Driving Across the Southern USA

March – April 2009

After leaving Miami Beach at the end of February, and then spending a couple weeks exploring Florida, we set off on a month-long driving trip across the southern USA.  Starting in Jacksonville, we planned to drive along Route 10 to Southern California and then take the Pacific Coast Highway north to San Francisco.  We would stop in New Orleans for ten days, principally to work on a restoration project in St. Bernard’s Parish with some friends I had met in Sri Lanka several years ago.  Other than that, we had no commitments and would take each day as it comes.

Just before leaving Florida’s panhandle, we stopped outside Pensacola for a day to work with Habitat for Humanity.  As the only two volunteers on a new construction project, we worked with two paid carpenters to partially frame a 3-bedroom house.  Cindy helped me position the studs and I spent my time cutting and nailing them together with the air gun.  It was good practice for our project in New Orleans, although I had forgotten how sore one could get after a day’s manual labor.

We left Milton at 3:30 PM and drove to Mobile, AL where we planned to stay for two nights.  We found a Comfort Inn and then went out to dinner at Olive Garden.  Wednesday morning we drove out to Bellingrath Gardens and spent a couple hours walking the grounds and home of one of the original ten franchisees of the Coca Cola Company.  From there, we drove back to Mobile and toured some of the downtown area.  I visited the local Family History Center in the afternoon, but was not able to find any of the information I was seeking.  We had barbeque at a local roadhouse for dinner Wednesday night.

Thursday we left Mobile and continued west on Route 10, through Mississippi to New Orleans where we arrived before noon.  We located the Melrose Mansion on Esplanade Avenue where we had made a reservation for the next three nights.  Our second floor room has fourteen-foot ceilings, a huge bathroom and a private porch.  After settling in, we walked two blocks to Bourbon Street and then through the French Quarter to the river where we had lunch near the Jax Brewery.  The Natchez Riverboat was preparing to depart, and we were treated to a steam calliope concert played from the sternwheeler.

We returned to the inn to prepare for dinner with Cindy’s friend Natalie whom she met while in school in France two years ago.  We drove over to her home near Tulane University and spent an hour with her and her friend David, before leaving for a private tour of the area.  We had a wonderful dinner at a small French restaurant before returning to our inn for the night.

Natalie came to the inn for breakfast Friday morning.  Afterwards, Cindy and I drove out to Kenner where Natalie had arranged for Cindy to see her dentist.  Dr. Roethele was very kind to see Cindy on his day off, and did not even charge her for the visit!  I spent a few hours at Harrah’s Friday afternoon, then returned to Melrose to meet Cindy and go out for dinner.  We walked over to Bourbon Street and took in the Friday night street show.  We ate crawfish at Desire Oyster Bar and Bistro in the Royal Sonesta Hotel and then went to Café Du Monde for beignets.

Saturday after breakfast, we walked through the French Quarter again to the Mississippi River and along the River Walk.  We watched an IMAX movie about hurricanes in the bayou, including some Katrina footage, and then took the Steamboat Natchez for a two-hour ride down the river.  The guide pointed out many of the historical features along the river as well as the major industrial sites.  We passed the abandoned aluminum smelter; the Domino Sugar refinery and the Exxon Mobil Refinery all in St. Bernard’s Parish were we would be working next week.    We also saw many ships loading and unloading cargo.  As one of only three operating steamships in the USA, the ship itself was interesting too.  We were able to tour the engine room and see the huge pistons driving the wheel.

We returned to the dock in the late afternoon and watched a street performance by the Dragon Masters, a combination of break-dancing and gymnastics, played to a crowd of several hundred tourists.

The other members of our group who we will be working with next week came by the inn at 6:30 for drinks, before we went out to dinner.  I had met Bob Howard in Sri Lanka four years ago when we both volunteered to go to Galle after the tsunami.  Bob brought Vicky who is also from Iowa and John from Boston.  The three of them have come to New Orleans each year for the last four to work on Katrina related relief.  As we were getting ready to leave the inn, a horse-drawn carriage with a footman pulled up outside.   The footman blew a trumpet summoning two female guests from the inn.  The ladies appeared dressed in 18^th century ball gowns.

