Day 43 - New Orleans

The drive through the Ozarks was gorgeous.  We made to New Orleans in time to enjoy the afternoon humidity.  Even though Houston is within 6 hours of New Orleans, I hadn’t been before.  It is a fun town.  I pictured it to be a dirty city with Bourbon Street being the only hot spot.  Boy was I wrong.  The central area of town is really big taking up several blocks.  We walked through old antique shops, fortune telling allies, and old churches.

We ate at a restaurant in the middle of town that offered authentic Cajun food.  I ordered the Creole red beans, rice and sausage, and Ryan had the jambalaya pasta.  We tried to walk off our food so we could also enjoy the world famous beignet.  Beignets are similar to the scones I grew up on.  My mom’s scones are one of my favorite meals served with honey butter, powdered sugar, and raspberry jam.  The beignets at Café Du Monde were amazing.   They were served warm and literally melted in our mouths. I could have eaten ten of these bad boys.  I exercised self-control and limited my intake to 3. 

After walking Bourbon street, which was like a red light district (keep your kids and husbands away at all costs) we contemplated driving to Houston or staying in New Orleans.  By this time it was probably 9:30pm.  The drive to Houston is a little over 5 hours, so we decided to make the late night drive rather than spend money on a hotel.  We figured we could make it to Houston by the latest 3am.

Around 1am while driving 75mph the car started to swerve uncontrollably across the road.  Ryan quickly woke up thinking I had fallen asleep at the wheel or something.  I gained control of the car and immediately pulled over to the shoulder.  I looked over out the rear view mirror to see smoke coming from the left hand side of our vehicle.  Our two-week-old tire blew out on us while we were on the freeway.  It was so scary. By this time we were in Texas just on the other side of Beaumont. 

In the pitch dark with few cars coming by, Ryan and I had to empty our luggage and belongings out of the trunk to get the spare tire out.  I have never changed a spare tire, so I had no idea what to do. Thankfully our prayers were answered and within 5 minutes a cop pulled behind us and offered to help Ryan with the change.  The officer was extremely nice and friendly.  30 minutes later we were back on the road.  The only bummer was that we couldn’t drive over 50mph on our spare.

We hit bad traffic, which was strange because it was 2am.  I thought it might be construction traffic.  One hour passed and we still hadn’t moved.  We turned off our car and lights.  Two hours passed and still no movement.  Hundreds of cars were sardines on the freeway with nowhere to go.  The opposite side of traffic was desolate; not a car was coming that direction either.   Cars started driving down the shoulders, going the wrong direction. 

After 3 hours, we called the Texas Department of Safety to learn there was a big accident involving hazardous materials that shut both sides of I-10. We decided to try what other cars had done and drive backwards down the tiny shoulder next to the concrete wall.  While driving very slow, we inched down the road.  Eventually, we couldn’t go any further and we had to cross a low dip filled with weeds and grass.  I thought to myself, there is no way; I’m taking my car down there.  Only big trucks were making the trip across.  After waiting several more minutes, I thought, we have no other choice, and our Honda did some off roading.  With the combination of only being able to drive 50 mph on our spare and having to use back roads, we made it to Houston a little after 8am.  It was brutal to say the least.