Shell crab Po boy and a crawfish sandwich. Karen had a catfish po boy and some french fries with cheese and chili, it really looked good.
We had another really good nights sleep and then got up and went to New Orleans for the day. We have so much fun walking up and down the streets, checking out everything and trying to decide where to eat. We found a little place called The Oyster House and it was really cool, we sat in kind of a doorway. I had crab and corn chowder and split some crab and crawfish ravioli with Karen and Kelly had crab claws and crab and corn chowder, everyone was very happy.
We cruised around a little more and then we stopped at this place that was famous for Beignets and chicory coffee. I waited over by the bench so I could save a place for us, it seemed like it took them forever but they were awesome. We had another couple of places that we wanted to try but we were still full so we decided to just go back to the hotel, we had such a great day. We stayed another night in the same hotel and then packed up in the morning.
We drove on towards Texas and stop at Steamboat Bills Seafood Warehouse in Lake Charles Louisiana for dinner. The guy met us outside and said he had never looked inside such a big van and would we mind so of course we let him. He said that he would meet us inside he was the cook. We had way more food then probably five people could eat. Kelly and I split the seafood platter which had catfish, stuffed shrimp and crab, fried shrimp, fries and a roll. We also split a huge baked potato with shrimp and crawfish, cheese and some kind of really awesome Ettouffee sauce. Karen was smart and just had to bake potato. We also had an order of Boudin Balls. After we ate that guy came over and gave us two of the biggest brownies I have ever seen in my life, he said that he makes them himself. Needless to say we also have breakfast or the morning. We drove on to Beaumont Texas and stay at our first Marriott courtyard, I really really nice place. We had a really long hard night of personal care and slept really hard. I woke up with a headache but I don't know if it's from allergies or sleeping wrong.
Apparently there was something going on I think spring break, St Patrick's Day and some kind of South by Southwest music festival for two days so we couldn't find any place near Houston or Austin to stay so we found a place in Weimar Texas. We found a little Mexican restaurant called and a Days Inn so we decided to risk it. It turned out to be a really nice place and we had a really big room. The Mexican restaurant, Leticia's, was really good food also. It wasn't as much of a scary night as we thought it would be. I did hear something howling outside that kept waking me up, I don't know what it was. Robby kept crawling underneath my rollaway bed… I wonder if he knew something that we didn't know. Thank God we are leaving early this morning. We drove to Adkins Texas because Karens brother said there was a killer BBQ place there...he was right, It was a place called Texas pride barbecue and it was awesome. The guy that was cutting everything up did it just like an assembly line and had a great memory… He remembered everything. I ordered the sausage, cheesy potatoes and pinto beans and for dessert I got the peach cobbler, Karen and Kelly ordered the ribs and believe me they just fell off the bone. They also had a pecan cobbler that Kelly ordered and it was awesome too, I had to try a bite. I save the rest of it for my breakfast in the morning, I swear everywhere in Texas gives you enough food for five people.
We headed on to Fort Stockton Texas and to our Hampton Inn. I think Hampton Inn is one of our favorites, that and the Embassy suites is awesome too. We slept really good and got up to leave early in the morning, we wonted to be out of here by 10 AM but it was more like 10:30 AM… Not bad.
We took off headed for New Mexico, our next stop. We didn't quite make it all the way to where we had planned because there was a 40 mile an hour duststorm and we got a room right before they closed all the interstates, it's a good thing we got a room when we did or else we would stuck here with no place to stay, everybody was scrambling to look for hotels. We found a really nice Hampton Inn with connecting rooms and even had a roll in shower so I got to take a shower, that felt great after the big duststorm.