Penultimate Day Drive

Day 30 of our 2018 Jumbo Road Trip.

Hammond, LA to Montgomery, AL. No geocaching or sightseeing today because of the weather and probably none for tomorrow either as we will be anxious to just get back home.

When we got up in Hammond in the morning I checked the radar and I could see the rain bands still circling around the center of Alberto with the bottom of them around Montgomery. The sky was threatening all day, but it hardly sprinkled on the drive here and it is yet to rain, but from the looks of the sky as we walked back to the hotel after dinner it might pour at any minute.

It finally did rain and rain hard for about 2 hours just around sunset. Thunder and lightning included, but I think Alberto is too far north to mess with us anymore. If we run into any precipitation on the way home tomorrow it will be of the usual heat and humidity fueled summer afternoon variety.

Mandeville Morning

Day 29 of our 2018 Jumbo Road Trip.

Hammond, LA. We are staying at a Holiday Inn here, not an Express, so no free breakfast, but when we checked in they gave us a voucher worth $20 towards breakfast at the in-house restaurant. Due to past experiences at Holiday Inn hotel restaurants we didn’t take advantage of it on the first morning, but for some reason we thought it might be worth a try today. If it wasn’t that good there was nothing ventured as it would be free. There was a buffet, but we thought we should order off the menu to make sure we got something fresh. Donna ordered her go to, Eggs Benedict, I just ordered scrambled eggs, hash browns and sausage. We should have known better.

It seemed to take an awful long time for the food to arrive. When it did arrive and the waitress put the plates down in front of us, mine looked fine, but Donna’s looked weird. The hollandaise sauce was a dark orange color and the ham slices were a 1/2″ thick. She took one taste of the sauce and it was awful. I dipped my fork in it and confirmed her opinion. It was inedible. She called the waitress back and told her that the food was disgusting. Waitress apologized, the manager visited and he apologized and Donna ended up just eating from the buffet. My scrambled eggs were fine and the sausage was half decent, but my hash browns looked exactly like hers (that came off the buffet) and my toast was at best, warm. We can now guarantee that this was the absolute last time we will ever eat at a Holiday Inn restaurant ever.

After eating we took another early morning drive over to Mandeville. Not for beignets this time, but for a nice walk along the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain. The temperature was in the 70’s, there was a slight breeze off the lake, hardly a cloud in the sky and you could see the causeway stretching to the horizon. On the way back to Hammond we did get a good breakfast. Donna got a chocolate covered chocolate cake doughnut and I had glazed cinnamon twist from Dat’s Us Deaux-Nuts in Ponchatoula.

Let’s Stay an Extra Day

Day 28 of our 2018 Jumbo Road Trip.

Hammond, LA. Our original intent was to be on the road home tomorrow, but our travel vector and the vector of TS Alberto would have collided in our Monday overnight town of Montgomery, Alabama about the time we would be getting on the road Tuesday morning, so we have opted to stay another day.

Donna wanted some beignets from Cafe du Monde in the French Quarter for breakfast today, but I refused to drive into New Orleans. We compromised by visiting one of their other locations in Mandeville which is a lot closer and still on this side of the lake. We also spent some of the day catching up with our woman in the State Department, Donna’s childhood friend, and her mom the nonagenarian.

Where The Locals Eat

Day 27 of our 2018 Jumbo Road Trip.

Minden, LA to Hammond, LA. Last night’s hotel clerk recommendation for a good breakfast where the locals eat was to drive just up the street a bit and go to Hamburger Happiness and Southern Maid Doughnuts. We were worried a bit as there was only one other vehicle in the lot when we pulled in.

The one guy sitting by himself didn’t seem too friendly, but the nice old lady at the counter where we placed and paid for our order was very pleasant. I think it was literally a mom and pop shop because I could see an old man through the saloon doors to the kitchen.

Soon the rest of the locals started arriving one by one and they greeted each other by name. The same lady brought our food to us pipping hot and it was delicious. The portions were correct and the price was right. We could hear the locals in background discussing the weather and the size of farm tractors. When we finished up and stepped outside I knew I needed to snap a picture. Take a guess, which one of these things is not like the other.