We learned that they were en route to the Marie Antoinette Ball, a benefit for the New Orleans Ballet Association, which was being held this evening at the Museum of Art.  There was a photographer at the front gate of the inn to photograph their departure so we watched for a few minutes before we left for dinner.   At one point, one of the ladies’ dresses burst open and Cindy helped pin her back together.  The experience added a lot of flavor to our stay here at Melrose Mansion.  The five of us walked back to The French Quarter and found a restaurant where we ate dinner.  After a busy day, we were all tired and decided to return to the inn after dinner.

Sunday we slept in.  At 11:00 AM we packed, checked-out of our room, and drove 12 miles out to Violet in St. Bernard’s Parish where we found the Volunteer House in a neighborhood, which is partially restored.  Only the roofs of the homes on this street were visible in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.  Some, like the one where we will stay for the next week, have been completely reconstructed.  Others, like the house next door, are gutted, but remain otherwise untouched.  There are several concrete slabs on the street where houses have been totally washed away or torn down.

Bob, Vicky and John dropped off their suitcases just after noon and then left immediately for some more sightseeing.  Cindy and I went out to buy groceries at the Winn Dixie in Chalmette, eight miles away.  On the way home, we stopped by the elementary school, which formally housed Camp Hope.  The school is completely rebuilt and there is no sign of Camp Hope, which has obviously moved to another location.  The only sign of life at the school was a sheriff’s deputy sound asleep in his car, tucked out of sight in the back.

Cindy and I ate dinner at the house while the others ate at a Chinese restaurant and returned home around 8:00 PM.

Monday morning we ate breakfast and then drove to Chalmette where we checked in at the St. Bernard Project office.  There were about 40 volunteers there at 8:30 AM for a morning orientation.  We were split into groups and given our assignments for the day.  The five of us were assigned to a house on Jackson Boulevard about a mile away.  There were a couple Americorps people at the house when we got there and they told us what to do.

Anderson Cooper reported on progress in St. Bernard’s Parish last week and this house was featured in his report.  Understandably the house was crawling with volunteers during his broadcast.  Unfortunately, we spent the entire day taking up baseboards that had been installed incorrectly, and reinstalling them in the proper position.  The house has several other major corrections that are needed, so we will work somewhere else tomorrow so a professional contractor can evaluate how to proceed at this house.

On our second day, we drove back to the office in Chalmette to get a new work assignment.  The office is about nine miles away from where we are staying in Violet.  Our new project is back in Violet, only a block away from where we are living.  We met Daniel from Atlanta, our new Americorps manager who split us into two groups.  Cindy and I will hang doors while John, Vicky and Bob will trim out windows.

At noon we took a break to drive back to Chalmette and attend a ceremony celebrating the completion of the Maus Home.   St. Bernard Project co-founder Liz McCarthy, who was recently named CNN Hero of the Year, made a short speech welcoming the family back to their home.   Winn Dixie Supermarkets used the occasion to donate $60,000 to the organization.  About 150 volunteers attended the ceremony and partook in the cake before returning to work.

We continued working until about 4:00 PM, and then quit for the day.  We invited Daniel to come over for dinner and spend the time exchanging stories and learning more about the St. Bernard’s Project.

I enjoy making breakfast for our group each morning and today I made apple pancakes.  The road our house is on is being rebuilt and the construction crews arrive to start work at 7:00 AM.   We left an hour later and drove our cars over to the next street to have them available in the event we needed to go out.  We all were familiar with our assignments and launched right into the day.  Cindy and John caulked, Vicky and Bob worked on window casings and baseboards, while Daniel and I installed bi-fold doors and floor tile.  We returned to our house for lunch, and then continued working until 4:00 PM.  After showering, we drove to the Knights of Columbus Hall for a Volunteer Dinner hosted by Paul Perez, one of several local residents interested in expressing thanks to the people who have come to St. Bernard’s Parish to help with the recovery.  About 150 volunteers showed up for dinner after which we watched a video presentation about Paul Perez’s experiences during and after the flooding.

