Tuesday, April 19, 2022. Houston to New Orleans

Tuesday, April 19, 2022. Houston to New Orleans

We went to bed around 11pm.  While in bed, Janet asked “What’s that red light?”.  Ben wasn’t sure, so he got out of bed and was surprised to see it was the tail lights of a truck backing a huge RV within 8 feet of our RV at midnight.  It was exactly like the one that had parked about 40’ from us earlier in the day- a huge triple axle toy hauler with multiple slides on both sides- so Ben couldn’t figure out why that person would decide to move it so close to us and so late at night.  Then, with the giant 5th wheeler 8’ from our rig, they started up their generator, even though the temperatures outside were in the mid 70’s and there was no need for air conditioning.  That was the straw that broke the camel’s back.  Ben got dressed and went out to see what the heck was going on.  It turned out that it wasn’t the same trailer, but it’s twin, driven by someone who presumably was friends of the other trailer’s owner, and who apparently were coordinating on a mutual trip. 

That didn’t really explain why out of a more than half acre parking lot, this guy decided to park within 8’ of our rig, but it was situated between the first trailer and our rig.  He said he thought that was the only area where RV’s were allowed when Ben asked.  Ben had to point out that not only was it inconsiderate to park the rig so close to ours, and so late at night, but that it was the very height of inconsideration to then fire up their huge generator to power their 3 air conditioners, even though there was no need for air conditioning.  Perhaps, to his credit, the guy, who was probably in his early 30’s, apologized and said he had to trouble shoot some appliances and promised he’d shut down the generator as soon as he had figured out the problem.  Ben gave him a bit of education on RV etiquette, not that it would help us tonight, but that perhaps this guy would think twice before being such an inconsiderate jerk in the future.  It’s hard to even conceive of how some people can have so little consideration for people around them, but perhaps narcissistic sociopathic behavior has become the new norm.

Ben retreated back into the RV, but the guy continued to run his generator for another 20 minutes.  At that point, Ben was weighing the risks of moving our rig, which had been parked very close to some trees with branches touching the slide, versus spending another sleepless night.  Fortunately, as Ben was about to rummage about for lopping shears to cut the tree branches that were blocking the slide so that we could drive forward, they guy did shut down his generator.  It was 12:30am.  

We got up at 8:30am, closed up our slide and left the Equal Parts Brewery parking lot.  There was no sign of activity in the two huge trailers other than the first guy’s trailer was running it’s generator.  

One notable thing about driving in Texas, aside from the high speed limits, is the fact that traffic lights are hung horizontally so that red lights are on the left and green lights are on the right.  During the day, it is all too easy to nearly overlook the traffic lights until you get. Used to them.

The drive from Houston to New Orleans was quite a contrast to the drive from Central Texas to Houston in that the terrain was completely flat, and the pretty colorful Texas wild flowers were soon replaced by tall thistles, swamps and bayou.  Long stretches of I-10 through Louisiana are elevated on concrete pylons over the swamps.  It was a bit surprising to drive past a couple spots along the freeway at 75mph where a handful of trucks would be parked and guys were fishing a spot just off the freeway.  You have to wonder how they ever discovered those fishing holes.  

Traffic heading out of Houston wasn’t bad, but we sure were glad we weren’t headed into the city because traffic that direction was terrible.  Through most of eastern Texas, traffic was light, but after crossing into Louisiana, traffic became heavy around the towns.  We took a bathroom break and breakfast at a Waffle House in Louisiana.  The place was terribly run down, but the waitress was very attentive and the food was cheap.  We were seated at a tiny booth right under the Hostesses podium, so Ben felt like she was looking over his shoulder the entire time, and anyone checking out had to pass their check and money over Ben’s shoulder.  To add to the discomfort, a pink haired tattooed waitress had made selections of head banger rock music that were played at very loud volume, seemingly in an attempt to drive customers out of the dining room.  Janet enjoyed her breakfast, but between the rude camper next door and the head banger breakfast serenade, Ben was in a bit of a dark mood.

We made a fuel stop at the Costco in Lafayette.  The Costco Fuel pumps were located a block away from the actual warehouse, causing us to completely circle the block the warehouse was on before a search on Google Maps revealed it to be on the next block where a huge Dick’s Sporting Goods was located.  We filled up with 18.5 gal @$4.659/gal with 19253 miles on the odometer (13mpg).  

At one point, Apple Maps directed us to a detour around a several mile backup where it appeared the freeway was entirely closed.  When we merged back to I-10, there was absolutely no traffic coming down from that direction.  

We crossed over the Mississippi- and it’s easy to see why it’s “The Big Muddy”.  

When we got into New Orleans, the traffic again got to be very heavy.  As we neared our destination, the Faubourg Brewing company, we got off the freeway and drove through the industrial area, which was delightfully free of traffic.  The brewery only serves food on weekends, so we had dinner in the RV (Costco ribs and Waffle House waffles) before hitting the tap room for a sample of their brews.   The weather was perfect with temperatures in the 70’s and only whisps of high altitude clouds.  No dangerous storms on the horizon.  The parking lot at the Faubourg Brewery is huge, as is the brewery.  There were two other RV’s already parked- a green “schoolie” (converted school bus) and a huge class C (probably 35’).  

There is a rail spur that runs in front of the building that probably delivers hops and barley by the rail car load.  They do have quite a selection of beers  in the tap room, and they also have trivia nights, although not on Tuesdays.  We were able to scan lots of OTA channels on the TV, so Ben got treated to Nora O’Donnell’s Evening CBS newscast.  It seems the news stories haven’t changed (War in Ukraine, police shooting, mall or school shootings), so being on the road, we haven’t been missing out on too much.