26,000 Potatoes

Day 26 of our 2018 Jumbo Road Trip.

Gainesville, TX to Minden, LA. We walked a half mile into downtown Gainesville for breakfast on the recommendation of the clerk who checked us in last night. We ate at a place called Fried Pie Co. & Restaurant. Because we were at a place with Fried Pies in their name, we both opted to try one for breakfast and both our reviews of this dish was, “Interesting, not bad, but I bet the fruit pies are better.”

For lunch we didn’t need a recommendation because we knew just where we were eating because we had eaten there 4 years ago. I had even planned our return route through the city of Paris, TX so we could get a hamburger and fries at Burgerland. The 65′ Eiffel Tower replica with a giant red cowboy hat on top was a bonus. The hamburgers are of course awesome, but the fries don’t really take second billing here, they are hand cut, salted just right and a single order consists of about 26,000 potatoes. Not only is the their food fantastic, it is easy on the wallet too. Two burgers, a small order of fries and a large drink came to $14.75.

We did manage to grab a couple of geocaches before lunch in Paris and had plans for more after, along a 10 mile long walking/biking path, cheekily called Trail de Paris, but one look at the sky and another at the weather radar made us just hop in the car and head east as fast as the speed limit would allow.

About ten miles from arriving at tonight’s hotel the Lady Bug ticked over 26,000 miles.

The above photo came from Burgerland’s Facebook page, the ones below are mine.

A Wife’s Revenge?

Day 25 of our 2018 Jumbo Road Trip.

Amarillo, TX to Gainesville, TX. Traveled through the Texas panhandle today with lots of long trains, powerlines stretching to the horizon and several wind farms. Five of six in geocaches today. The only one we missed was called A Wife’s Revenge in the town of Memphis, TX. Here is the description:

Ahhhh, a woman scorned is a scary thing....

Not far from this cache is a very unique memorial to a roaming husband. As the story goes, this sculpture was placed on the husband's grave by his widow. Supposedly, he liked to entertain (or be entertained) by various ladies. The sculpture is a naked lady hiding her face in shame. This was the story that was told to us. However, it looks like it might also be one of the people from Pompeii... You draw your own conclusions.

This is the second day in a row we have DNF’d a cemetery cache and after not finding this one, both Donna and I felt like recreating this pose…

25,000 Coats of Paint

Day 24 of our 2018 Jumbo Road Trip.

Albuquerque, NM to Amarillo, TX. 4 for 5 in geocaching. A couple of them had no container required, just a photo or a question answered and the two small containers we had no difficulty with, but the one regular sized one, we just couldn’t find. 🙁

We did a few other stops today besides the geocaching and eating or rest breaks, first up was the Bosque Redondo Memorial in Fort Sumner, NM. The Bosque Redondo spot was very interesting. Do yourself a favor and click the link and at least read the main page. Neither Donna nor I knew nothing about the history this place represents until we stumbled on the little red square on the New Mexico state map that was right along our route. A little humbling when you are confronted with something of this sort. Reminded us of our visit a couple years ago of Manzanar Camp.

Secondly, by some sort of weird quirk, also in Fort Sumner, is the grave of Billy the Kid. We stopped outside the cemetery to take a quick photo, but didn’t bother to go in. What is even quirkier for us is, with absolute no pre-planning we have now happened to pass thru two of the three towns that claim to be the burial site of Henry McCarty, AKA Billy the Kid. On the way west we stopped in the small town of Hico, TX for a leg stretch and there was a small museum dedicated to The Kid who they believed wasn’t killed by Pat Garret in NM, but lived out a quiet life there and died in 1950. And had we known we were going thru two, we could have adjusted our route in Arizona, adding a mere 100 extra miles, and hit the third in Prescott, AZ. Billy the Kid Wikipedia Page.

The third stop is obvious from the photos above and below, Cadillac Ranch (it is a mere 3-1/2 miles from tonight’s hotel.) I have now been to both of the Big Two of car related Roadside America having visited Carhenge back in 2009

On the way back to the hotel in Albuquerque after breakfast the Lady Bug crossed the 25,000 mile mark.