Time to go across the country! On this leg, we are going westbound across the southern states from Florida to New Mexico!
I’ll also post pics on my Instagram (adventures_by_anne), so follow along there too.
Day 8
We’re leaving Cabana Bay and heading west for our next adventure! Come along!
We head north to Interstate 10 to go westward. That took forever. Florida is a long state. Sheesh!
Before we left Florida, we had to stop for some Cuban sandwiches and treats. Sooo good!
We were driving for so long, the sun started to set and we were still not out of Florida! It was a gorgeous sunset though!
Finally!!!
Bye, Florida. Thanks for a great trip!
Now, into Alabama we go to continue the road trip!
Of course, we had to make another Buc-ees stop when we came across one in Alabama! At this point, it was getting too dark to take many pics. You’ll just have to picture us driving in the dark. LoL! We just continued on I-10 westbound.
We eventually crossed into Mississippi! It was super foggy here while we were passing thru, and super dark! We crossed over the Mississippi River but couldn’t even see it from the bridge, it was that dark. No street lights.
Finally, we enter Louisiana and get to New Orleans, our stop for tonight! We’ll explore more tomorrow in the daylight.
Our hotel for the night, The Brakeman, was just a few blocks from The French Quarter area in a renovated old train station. It was so cool!
There is even a small museum of New Orleans history in the lobby just for hotel guests, and the front desk guy gave us a personal tour and filled us in on eeeverything. We ended up talking to him for almost 2 hours before making it up to our room, which he personally took us to as well! Super nice guy and so knowledgeable!
I definitely recommend this place if you want a cool hotel away from the bustle of The French Quarter but close enough to walk to it.
We finally make it up to the room, which is probably the coolest room we’ve ever been in! Apparently, it use to be the big corner office of the train station manager!
Everything felt new, modern, and clean, but you still see the charm and character of the old train station. The bricks and wood are real, some reclaimed. Very neat!
Before we end the night, we had to get some New Orleans food, of course!
We tried a sampling of all the recommended specialties – fried oyster po boy, crawfish etouffee, seafood gumbo, and sausage and rice. All very good!!
Stuffed, it was time for bed!
We’ll explore The French Quarter more tomorrow.
Good night!
Day 9
The next morning, we go exploring around The French Quarter area. It was about 9am, so there weren’t many folks out yet, but the stores were starting to open.
We came across the Cathedral of St Louis, which was open for visitors, so we looked around. Very beautiful!
Across from the cathedral is a quaint park called Jackson Square, which is the site of the Louisiana Purchase!
Finally, we make it to our destination, Cafe Du Monde, for their iconic biegnets and coffee. Yum!!!
With our bellies full of biegnets, we start heading out of Louisiana and head towards Texas.
It took almost all afternoon to get through Louisiana. We saw some cool skies though along the way.
We finally make it to Texas!
Soon, the sun started to set already. Yet another gorgeous sunset.
Even Buc-ee’s is getting in on the sunset.
Quick pit stop only! Our fourth Buc-ee’s on this road trip!
What we were really aiming for tonight was our first Texas BBQ! We had to stop in Houston for dinner. Yum!!
Whoa! We ran into our first In-n-Out, just west of Houston! Didn’t realize there was one this far east of California.
So we couldn’t resist, we had to split one burger for now, just to get a little taste…since we just ate bbq. There will be more as we go west. Don’t you worry. LoL
We finally reach our hotel for the night in San Antonio, the Best Western Alamo. Guess where we’re going tomorrow?
There were several kittens in the parking lot!
Day 10
The next morning, we arrived bright and early for our Alamo entry time. We got in the first time slot. You need to get a free timed ticket ahead of time from their website if you plan to go.
The main Alamo building was interesting to see, especially how they converted the church into a fortress essentially. You can picture how they stood their ground in such a small building.
However, make sure to visit the grounds around the main church building as well. They did a great job with signage to tell the story of the Alamo and what happened there.
Once we finished our Alamo visit, we started on a veeeery long drive all the way to the west end of Texas and up to New Mexico for tonight. Here are some pics of our drive out of San Antonio.
For lunch, we found a cute little place along the way for Mexican food. Sooooo good!
We think we came upon another road side attraction! Not sure if it was just closed that day or abandoned, but it was surrounded by nothingness. It seemed to be an old Auto Museum with neat cars still inside though.
We continue the drive. As we head farther west in Texas, the landscape changed to mostly flatlands with not much visible civilization. Saw lots of oil drilling though.
And we’re stiiiiiill driving…
It’s almost sunset now.
Another gorgeous sunset as we continue driving west in Texas.
We still had a few hours of driving but eventually, we finally cross over into New Mexico and a pretty dusk turns into darkness.
For dinner, we picked up food at a Mexican food truck that had good reviews near our hotel in Whites City, New Mexico.
It’s been a long day of driving, so we just head to the hotel a few minutes away and eat n chill for the night there.
Good night!
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Adventures By Anne 