Thursday, we were back to work at 8:00 AM, hanging doors, caulking holes, installing trim and laying floor tile.  In the afternoon Jules Kane, the new owner of the house we are building came by to meet us and check on our progress.  Now in his mid-seventies, Kane was in the shrimp business when Hurricane Katrina hit on August 29, 2005.  Learn how the 3-day storm affected New Orleans.  His 65-foot shrimp boat washed up between two houses and was destroyed when one of the two property owners tried to push it back off his property with a bulldozer.  The trailer where he lived with his 58-year old girlfriend was also destroyed.  He went to El Paso to live with a relative for a couple months and then decided on the last day of eligibility to apply for temporary housing assistance back in St. Bernard’s Parish.  Just prior to leaving for the housing assistance interview, his girlfriend had a stroke.  He asked a neighbor to call 911 and stay with his girlfriend until the ambulance arrived, and then left for his interview. 

His temporary housing was approved.  His girlfriend’s stroke was serious, but she is back home now.  He bought the house and land we are working on as a shell for $25,000 six months ago.  Through the St. Bernard’s Project, we will construct a new interior using $12,000 in materials, which is done at no cost to him.  He should be able to move in, within a couple weeks.

There was a major thunderstorm Thursday night with spectacular lightening.  Flood warnings were posted throughout the area, which made many people nervous, but did not affect traffic.  We worked to complete most of the projects, which Daniel had given us and by the time we knocked off for the week, could see significant progress.  After showering, we met Daniel who gave us a quick tour of the levies in the Ninth Ward and where they failed.  We passed through Brad Pitt’s ‘Make it Right’ neighborhood where ten or so controversial homes are nearing completion.  Then we drove to another neighborhood to see the ‘Wedding Cake’ houses, built by a ship captain and survived the storm in tact.

We had a farewell dinner in Metairie at Café East, a Chinese restaurant.  Cindy worked through half the dinner to combine all the photos we took this week into a New Orleans slide show which she copied to a DVD to give to John who was leaving tonight to spend the weekend in New Orleans.  Daniel had written each of us a ‘thank-you’ note, which he presented and also gave us a box of grapefruit from Jules Kane, the homeowner.

Saturday morning we cleaned the house and left at 10:30 AM.  I wanted to visit some of the homes I had gutted when I last came to New Orleans.  We drove over to 19 Queens Court and saw that the huge home was still there and had been reconstructed.  Ten of us spent a full week carting debris from this 2-story brick home and I was glad to see that someone had benefited from our work.   There were two little girls playing on the balcony, but their parents were apparently still asleep so we did not go inside.  The four homes immediately adjacent to the brick house are completely gone.  We continued over to Cougar Street but I could not identify the house we worked on there.  On Benjamin Street, however, both Dave and Charlene were home at the first house we gutted.  Their home has also been completely remodeled, and they moved back in several months ago.  I instantly recognized the cabinets, flooring and trim and learned that his was one of the first houses that the St. Bernard Project completed.  More than 50% of the homes on the street are gone and Dave has an opportunity to purchase the lot next to him.  We reminisced for a half-hour before taking a couple photos and then leaving New Orleans.

We drove to Baton Rouge where we had lunch at a Cracker Barrel and then continued on to Lafayette.  We were tired of sleeping on the cots provided at the Volunteer house and decided we would stay at The Hilton in Lafayette.  The hotel was comfortable, but there was a beauty pageant in the ballroom and the hotel was full of children running in the halls.

