Fun in Faulkner Country

I'm sitting and enjoying breakfast, the play of the morning sun in the backyard, and Lisa's generous hospitality here in Oxford. It's so delightful to be here that I almost don't mind leaving David behind in New Orleans and setting off on my last week of adventure.

It was (finally) sunny when we woke up yesterday morning in Nola. After packing up (me to leave, David to move to another room at the St. Pierre), David and I walked over to Frenchmen Street for a final food fest.

Here's what we had, from the "Benedict" portion of the menu: eggs Marigny, which is fried green tomatoes topped with poached eggs, artichoke remoulade, and hollandaise; and eggs Atchafalaya, topped with crawfish and creamed spinach, two poached eggs, and hollandaise sauce. OMG!

For the sake of my waistline, I had to get out of this town. We walked back along beautifully dappled streets, trying to avoid the hot sun. Mary, this shot's for you.

One very amusing aspect of New Orleans is how often you come across the tattered remains of someone's revelry.

And then, as the lump grew in my throat, I said goodbye to David and headed for Mississippi.

The GPS sent me on I-10 west. Somehow, after days of driving that road, it just unsettled me to be back on it and going in the "wrong" direction. Fortunately, I noticed on the map that I was near the Lake Ponchatrain Causeway. I headed onto that and enjoyed the 22-mile cruise along the water.

On the other side, I passed up the chance for companionship by not picking up a hitchhiker. (I had another opportunity later that I also skipped.) Instead, I settled in for the five-hour drive with Max for company.

Storm clouds appeared intermittently all day and there were periods of quick, torrential rain, some clear sailing, and occasional drips and drizzles. It was enough to have me keep the top up all day.

Not too much to say about the scenery except how green and lush it looks. Here are two photos of the view from I-55, three hours apart.

I did notice that it seems to be a requirement in Mississippi (and perhaps Louisiana) that your car have a cracked front windshield. I swear, I've never seen so many!

And then it was off the interstate, down a more charming road, and into Oxford. Bebe, Lisa's youngest, greeted me and entertained me until her dad, Richard, arrived.

Lisa appeared shortly and the party began. Drinks, delicious jambalaya and salad, friends over to celebrate their birthday, a walk into town for a drink, and then back home, all with lots of chatting.

Their home overflows with books and assorted collections of mementos, children's artwork, Persian carpets, photos, and all the other artifacts of a busy life. It couldn't be more cozy or comfortable and it's going to take all the discipline I've got to push on to Memphis today.

Hola from NOLA

This picture seems like the appropriate way to celebrate the day in New Orleans and my last 24 hours with David. As you've duly noted, we've been committed to a week of outstanding eating, and today was no exception.

We began the day with brunch at Elizabeth's, where we met up with Joel's daughter Christina.

Funny story about this place. I had met the owner's parents, who are friends of Bonnie's, when I was in California, and they had recommended trying it for brunch when I realized I'd be in New Orleans on a Sunday. I had mentioned it to David and he'd been pretty neutral about going there, saying that he had plans for us in New Orleans (he lived here for nearly three months five years ago). Somewhere along the line he mentioned that the place he had in mind for brunch had this amazing praline bacon. How funny, I said, Elizabeth's has that, too.

Finally, at some point yesterday, David looked on Google maps to see where we'd be going. And guess what? It was Elizabeth's. We'd been talking about the same place the whole time.

Really attractive spot with incredible food. We all shared the famous praline bacon, which is the most seriously decadent food you can imagine -- think sweet AND salty AND chewy AND nutty -- and highly addictive, then David and I tried two dishes and sampled Christina's pick as well. Here's the first: duck and sweet potato hash on a waffle.

It's like three dishes in one. That's about all of the dish the two of us could pack away. The waffle was saturated with syrup, there's a spicy pepper jelly on top, and it's just an insane combination.

Our other pick was eggs sardou -- poached eggs atop artichoke bottoms with spinach and hollandaise sauce.

And in case that wasn't enough, Christina shared her cream cheese-stuffed French toast.

As you can imagine, after that there was nothing to do but walk and walk and walk. Which is what we did, through rain that was sometimes drizzly, sometimes quite strong. Mid-afternoon we took a break (and a cab with the cabbie listening to "Car Talk") up to the Garden District. It was time to try a Pimm's Cup, a popular New Orleans drink, at the Columns Hotel.

We enjoyed the relaxed setting and the beautiful views inside and out.

That's a streetcar not named Desire. We didn't grab it right away, preferring to walk some more first. Our trek took us past one of New Orleans' famous above ground cemeteries. The cloudy sky made it look even eerier.

We wandered back to St. Charles and picked up the streetcar to head back to the hotel.

