I love road trips. And I love having Road trip Attention Deficit Disorder (RADD). It's a real thing-- I saw it on the Discovery Health Channel (that I don't have...). Anywho....
Thursday (Feb. 16) we left after work. Jessica, Brianna, Ben and I got into the little white rental car and started driving south around 8pm. There was music, bad dancing, bad singing, and failed attempts to moon other drivers in the Chicago area.
To tell you the truth, the 9 hour drive to Nashville had seemed like a cake walk earlier in the day. After downing several bags of discounted Valentine's day candy and some intense car dancing, the sugar high wore off and left us with nothing but a sugar coma.....so we pulled over 4.5 hours into the madness, got a cheap room and passed out.
Friday (Feb. 17)
We got up from our cheap hotel and continued south towards Nashville, TN.Once we arrived, we checked into our [Hotwire.com-d] hotel room and washed off the protective layer of roadtrip film that forms on any trip over 4 hours.Then we scampered over to the Gaylord Opryland Hotel to find food and adventure. It's a pretty sweet hotel, and very very very very very easy to get lost in.... so we did.
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| indoor waterfall? get out |
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| I thought the floor had water on it. It sure didn't. |
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we sat like this on purpose...
very old ladies' club |
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| A horse, of course |
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| Ben played Guitar Hero in the arcade, and Bri played groupie |
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| Ben said I should live here, and I should |
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| Pretty fountain |
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| Then Brianna tried to drown me. I was legitimately terrified...she would do it. |
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| Back at the hotel, Brianna turned into the legendary "Branna Badger" |
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| A 3 person piggy back!! |
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| Dancing at Tootsie's |
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| Judging by Jessica's face, my singing wasn't so hot |
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| Brianna tried, but Ben didn't wanna dance to live country music. |
When we got our fill of the Gaylord and managed to get out within a relatively short amount of time, we made a quick rendezvous at our hotel and then headed to downtown Nashville, aka Broadway Street, and danced at world famous Tootsie's.
Saturday (Feb. 19) rolls around and Brianna, Ben and I head out on what should have been an 8 hour trip to New Orleans. However, when you have RADD, every wayside should be stopped at and every brown sign representing a park or natural attraction might as well be Disney World. So it should come as no surprise when we saw the sign for the
Jack Daniel's Distillery tour that we immediately got off the highway without hesitation [again] and drove an additional 45 minutes out of the way to check it out.
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| the natural well with all the natural water for the JD's |
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| cave of water! |
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| little mister jack daniels himself |
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| out in the [dry county] boonies |
I don't drink Jack Daniels, I'm not a fan of whiskey. But by the end of the tour, I was so hopped up on Tennessee pride and Tennessee whiskey love that I would have started my own distillery if given the chance. I suppose that's the only good part of Jack Daniels being in a dry county
(uum welcome to 2012, Prohibition ended awhile ago Lynchburg, TN).
Our plan for the night was to get about an hour outside of NOLA and spend the night so we could arrive early before any parades/traffic. Well scratch that. There we no hotels to be found anywhere in the surrounding area. Nothing. Zip. Zilch. None. So we kept driving and driving and driving until we were right outside of NOLA, where we found a nasty place with only a smoking room available and a king bed. So we wrapped ourselves in a protective cocoon of clothing and tried to sleep. Sleeping in the rental car in a Wendy's parking lot would have been classier than this joint. Daylight broke and all 3 of us sounded like we had smoked cigarettes all night. Sexy.
Sunday (Feb. 20)
We made it to New Orleans!! It was super early since we narrowly escaped an untimely second hand smoke death the night before. We parked and headed straight to
Cafe du Monde for beignets and coffee. I love that place.
Since it was still so early, we walked around for a bit and then went over to Canal Street to watch some parades. We ended up getting a TON of beads and trinkets. Ben's "must-keep-everything" attitude came out full force, and he was having a grand time collecting everything.
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Carrying our goodies back to the car...
I guess we might look like dirty, non-showered twins |
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| Ben walking down Canal |
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branners in white, and I in color
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That night, after checking into our room and such, we decided to go to Bourbon Street. We wanted to go on a balcony, and saw one that we could get on for a budget-friendly $10. Within 5 minutes of getting to the balcony, it is shut down for an hour to "re-vamp." Mmmmkay. Being as it is still early and it was only $10, we are fine with the news and figure we can walk around for an hour or so and then come back since they had given us snazzy wristbands. Here's where it gets interesting....
It had been decided that there should be a bathroom break. Brianna and I went to the Ladies' room, and Ben, being a man, went to the Men's room. Upon exiting the respective rooms, Ben got separated from us. Brianna and I walked outside, got in line for some frozen drinks next door, and rapid fire now......found Ben, had a bouncer invite us to a private balcony because we looked like twins, got to the private balcony, had an unlimited supply of beads to throw all night, and unlimited drinks. Party on, New Orleans.
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| balcony! |
Of course this is where things get hazy (blame it on the drinks). But apparently we were partying with some rich old guy who owns a suite at the Dallas Cowboys stadium, has private jets, and 2-3 bodyguards with him at all times, blah blah blah. If money impressed me at all...........instead, I debated with him why the Packers are truly America's team, and not the Cowboys. Then I threw some beads. Then I talked with one of the bouncers about why the Packers went 15-1 and lost in the first round of the playoffs. Then I found out one of the girls there was dating a Giants player. You can imagine my frustration. So then I had another drink and chucked some beads at the people packed like sardines below.
*Fun fact: On the way back from the balcony that night, Brianna decided she wanted a pizza. She stopped one of the pizza stand guys and asked if she could have a personal pan pizza for free. He gave her one, and instead of pulling the pieces apart, she ate the whole round thing as one giant piece on the walk back. From private balcony to walking with a free un-cut pizza all in one night
Monday (Feb. 20)
Easily summed up with: Slept all day. Got up and walked around after 5pm. Watched some parades Monday night. I got pounded with bags of beads thrown from floats because I was too busy trying to pay attention to everything else going on around me and not necessarily what was being thrown at my face full force.
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| some jazz musician statues... so I played guitar & Bri played piano |
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| Ben got a mango smoothie in a skull glass |
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| Bri & I found some cute men in uniform |
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| along the parade route |
Tuesday (Feb. 21)
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| early!! Canal St. before it got packed |
Mardi Gras Day!! More parades, and since we had caught up on so much sleep the day/night before, we were up early.
We watched the parades for awhile, then headed back to the hotel and hung out in the hot tub with Clay, a little troll doll that we had acquired following his rapid departure from a float.
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| hot tubbin' |
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| that's Clay... like Clay Matthews because of that hair |
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Ben and Clay floating in the hot tub...
which looks like an enormous toilet here |
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a guy wanted his picture with "the twins"
so we charged him a dollar |
Wednesday (Feb. 22)
We leave NOLA at 6am. We drive, stopping only for gas, food, and bathroom. No more RADD. There is however, still a good deal of car dancing, singing, stories, and playing the alphabet game (you MUST yell each letter as you find it). We arrived in Milwaukee, WI at about 9:45pm. From there, Brianna drove home and Ben and I were smothered in our sleep by two clingy and angry black kitties.
Welcome home :)
xoxo, b