Sunday morning we checked out and drove over to Vermilionville, a Cajun/Creole Heritage & Folk Life Park in Lafayette.  We ate a Cajun buffet luncheon and then spent a couple hours walking through a dozen buildings depicting life and cultures of the Attakapas area between 1765 and 1890.  There was a local musical group, which played Cajun music on Sunday afternoons that we watched for a while before leaving.  We drove four hours to Houston this afternoon, selecting a Comfort Suites in Northern Houston for the next couple nights.

TEXAS, NEW MEXICO & ARIZONA

We had planned to drive down to the Johnson Space Center during the day Monday, but were still tired from last week so decided to stay at the hotel and rest.  Monday night, we met up with Peter and Cheryl Rosa, an old high school buddy, who moved to Houston a couple years ago.  They live in a beautiful home in Tomball where we had a drink before going out to A Taste of Texas for a great meal.

On the last day of March we left Houston and drove three hours to Austin.  We visited the capital building where we found hundreds of school children on a field trip.  After an hour, we continued driving south to San Antonio where we checked into a Comfort Suites for two nights.  Most of the places of interest in San Antonio are clustered is a few blocks on downtown and our hotel is a little further away than I would have liked, but it will do.

We went over to town in the afternoon and walked part of the three-mile Riverwalk.  Situated one floor below street level, the 20-foot wide canal connects most of downtown San Antonio and rivals The Alamo as the most popular tourist attraction in Texas.  We decided to see an IMAX movie about the Alamo, which describes the 13-day siege and ultimate slaughter at the fort in 1836.  We had dinner at Café Ole, an Italian restaurant on the river, which was very nice until a bird crapped on our table.

Wednesday we went back to town and toured The Alamo.  The former mission in now a memorial to the men who died defending freedom and is run by the Daughters of the Republic of Texas.  While eating lunch at a Mexican restaurant, a trio came by to serenade us and I made their day when I discovered the smallest bill I had for a tip was $20.   We took a boat ride along the river in the afternoon, learning about the history of the buildings and river.  After resting in the hotel for a couple hours, we returned to the Riverwalk in the evening for dinner.

The next day we ate breakfast and then checked out of the hotel and continued driving west.  We decided to take a detour from Route 10 and headed up to Carlsbad, New Mexico to visit Carlsbad Caverns.  We drove 450 miles today, but the posted speed limit was 80 mph, and we crossed over into Mountain Time at the New Mexico border so we arrived at 2:30 PM.  Our first two choices for hotels were booked so we ended up at an Americas Best Value Inn, which is 18 miles from the National Park.  We ate dinner at Chili’s.

We left the hotel early and were among the first to get to the park.  There was a tour of the Left Hand Cave at 8:30 AM, which was sold-out on line, but I thought I might be able to get a couple tickets if I arrived early.  But they were strict to limit the group to fifteen people and they all showed-up as planned.  We arranged to take a different tour at 10:00 AM and then walked over to the cave’s natural entrance and hiked down 750 feet to the starting point of the tour.   We spent over four hours exploring the cave including a 90-minute guided walk with a park ranger.  The cavern is much more interesting than Mammoth Caverns which I visited a couple years ago.

In the afternoon we drove a few hours towards El Paso before cutting back east to have dinner at Cattlemen’s Steakhouse, which I had heard about on The Food Channel.  We arrived before the opened at 5:00 PM so we spent some time walking the grounds amongst the peacocks.  They have buffalo, longhorn cattle, horses and a variety of smaller animals in a zoo-like setting.  The steaks were good, but the corn seemed like it had been cooking for hours.

After dinner we drove to downtown El Paso where we had arranged to stay at an historic hotel, The Camino Real.  We took a room on the 15^th floor, away from the noise of the wedding that was taking place on the second floor, and facing northwest so we had a view of the sunset.  From the window near the elevator, we can see the long queue of cars lined up on the Mexican side of the boarder, waiting to get into the USA.

