Expedition to the Mysterious Grocery Store

Today we went on a drive--we got on Highway 23 South, and drove through Plaquemines Parish along the Mississippi River. Well, we couldn't actually see the river, but we could see the upper halves of ships looming up over the levee. Everything was green, all the houses were on pilings, and there were egrets everywhere. We kind of hoped for a backwoods sandwich place to appear, but there was none, so after about an hour we turned around for home. On the way, we managed to find an Asian supermarket that had eluded us in the past: Hong Kong Market. They had the best produce we've found in Louisiana so far (the cheapest too), and good deals on staples like rice noodles and beans. They also had fun weird things--lotus seeds, "fish balls", dragonfruit, black fungus. There was a seaweed aisle. There was a selection of shrine cabinets. There was a $1300 bottle of cognac on a very high shelf. We bought so many groceries. We spent about the same amount as we did at Whole Foods last week, but we got three times as much food. Hong Kong Market forever!

Random Announcements

Last time I went on a road trip I sorta abandoned the blog afterwards... now, though, I'm kind of feeling like keeping it up for a while. So I'm going to. If anyone's still showing this to their kids, I am not going to morph into Perez Hilton or anything, but posts from here on out may contain the occasional swear or political reference. So, you know, just look it over first... Also, I have a really bad cold. Yesterday, my chest was so congested I was actually starting to worry about having to go to the hospital, but I am much better today. In the sense that I am now just incredibly snuffly and tired and gross, and have to stay in our dank little apartment when I really want to go do things. I never want cable TV until I'm sick, and then I want it so bad. On the plus side, I am now reading To Kill a Mockingbird, which I had never read before, and it's so awesome! I know everyone else already knew that. I apologize for the bright red, crazy floating type and will try not to do that again... except when I feel like it.

Still no good tourist pictures

Yeah... apparently even though I barely technically "live here" yet (though I did have some tourists ask me for directions Saturday night, and was able to give them) I have gotten all blase or something, and failed to take any fancy New Orleans pictures. I went out to the Krewe de Vue parade on Saturday (that's the naughty, very local one), but I didn't take pictures. In my defense, the only camera I have is heavy, rather expensive, and of great sentimental value, and I knew I'd be drinking some booze. Instead of Krewe de Vue, here are: moody Southern decay; our walkway (with mysterious ghost bicycle); and one of my dolls wearing Mardi Gras beads from the parade. We picked those up and brought them home, but now I'm thinking of going to a parade carrying her, topless, (but me fully clothed) and seeing if people give her beads.

We're here!

Hooray, New Orleans! No pictures yet due to computer/internet hassles at the new apartment, but we're here! It is most excellent to not be driving anymore! The weather is cold and rainy, but not snowing, thankfully. I will write a proper post soon--I just wanted to let people know that we arrived safely.

Natchitoches, LA

We made it to Louisiana! We're in Nachitoches, an incredibly beautiful town that we just drove around in looking for the Pizza Hut, like total effing Philistines. (We were really tired.) Tomorrow we will go actually look at Natchitoches, which is pronounced Nack-a-tesh, more or less. I just found out that Steel Magnolias, a movie I've loved since I was a kid, was filmed here. Bonus points! It warmed up a lot over the weekend, and most of the snow melted. We might get more later in the week. But we'll be in NOLA by then! Edit: here are some pictures I found on my camera. My friend Christine (a local) says it is pronounced "Nagadish".

All better in Fort Worth

This is in Texas! Cisco, on 1-20, to be exact. I took this picture while Eran was getting what he described as "a mayonnaise sandwich". I repeat, Texas! Apparently on Thursday it was colder here than in Alaska that same day. Below, a big rig that slid off the road. Check out these pictures! This is the melting slushy snow that's all over Texas. Today was much less crazy than yesterday. It was much warmer this morning, and we drove for a couple of hours and got to Ft. Worth, where we are staying with our friends Nina and Mark and their cute kid. Now, instead of skating our car over scary ice patches in the cold, cold night, we are checking our email and making candy in the warm apartment. Which is better. It looks like we're going to hang out here tomorrow--it's going to snow, and also it's Super Bowl Sunday, which is a recipe for awful traffic--and then continue on Monday. We can make it from Ft. Worth to NOLA in one long day, or two easy days; we'll see how things go.

Craziness in Abilene

We drove for 8 hours today and everything was fine... and then we got off the highway in Abilene, and thus began the insanity. Ice and snow everywhere! We could not find our hotel! As the temperature dropped and the ice thickened, and we had driven around and around for 45 minutes, we just stopped at the first place we could find and booked a room. The girl at the counter was both actually pretty and actually nice, but to us she appeared as a beautiful and radiant angel. We are safe now, but hungry, as nothing is open. Memo to selves, no more driving at night. Postscript, Feb 20th: still have not gotten a refund from the hotel that we were supposed to stay at... you know, the one we couldn't get to because of the NATURAL DISASTER. The one we tried to reach, only to get bored, snotty, wrong directions from the girl at the desk, who literally didn't care at all that we were lost in an ice storm, and then hung up on us. My longtime friends will tell you that I am normally a huge pansy about customer service (like, I usually won't send it back if the waitress screws up my order, I'll just eat it) but you know what? I called the hotel and I tried my best to get her fired. I mean, leaving the tomatoes on is one thing.