Day 9 - Vicksburg to New Orleans

Today didn't start well but so you don't get too stressed out while reading the first bit of the day I'll tell you now that we survived.

We were woken at 6am by thunder and lightening, a lot of thunder and lightening. It was so bad that we put the weather channel on and we discovered that there was a Tornado warning. Suddenly the weather report muted and it started beeping and repeating "tornado in your area, take cover immediately". We basically shit ourselves. Then there was a power cut and we were plunged into darkness. Luckily there was emergency lighting in the communal areas so all the guests hung out together in the lobby near our room cos we were in the basement. The power eventually came back on but the storm continued.

We mingled with the other guests while we were waiting, they seemed more concerned with whether breakfast would be ok. The idea of mingling with the other guests filled me with dread before our trip but it was actually quite nice. Breakfast was back on so we trooped into the dining room for a comically formal 3 course breakfast. There was freshly squeezed oj and coffee with a glass teacup of fruit salad for starter, then the main was a dainty portion of cheese grits, bacon, quiche and a wee slice of orange with a fresh biscuit on the side. The third course was a slice of pecan chocolate cake and by that time we were stuffed. The weird thing during breakfast was that all the other guests had weather alerts set up on their phones (apparently this is normal down here) and people's phones kept going off with tornado and storm warnings, it was pretty creepy. Apparently this is how most of them had been woken up this morning.

After breakfast we had a guided tour of the house where we learned all about the history of the house and it's occupants. It was a hospital during the American Civil War and there was still some blood stains on the ballroom floor! The tour was great but told with a bit of a confederate slant.

After the tour we went back to the room to watch more of the weather channel, there was still storm warnings all over the state but we decided to push on with the long drive to New Orleans.

As we hit the road there was still frequent lightening overhead but it seemed ok overall. There were a lot of trees down on the road, most of them had been cleared already but we had to go a diversion at one point. We were happy to get onto the interstate.

The drive down wasn't too bad, there were periods of wild rain but it didn't last. The landscape was completely different from yesterday, super green and lots of ups and downs. After a few hours we stopped for a quick lunch at Sonic, we both got a meal deal with chicken tenders, tots, an onion ring and toast. It was good but we couldn't finish it, we could have probably shared one meal. Once we were back on the road it was plain sailing all the way to New Orleans. The last 30 miles or so were really cool as the road was basically a bridge over the swamp, it looked amazing.

Soon we were in New Orleans driving through street after street of beautiful Southern mansions. We're not staying in town but near Magazine Street next to the Garden District. Our air bnb is beautiful and only 2 blocks from Magazine St which has loads of shops, bars and restaurants. Once we dumped our stuff we headed out to see the area. The weather was still forecasting potential storms so we weren't sure if the weather would break but it stayed dry all night thankfully.

After a bit of a wander we went and sat outside a coffee shop and I had an iced coffee and k had a disgusting almond cream soda (she loved it). We sat there for a while watching the world going by then went to the supermarket to pick up some bits for the apartment. We dropped the shopping off then went to Sake Cafe for a Japanese dinner. It was a really delicious meal, it was nice not to eat "American"  food. We shared some avocado sushi that was so delicious that we ordered another portion straight away. We also shared some pork gyoza which were also great. Then K had a thai beef salad and I had a "side portion" of chicken pad thai. Everything was really delicious and the whole thing only came to $37 even though it was quite a fancy place. I imagine that things will get a whole lot more expensive when we head down to the French Quarter tomorrow. I've really enjoyed getting neighbourhood air bnbs rather than staying in city centre hotels.

When we got back we discovered that the TV has Netflix built in so we logged on to the joy of American Netflix, we've not been able to get it since they blocked vpn use so we might just stay in for the next 3 days. We can finally watch the rest of the final season of Raising Hope!

I'm delighted to report that sunny skies are forecast for the rest of our time in the Big Easy so we enjoy the next few days without worrying about blowing away.

Also, we've now done 8 states in 8 days, high five everyone! We couldn't have done it without you.

Night y'all!