Saturday morning we ate breakfast at the hotel and then set out on foot to explore downtown El Paso.  The downtown historic district seems deserted but this is a weekend so perhaps it is livelier during the week.  We walked down to the Mexican boarder and then returned to the hotel.  We took our car and drove up to Franklin Mountains State Park where we took the Wyler Aerial Tramway to the top of Ranger Peak.  We met a park ranger on the summit who pointed out some of the features of the landscape, and then reprimanded us for going so close to the boarder.  I had heard about the drug wars going on in Juarez, but had no idea that they also crossed the boarder.  According to the ranger some 1600 people have been murdered in Juarez alone in the last year, and some of the violence has spilled over into El Paso.  So much for wandering around El Paso.

In the afternoon, we decided to drive up to White Sands National Monument in New Mexico.  It was almost 100 miles one way, but it was a good excuse to get out of town.  The sand is actually powdered gypsum, which is evaporated from a shallow lake.  The area comprises 275 square miles and moves forward about 30 feet each year.  After a half hour at the visitor center, we drove eight miles out through the dunes.  The wind is very strong and with the pure white gypsum drifting as high as 30 feet, it is exactly like being in a blizzard.  At the end of the road, we got out of the car and climbed one of the dunes to take some photos.  Nearby dunes had children with sleds sliding down the hills.  After ten minutes we returned to the car, completely covered with sand.  The grains are so fine they will not brush off.  The inside of our car, and everything in it, was covered with sand.  But the overall experience was good and it is a great place to visit.

We returned to El Paso via Las Cruces so we could pass the White Sands Missile Base.  As we neared El Paso, we also passed the biggest milk farm I have ever seen with tens of thousands of cows stretching for miles.

Sunday we checked-out of The Camino Real Hotel and continued our journey westward.  After 3 ½ hours we reached the cutoff for Tombstone,  Arizona and drove south another 25 miles to visit the historic western town.  Unbeknownst to us we arrived on the final day of the ‘Old West Founders Day Festival’ and the town was alive with activity.  Amongst the tourists, there were a couple hundred people dressed in 1890’s western garb, right down to the guns.  We got a schedule of events from the tourist information office and spent the afternoon watching gunfights, Indian dances, and demonstrations of rope handling, gun slinging and whip cracking.  Several stagecoaches offered people tours of the town, and the 30-second shootout at the OK Corral

was reenacted in 25 minutes to make it seem more like the $9 they charged to watch.  We ate lunch at the Crystal Palace Saloon, and were entertained by a somewhat out of place Elvis Impersonator.  After perusing several gift shops, we drove over to the Boothill Grave Yard and walked among the graves of people who mostly gained fame from being shot, or hanged.  We also learned about the

Chinese in Tombstone, particularly China Mary who controlled a Chinese population of almost 500 workers and Quong Kee who ran the Can Can Restaurant, considered to be the most popular in the Arizona Territory.

We continued driving to Tucson Sunday afternoon and checked into a Quality Inn on the south side of town so we could be close to the Pima Air Museum where we plan to visit Monday.  

The last time I was in Tucson, I learned about the Pima Air Museum and the tours they conduct through ‘the Boneyard’, a collection of almost 5000 military aircraft in various stages of storage, repair or demolition. Having spent an entire day at

the Pensacola Air Museum a couple weeks ago, we skipped the indoor exhibits and boarded the first bus over to the active Air Force Base, which encompasses the bone yard.  For over an hour, we drove through road after road of aircraft from B-1 bombers to little Tweets used for training.  A retired military officer who did a great job explaining the various activities narrated the tour.

Leaving the Air Museum, we drove northwest about 15 miles to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum.  It was a beautiful day and there was a long line to purchase tickets.  We spent a couple hours looking at the exhibits, which included various desert animals up to and including a mountain lion.   There were also flora exhibits and an underground section showing the geology of the area and an extensive collection of mineral samples.  We ate lunch at the Museum, and then left and took Route 8 west to Yuma, Arizona where we checked into a Clarion Suites for Monday night.

