Sunny Louisiana

After making several stops in the Collegedale/Ooltewah area to pick up people and their luggage, pack the luggage (and the people) into the car, and get gas and a gallon of drinking water, we finally were on our way. Five people stuffed into a five-person Honda Accord. We chose to take Josh's car cause it's extremely good on gas. By the time we crossed into Louisiana very, very early Saturday morning, I had learned that the seats were not as good on humans' bottoms as the engine is on gas. But we made it to our campground alright, although quite tired, around 2 a.m. Collegedale time (which was 1 a.m. Louisiana time). We drove around and found the open area that the campground manager had told Jonathan we could pitch our tents when he'd called before we left and then got Josh's car stuck in the mud. Josh got out and pushed the front of the car while Jonathan steered. When Josh couldn't move the car on his own, Ty put on his shoes and went to help. The two of them managed to get the Honda unstuck and then we parked in front of a grassy knoll.

As we were unloading the tents and sleeping bags from the trunk, a man drove up on a quad, wanting to make sure we were supposed to be there. Jonathan told him that we had already called and made arrangements to check in later that morning and the man showed us the best places to camp before driving off. Jonathan set up his tent, while the rest of us wrestled to put the tent we'd borrowed from John together. Finally our camp was set up and we gratefully crawled into our sleeping bags for some well deserved rest, Bryn and I in Jonathan's two-man tent and the three boys in John's three-man one.

The next morning I woke up to a cold nose (the sign of a real night of camping) and the sun attempting to shine right through the tent fly. Before long I could hear stirring from the other tent and soon we were all up, making trips to a very under-construction bathroom not too far away to change. Jonathan found the granola and powdered soy milk he'd packed and we had a standing-up breakfast around the car eating the granola, rustic bread-wrapped-around-hunks-of-Prosage-sandwiches, and a couple oranges I'd brought along. After eating we packed away the sleeping bags and tents, loaded the car and drove off.

Bryn and Josh wanted to go to Baton Rouge, so we drove west for half an hour. Josh managed to find his way downtown and we parked at the Capitol building and looked around the grounds, enjoying the sun and taking pictures as gusts of wind whipped at our hair and clothing. Then we ventured inside the building where we were required to go through a mini metal-detector. An old man who had just put down his meat-filled sandwich, handed us a slightly food-encrusted brochure, and told us a little about the building. He mentioned that if we went back to the elevators we would see a glass case with information about the shooting of a former governor (I think) right at that very location way back in the 1930s. I went there first and managed to find what I believe was the hole in a column that the man had said still housed a bullet from that event. It was all very thrilling. Then we looked in at the senate room and the house of representatives room. Since I know about 0.1% about U.S. politics the only thing that really inspired me was the fancy marble floors and intricate ceilings and that sort of thing. We left the building, returned to the car, and tried to find our way to a bridge we had seen from the Capitol, but alas, it eluded us. Instead we got on the highway heading for New Orleans. Just on the outskirts of Baton Rouge, Josh pointed out a huge gathering of people, most of them wearing green. We figured it was an early St. Patrick's Day celebration since we decided that Mardi Gras was either long over or not yet arrived.

When we finally got the New Orleans, I was kind of disappointed. It's small. From everything I heard during and after the Hurricane Katrina disaster, I expected it to be a mega-metropolis. In reality it's population is about two Spokane's, not terribly large. We drove through the heart of the city, trying to find our way to the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway but somehow got on a different bridge instead. Ty used the GPS to figure out our way back across that bridge and to the causeway. Then we had to wait in a huge line of traffic while three roads converged into one. When it was finally our turn to go, we got to the causeway rather quickly and were soon driving our way across the middle of Lake Pontchartrain on a 24-mile bridge. It was neat to be on a highway going straight across the lake, especially since the causeway is apparently the longest bridge in the world.

After that thrilling adventure, the rest of our trip was rather ordinary. We drove all the way back to TN, only stopping for gas, bathroom breaks, Subway, and changing drivers, and got back to SAU around 2:30 a.m. Once all our stuff was unpacked, I fell into my bed, exhausted from the 16-hour round trip drive, but extremely satisfied at finally being able to say that I've been to all 50 U.S. states.

Note: I did, in fact, post this upon my return from our trip. I did not bring my computer along on the trip and even if I had, I couldn't have posted anyway since I wasn't in the vicinity of Wi-Fi.

100th post

Yes, today is my 100th post. I'm sure it will probably be some of your 100th posts soon as well since we all started these Creative Writing blogs at the end of August. Anyway, I just thought I'd mention it since it is a rather grand blog-ccasion.

And now on to something more interesting. Today my car surprised me; it stayed warm all day on every trip I made between my apartment and campus. My car has been having air circulation issues off and on all semester and even sometimes during last school year. At Spring Break when my siblings and I drove all over New England in my car we almost froze on several day trips because the fan wasn't working right. Driving around Boston just after a snow storm was probably the worst instance during the entire holiday. Actually, the first time I remember the fan not working right was driving home from school after my first year at Southern (May 2008). My air conditioning worked fine until we got to Missoula, Montana and then it just quit for some reason. Luckily my dad had flown down to help us drive home and he managed to figure out that a wire had come loose and reconnect it so that we had a nice cool car for the rest of the trip. So, lately I've just been enduring my car's cold air, foggy windshields, and freezing steering wheel as I drive back and forth from home to school. But today, for some reason, my fan decided to work and my car was cozy and warm all morning and afternoon. It was really nice for a change. I wonder how long it'll last.