It was a fun ride followed by a this-is-getting-harder walk. Once back to the hotel we took off our wet shoes (David dried his with his hair dryer -- they were so wet they were squishing out water as he walked), put our feet up for a bit, and figured out dinner strategy.

Too tired to wander far, we walked over to the Gumbo Store. There we sampled both seafood/okra gumbo and chicken/andouille sausage gumbo. David preferred the former. I preferred the latter. We also tried pasta with a tasso (bacon) and shrimp cream sauce. And a side of spinach.

All yummy and a nice, easy five-minute walk back to the hotel. We stopped at the car to check the mileage and pronounce David the winner for most miles covered by a companion -- 2000 miles in 6 days.

I'm of course sad as can be that we'll be splitting up tomorrow. We have such a good time together and I know that I'll be missing him like crazy. He's such a wonderful guy -- so funny, so bright, so caring, and so well grounded. I think I'm the most blessed person in the world to call him my son!

No More Texas

Today was mostly about getting from there to here. We traversed the rest of big ol' Texas (and it really is big when you slice through it horizontally) on our old standby, I-10, spending 9 hours (including stops) going from Austin to New Orleans.

Somehow, though, the drive didn't seem so onerous. In fact, given that David had woken me up at 8:30 so I was operating on about 5.5 hours of sleep (and he on even less, which he made up for with two hour plus naps along the way), we really seemed to sail along today. Partly, I think, that was due to having the top down, which makes the drive more fun. Certainly it wasn't due to the breathtaking scenery because there was hardly any.

Here's how the world looks when you're the passenger in the convertible in east Texas.

And here's how it feels.

If you ever look at I-10 on a map, you'll basically see a clean horizontal line that slices across the lower US. I've driven it Phoenix to LA, Phoenix to Tucson, Tucson to El Paso, El Paso to (almost) Austin, and (almost) Austin to New Orleans. We've been involved with I-10 for days.

This particular stretch was not so scenic, so I entertained myself when I wasn't driving by playing with the camera. I took pictures of transportation stuff, since those things caught my eye. Here's a variable toll sign in Houston.

And the abstract beauty of interlaced interstates, also in Houston.

Here's another shot of something neat (I think) that they do on the interstate in Texas. I've never seen that elsewhere and I'm totally impressed that I actually snagged this shot as we zipped through.

In addition to signs above indicating lanes and directions, they simply paint the appropriate interstate number on the actual lanes. So you know which lane to be in. Terribly clever, those Texans!

Here's something else that caught my eye in Houston.

Both David and I thought that was George Bush on the left end. But after some research I've learned that it's actually Austin, Houston, Lincoln and Washington and is entitled, "A Tribute to American Statesmanship." It's a rather jarring sight sitting right by the highway, Houston's own Mt. Rushmore moment.

Some other ways I entertained myself when I wasn't driving:

Took a nice shot of David while he was driving.

Noticed that my upper body has gotten quite suntanned and I now look like I am two different races (that's my hand on my leg).

And snapped the requisite photo of us in the car zooming down the highway.

I even took some photos of particularly unsightly spots and didn't even try to make them look good.

At one point when I was driving, the road coursed through the Atchafalaya swamp. I can't share photos because they're on David's phone and I don't have access to that right now. But after writing all about how it was built (for the website we designed for Federal Highway), it was pretty darn neat to travel that 18-mile span.

I will point out that the terrain has transformed yet again. No more hills or mountains dotted with scrub pine and sagebrush. Today was mostly flat stretches saturated once again with lots and lots of green color.

Were it not for how spacious it is (and my first glimpse of Spanish moss), you could be on the east coast. All the jaw dropping terrain of the west and southwest is now a memory.

And then, finally, we arrived in New Orleans. Our hotel is in the French Quarter, on a quiet and charming street. Here's a shot I snapped as the sun set and we waited for a cab.

We dined at Cochon, a Cajun-inspired shrine to pork. Oh what a delicious dinner we had! We started with grilled oysters (look at me having oysters two days in a row -- haven't I just completely transformed overnight!), some charcuterie that included BBQ pork shoulder, tomatoes and watermelon, and a shredded zucchini salad. Oh, and the chef sent over a complimentary terrain accompanied by horseradish coarse mustard and homemade pickles. Fortunately I didn't quite hear what it was before I tried it. Turned out to be head cheese and some other nasty components. Truth be told, it was actually quite delicious.

Here's a photo of the appetizer spread.

Our main courses were grouper and pork shoulder. That's about as descriptive as saying that in Paris there are art galleries. But by now I'm getting really tired and just can't recollect what made each one a tasty and perfect composition. I just know it was fantastic.