CALIFORNIA

After dropping off our suitcases, we went over to the seaport and boarded the Old Town Trolley tour to get a general idea of what is in San Diego.  The trolley goes around the downtown area, over the bridge to Coronado, back up through Balboa Park, over to Old San Diego, and past the waterfront.  We debarked at Old San Diego and spent a few hours wandering through the old buildings and tourist shops before catching the last trolley back to the hotel.  We decided there was so much to see in San Diego that we decided to stay an extra day.

We drove back to the Hyatt, and then walked to the seaport for lunch before continuing over to the USS Midway.  I had visited the aircraft carrier the last time I was in San Diego, but Cindy was excited to see it and I too thought it was worth a second visit.  We spent several hours walking the decks on a self-guided tour.  Topside, there were several areas where retired pilots who had actually flown from The Midway, gave presentations on what it was like to take-off and land on a carrier, how the catapult worked, and how planes moved around on the deck.  The Midway is permanently docked in San Diego as a museum now, but directly across the harbor on Carrier Row we were able to see two Nimitz Class aircraft carriers in port.

Thursday morning we checked out of the Hyatt and drove three hours through rush-hour traffic up to Hollywood.  We took two different bus tours of Hollywood, Beverly Hills and downtown Los Angeles seeing the Chinese Theatre, The Grove/Farmers Market, Walk of Fame, Route 66, Rodeo Drive, Paramount Studios, Universal City, Civic Center, Walt Disney Concert Hall, the historic movie theaters along Broadway, the Los Angeles Central Library and Staples Center. Rather than wait an hour to be driven back to our car, we quickly learned the subway system and returned to where we had parked in Hollywood on our own.  Before leaving, we watched the filming of a television show in the atrium of the shopping center at the Chinese Theater.  By 7:00 PM we had reached Santa Barbara where we checked into a Quality Inn for the night.

On Good Friday we checked out of the hotel and then drove over to Mission Santa Barbara.  We spent an hour on a self-guided tour of the large mission, which was established in 1786 and is known as the “Queen” of the Missions.  We took a scenic drive through the hills of Santa Barbara culminating at the Four Seasons Biltmore overlooking the Pacific.  Before leaving Santa Barbara we drove out onto Stearns Wharf where we visited some shops.  At noontime, we left and drove north 100 miles to San Luis Obispo where we ate lunch at a Chinese Restaurant and then checked into a Comfort Inn.

After resting for a few hours, we drove down to the historic district of San Luis Obispo.  We walked around for a bit, but were not dressed for the cold weather so after a quick viewing of the mission, we drove back to the other side of town and had dinner at The Apple Farm.

Saturday we drove north on Route 1 along the California coastline.  In San Simeon, we stopped to take a tour of Hearst Castle.  It was a beautiful day and the views from the estate were outstanding.  A few miles north we stopped to see about a thousand sea lions basking on the beach.  We ate lunch at Ragged Point, a half-hour north of the castle and then continued up the coast highway stopping at numerous viewpoints, my favorite of which was The Bixby Bridge.  There was considerable evidence of landslides that had recently been repaired.  We arrived in Carmel-by-the-Sea around 4:30 PM where we stopped for our final night.  We ate at a Chinese restaurant and spent a couple hours walking around the little town before returning to the hotel.

Sunday was Easter and our final day of this trip.  We left the hotel around 9:00 AM and continued up Route 1 to Monterey.  At one point on the two-lane road, an oncoming pickup truck had a cardboard box of drinking glasses come loose, which crashed into our windshield.  There was little room to maneuver, the glasses shattered against our car causing no damage, but providing considerable excitement for the morning.  At Monterey we stopped at the Aquarium where we spent several hours viewing the creatures, including an 11-pound lobster and a new exhibit about seahorses.  In the early afternoon, we returned to our car and drove the final 2 hours back to Marin County.

We’ll spend the next three weeks visiting family, celebrating my parents’ anniversary, and working around their house before heading out again in early May.

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