Hurlshort

Day 16 - We left Memphis today, but we did stop off at the national headquarters for my wife's sorority. Unfortunately they were closed, but she was able to take some pictures of the outside. Most of the day was spent driving through Arkansas, namely the Ozarks. You don't hear much about Arkansas, but it was a very pretty state. We pulled into a nice small campground in Branson and cooked up some ears of corn and pasta. Branson is a kick, I'll take a bunch of pictures. It basically is what Vegas would look like if it was run by a Megachurch. We are hitting up a water park tomorrow.

Hah, I can't speed in the RV if I wanted to. I get passed regularly by big rigs.

I was always amazed how long my son could cry before finally rolling over and sleeping. My daughter would go for 5 minutes, tops. Thankfully it was a lot more rare for him to fuss than her, but he could go for awhile.

Unfortunately we are moving on to Branson today, so we ran out of time to see Graceland. But that's alright, I had a fantastic time and now I have a good reason to come back in a few years.

Yep. My vasectomy was $5,000. After insurance I still had to pay $500 out of pocket, which ain't cheap. All that for a 30 minute procedure.

Day 15 - Today we tried to go to Graceland, but the line was really long in the morning, so we hopped on a bus downtown and started at the Rock 'n Soul Museum. It was decent, but honestly I thought Sun Studios was a better tour. Then we ate some ribs at Rendezvous, and I forgot to take a picture before. Needless to say, it was delicious and the whole family ate well. I highly recommend it, the downtown restaurant was affordable and the service was great. After that we hiked to the Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel. For those of you that don't know, this is the site where MLK Jr. was assassinated. They have recently renovated it, it has only been open for about 2 months as I saw it. It is hard to describe how emotionally powerful this place is. I can tell you, walking through this museum was one of the most moving experiences of my life. You start off learning about the roots of slavery, then travel through buses where Rosa Parks struggled and the Freedom Riders rode. You pass counters where young students staged sit-ins. Then you follow the path of a Civil Rights March and end up in the very room that Martin Luther KIng Jr. was staying in. I had to pull myself together quite a few times, and by the end I was emotionally exhausted. Everyone needs to experience this, it is an incredibly important place. Pictures just don't do it justice.

Right now we are having lunch at Rendezvous and then going to the Gibson factory. We briefly walked down Beale, it looks like a pretty wild street.

Day 14 - I'm officially in love with Memphis. We took it easy in the morning, enjoying the cool air and the lack of an AC blasting in the RV. I played some Blackguards and yelled at the kids to go outside and play. After lunch we headed out to Graceland and caught a free shuttle to Sun Studios. I recently read a book about the history of Sun Studios, and was very excited to explore it. This place was packed inside. It's not a big studio, and apparently tomorrow is the 60th anniversary of Elvis's first record, so it was crazy. Logan was too young for the tour, so just me and my daughter ended up going through the whole thing. They made it up to us by not charging us for the tour, and they even gave my wife a free milkshake to keep her and Logan happy. It was amazing to stand in the recording room where Johnny Cash was discovered and even see a piano that Jerry Lee Lewis used to pound on. After that we walked down to the ballpark and enjoyed some food while watching the game. The park was really nice, definitely a top notch place. We enjoyed the game from a grassy knoll, it was perfect. The weather was great, their was a playground right next to us where the kids ran around for most of the game, and the fireworks at the end were amazing and up close. I'm pretty sure we were the only family with a Giants blanket at the game. I also wore my Giants hat.

Next year we will probably keep it a bit smaller, but my plan is to hit the East Coast in two years. I think I'll probably find a nice park in Pennsylvania and take trains to the big cities.

Day 13 - I went for one last jog on the levee this morning before packing up and rolling out of New Orleans. We spent most of the day driving through Mississippi. Thanks to the internet, we found a fantastic place to stop and eat lunch near Jackson. This place was off the beaten path a bit, but it was like stumbling onto a southern potluck, with a buffet filled with all sorts of dishes that you don't find easily in California. Our family stood out a bit, but were were not disappointed by the southern graciousness. After that we went across the street to a grocery store, and then headed the rest of the way to Memphis. My wife even drove a bit, letting me get a nap in. In Memphis, our park is right next to Graceland. We've got a playground behind us, and it's really a beautiful park. Honestly I'm greatly relieved to be in Tennessee, Louisiana was beautiful, but the humidity was starting to get to me. Tennessee is perfect weather right now, after dinner we spent awhile just watching the fireflies flit about.

I'm going to a Memphis Redbirds game to watch the fireworks, should be a blast.

I like the idea, and I love beer, but $300 is almost enough for a kegerator. I'm just not convinced breweries are going to buy into the whole bag idea, whereas most places sell pony kegs already.

Day 12 - I went for a run on the levee this morning and it was amazing when I got past the tree line and saw all the freighters and barges going up the river. It was a great run, and hopefully I'll wake up early enough for one more tomorrow morning. We jumped on the riverboat Natchez for a lunchtime cruise. The lunch wasn't that great, but the engine room was amazing and watching that big waterwheel churn to get us down the Mississippi was a sight to behold. I was pretty tired of the heat at this point, so we decided to walk down to the outlets nearby after out cruise. I got some new shoes and we were able to avoid the midday sun for a few hours. I had one last Jambalaya meal (The IPA was great), one last gelato, and we boarded our bus for home. Tomorrow we leave pretty early for Memphis, I've got a Howlin' Wolf CD prepped and ready to go for the ride.

My kids were freaking out a bit at all the wind and lightning we just had come through, but it passed quickly. We head inland to Memphis tomorrow, and I think it's pretty calm there.