After dinner we walked over to Frenchmen Street. Lots of music blaring from lots of bars and sometimes right on the street. We ducked into a place, then were joined by some of David's NY friends (some of the ones we had met up with Marfa). The party moved on to another spot but by then I was ready to call it a night. And so it's to bed to prepare for a full day of checking out Nola tomorrow.

I [heart] Austin!

The good news: Turns out I'm not too old to rock 'n roll. The bad news: David says there's more to come in New Orleans.

Yesterday started off innocently enough. For the first time since tearing myself away from Doug's embracing hospitality, David and I savored coffee and a light breakfast by the hotel pool without pressing to get dressed.

You can see my computer there, the daily blog just completed and posted.

Continuing our leisurely morning, David and I indulged in a rambling morning stroll along Lady Bird Lake. Why it's called a "lake" we couldn't quite figure out; as far as we could tell it had way more in common with a river than anything else. But since Austin treated us so well, I'm more than willing to give the city the benefit of the doubt.

Don't we look relaxed? It's quite the popular spot and there were lots of avid joggers, walkers, and dog owners for company. There were also several interesting distractions. First was the parcourse area, where David performed quite admirably.

Then came a random encounter with a quite large goose, who accosted us begging for food. Reminded me of the homeless folks who come up to your car begging at intersections.

At some point along our walk, we decided to stock up on car snacks at the Mothership—a.k.a. the original Whole Foods. It was truly the religious experience of the trip.

The store is a HUGE paean to gustatory satisfaction (and WAY larger than its Rockville progeny). Not to mention its artistic merit, as this still life of (some, not all) tomatoes shows.

Of course we bought far more than we intended, which assures us that, whatever Gulf disaster may strike next, we are well provisioned.

We toted our goodies back to the hotel which, we figure, put us at about 3.5 miles of walking for the morning. I can't begin to express how good it felt to be in workout clothes for 4+ hours!

Changing into something a wee bit more respectable, we walked across the bridge to another part of town for lunch.

We had seen Perla's the night before and David thought their oysters would be a perfect lunch. I liked the idea of sitting and being misted nonstop!

Our waitress was a recently minted MFA sculptor named Dawn. Fresh faced, funny, and full of good food advice, we put ourselves in her hands. It was a banner day for me -- first time I've ever tried oysters (not bad, almost even delectable), octopus (after being assured over and over that it wouldn't be rubbery, which turned out to be true), and five cocktails at lunch.

That's a snap of our fried green tomatoes with crab Louis. And here's a snap of Dawn providing stellar customer service. It was all perfect.

Having wiled away most of the day in sybaritic delights, we returned to the hotel to shower and get ready for the evening. But first, we stopped off at the pool and dangled our feet in the water. What we had expected would be a five minute stop turned into nearly an hour when David rescued an errant pigeon that was helplessly flapping its wings and trying to extricate itself from the pool. Once on land, it was too wet to fly, and sat helplessly in our hands.

David repeatedly tried to get it going, but the bird was quite simply moribund.

Eventually David set it by a tree and off we went, hoping it would be gone by morning. We had 9PM reservations at La Condesa, a restaurant that deserves top billing on your Austin itinerary. We had thought no place could top Perla's. We were wrong! Overwhelmed by how delicious and interesting every menu item sounded, we put ourselves in our waiter's hands. He did not disappoint. The high point was the entree, described on the menu as spicy guava-glazed ribs pork ribs, sweet plantains, pickled onion, queso fresco, salsa verde and cilantro. To die for and not at all captured in this photo!

And then we were off to the Broken Spoke for some two-steppin'.

What a great scene! I taught David how to two step (my old days at the Junction coming back to me) and we laughed as we managed to navigate the heavy traffic on the dance floor. We hooked up with two young ladies we had met in Marfa; around 12:30, Dawn, our waitress from Perla's, joined us as well. (That David! He can amass a harem in a matter of minutes!)

Once we'd closed down the Broken Spoke, we headed to another club, this one pounding out the techno beat. I tried to beg off but I think the "kids" loved the idea of someone so completely out of place joining their festivities. While perhaps the least flattering picture ever taken, this photo of David and me gives you an idea of what I thought of the placehow we were faring by 2AM.

I think my graying hair grew an inch from the experience!

Dawn dropped us at the hotel, at which point I headed up to bed. I don't know what else went on, only that for the kids the party was just getting started. Not sure if David had slept or not when he woke me up at 8:30 to get on the road.

And now, groggy and fighting a not unpleasant headache, we're packing up to head to New Orleans today. Wish me luck!

PS - David found the bird in the exact same spot this morning. Bummed, he walked over to see how it was doing, at which point it flew away.