It’s almost 1 am here in Louisiana, so this might be a little short – I’m tired! This morning I got up early (even earlier than our normal 8 am wakeup time) to go to Southfork Ranch as soon as it opened. For those out there who happen to not be psychotic Dallas fans 11 years after its cancellation, Southfork was the location site for all the exterior scenes from the show, and is now a museum dedicated to it, and a convention center. Anyway Cindy passed on the chance to experience this in favor of sleep, but I went, bought souvenirs, of course, and saw the very tacky “museum” area with TVs running clips from the show, while the radio played God Blessed Texas over and over again. The walls are lined with magazine articles (some of which I remembered hanging in my room for many years!) and cast photos and whatnot. Very cheesy, but fun stuff. Then I got the tour, where the guide told me all about the “movie magic” they used to film the show, haha. (I should mention, by the way, that I was the only one there for this and got my own private tour) It was silly, but fun. After that experience, I picked up the sleeping one, and we began our long drive to New Orleans. Yucky traffic getting out of Texas. Bleh.

Once we got into Louisiana, things got more interesting. For one thing, gambling is legal in this state – I’m not sure how they set up the zoning laws though, because it’s nothing like Nevada… The “casinos” seem to all be small video poker houses attached to gas stations, like the food mart. Very odd.

Then we got further south and I got to see the swamps and the bayous. That was cool. Note to Sharon: I thought of Greta, lol.

Finally, around 9 pm we arrived in New Orleans. We got off the exit and briefly went the wrong way and found ourselves in the middle of what felt like south central LA. Note to Em: Think those neighborhoods in mid-Wilshire about 5 times worse… Shades of Tijuana too…Anyway we found our way and it’s amazing how you cross the street (Rampart, appropriately enough) and you’re suddenly in the tourist-friendly French Quarter. Again I’m reminded of the problems of unequal distribution of wealth in this country… but anyway back to happier things.

We got to our hotel, which is charming, and then went for a late dinner at a place called Nola, which is an Emeril Lagasse restaurant. I was a bit skeptical because it was one of those places where you have like 5 different servers and you never know who to ask for anything, and the water guy gets annoyed if you ask him for food and the waitress gets annoyed if you ask her for drinks, etc. (Yes, this is one of my many pet peeves because you never know who to complain to if they get your order wrong) But in spite of the weird service, the food was great. Really, some of the yummiest stuff we’d ever had. I got some kind of roasted chicken which came with a parmesan polenta which I was leery of because of the parmesan factor… but which actually was delicious and tasted neither like parmesan or polenta. Cindy got pork chops with really really good brown sugar basted sweet potatoes.

After dinner we strolled the streets and went to Café du Monde for hot chocolate and beignets. And I don’t care what anybody says… it’s funnel cake. A little dougier, but definitely funnel cake. Gotta love that powdered sugar!!!

I think that’s all. Now we’re back in the room… I gotta get some sleep.

By the way, I’ve put a few more pictures up on the photos page if you get a chance to look... :)