I'm sure that type of health care might work well at the convent, but for the majority of the human race, sex and health go hand in hand. The healthcare industry is involved in our sex lives for a lot of reasons, and there is no reason that should change. It's how we keep child birth safe and prevent the spreading of STD's. Do you even know how birth control pills work? That's not something you should be buying off some street corner, you need a real doctor in charge of that type of hormonal chemistry. Also you seem to be arguing that companies shouldn't provide health insurance at all. That would be fantastic, I would love to have affordable health care available that wasn't tied to my job. Unfortunately that is not the world we live in. So if companies are going to be the ones providing the bulk of health care to people, I don't think they should have carte blanche on what my health care options are. I want trained medical professionals deciding what should be available to me, not some CEO.

GD when you lived in Florida what colour was your speedo that you use to wear to restaurants? I grew up in the "redneck" part of Florida (Everything north of West Palm Beach and south of Georgia excluding Tampa, Gainesville, & Tallahassee. We never wore speedos... there's no place to hide your guns or dip can! That means he wore cut off jeans.

Day 11 - We started our second day in NO by visiting the WWII museum. There was more testimonial and information than artifacts in this museum, but it was still worth seeing. Although I feel I missed out by not visiting the Civil War Museum across the way. Ah well, another trip hopefully. Logan did a little posing for propaganda posters: I have no idea what he is doing here, but these gliders were neat. A good ole' Mustang. After that we caught a streetcar back to the French Quarter, had a bit of Jambalaya, and headed back to the RV. Oh, I almost forgot, I had some crocodile sausage on a poboy. It was interesting, the kids surprisingly ate it up. I think they just liked the idea of eating something so fierce. Tomorrow we are riding on this big steam boat for a lunch cruise. I'm going to try and wake up early for a jog on the levee, I hope that works out.

But I mean think about the whole preface of this thread, folks. This guy, Oby, comes home from vacation, and immediately dives into bashing vacationers. It's downright depressing.

Oby is really a negative nelly.

So the Supreme Court just sided with Hobby Lobby on this contraceptive issue. Maybe I'm having trouble understanding the case fully, but it basically looks like a corporation is getting to choose what kind of health care options are available for their employees, and they are claiming it is 'religious freedom'. What about the personal freedom to not have a corporation tell me what my health care options are? I have no problem with Hobby Lobby having informational campaigns that discourage certain forms of contraception, but when they get to make the decision about what is available to female workers, I get pretty worried.

Considering one guy developed it, I thought it was a rather genius little tech demo game. But yeah, it's not a full scale strategy game or anything.

Day 10 - This morning I jumped up at 7 AM, put on my running shoes, stepped outside, and almost choked on the humidity. It was already hot and humid out. I ran for a bit and then headed back for a nice cool shower. We jumped on a shuttle bus to the French Quarter and went directly to Cafe Du Monde for beignets. I gave my daughter a choice of a carriage ride, a riverboat tour, or a doubledecker bus to give us our first views of the city, and she chose the horse and carriage ride. We had a great driver who showed us all of the French Quarter and gave us a lot of great ideas for where we wanted to visit. Honestly I wasn't super jazzed about visiting New Orleans, it was more for the wife, but pictures and movies really don't do it justice. The architecture and ambiance of all the storefronts and balconies is unlike anything I've ever seen before. I fell in love pretty easily and I'm already thinking about how I can bring my wife here for a romantic getaway someday soon. Here are a few pics I took: Corn on the rod iron This is just how all the streets look, it's amazing: We went into a voodoo store at one point, and Logan accidentally disturbed an altar. We put an offering up for him, so I hope he isn't cursed. Oh and here is Andrew Jackson! We ended up at an Emeril Lagasse restaurant for lunch called NOLA. I had the shrimp n' grits with a great Abita beer. It was very rich and enjoyable. Skylar enjoyed a great bisque, but my son preferred to snack on his cheez-its. We walked around quite a bit today and explored a lot of the streets of the French Quarter. Early on we walked a bit down Bourbon Street, but around noon we started skirting around it as it got a bit wilder. We started to bake around 3, and by the time our bus came to get us at 5:30 we were well exhausted. It was an amazing day of sightseeing. Tomorrow we are heading to the WWII and Civil War museums for the day, and then Wednesday I think we might get a swamp tour in.

Day 9 - We had a great day of driving. I was only a couple hours away from New Orleans, so we took the time to sight see with the RV. We first went to Avery Island, the only Tabasco bottling plant in the world. They grow peppers all over, but they ship all the pepper mulch into Avery Island and make the sauce in one spot. There were a lot of different flavors, including a pretty decent Ice Cream. WE were hungry at this point, so we drove into Lafayette and stopped at a place called Prejean's for lunch. This place had phenomenal gumbo. In fact I meant to take a picture, but I devoured it as soon as it was placed in front of me. The balls in the middle of the table are called Boudin, which seem to be pretty popular in Louisiana. I had some trouble understanding what it was, I think it is meat seasoned in a sausage casing and then fried with rice in a ball? I don't know, but it was delicious. After that we drove across miles of swampy rivers. You are basically on a bridge the whole time elevated above the water, it made for some great scenery. Still waiting on a gator sighting, I keep joking about finding one on a morning jog. We are staying a bit west of New Orleans, right on the Mississippi. We take a shuttle into town tomorrow.

This morning I poured orange juice into my cereal bowl.

In California, I had the advantage of a bunch of gas reward points, so even though gas was around $4.20 a gallon, I got it closer to $3.50. Arizona and New Mexico were about the same, around $3.75 a gallon in most places. In Texas I started to see a far amount of $3.45 a gallon, but there was a surprising amount of inflation depending on where I was. So far the cheapest I've seen is $3.39. Louisiana has been about $3.45 a gallon, but I'm still close to the Texas border. Every time I fill up it is between $80 to $100, so it adds up. I fill up every 250-300 miles.