Duck's Deductions

Road Trip 2019 - Day 3

Day 3 dawned and we were off on our next adventure. The first stop...breakfast! I mean it is the most important meal of the day, right? We actually ended up finding a small french bakery where we had DELICIOUS pastries!!! We stayed near the Galleria and went to that area to see a random waterfall wall. Why you ask? Because it sounded cool and who doesn't love random things?

Natalie had to get her mocha in the morning as always!

The waterfall wall!

Taa-daa!!!

Well, the waterfall wall was definitely random, but nifty. We took it in for a good 5, maybe 10, minutes and then we were off to the downtown area to see Houston's aquarium. Instead of hopping back on the interstate we decided to take some city roads which was a good decision: 1) even though we had been in Houston for less than a day, we had already figured out that I-610 is ALWAYS backed up with traffic. 2) You get to see cool parts of the city when staying off the interstate.

Quick note about Houston, it is a nice city. Like really nice. Definitely one of the nicest cities I've been to. You can definitely tell that there is money in the area.

Houston's Downtown Aquarium

Meet my new boyfriend!

Look, another random waterfall wall. Apparently that is popular in Houston

The Aquarium was small, which we knew, but still enjoyable to walk through. The head scratchier about the aquarium is that its biggest draw is....wait for it....wait for it...wait for it...white tigers!!! Yeah, I don't understand why an aquarium has white tigers...but cool!

I also found my new home at the aquarium.

Wait, is it alive?

Oh good! It was just napping!

Unfortunately, only one of the four tigers they had was on exhibit.

After the aquarium, we hopped onto I-10 and headed towards Pensacola, FL, which unfortunately meant going through Louisiana again. We did find a candy store that claimed to have the world's largest gummy bear, which you could take home for only $150. Pass. I mean, I love gummy bears, but not that much.

Natalie driving through Louisiana...actually that face was because I was taking her picture, AGAIN!

We decided to drive through New Orleans since neither one of us had been there. With our impeccable timing, we hit New Orleans at rush hour (we had that great timing for most cities). Yay! And unlike normal people, instead of go straight through New Orleans and then going back up, we decided to circle New Orleans and then head back west some so we could catch the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway, which is the longest bridge over water at 23.83 miles long. Yep, we are crazy!

New Orleans

Superdome...we keep collecting stadiums.

Lake Pontchartrain Causeway

Our snack on the causeway...Dunkin Donuts

This detour took a little longer than we were hoping, so by the time we got back to Mississippi it was dark and we decided to skip looking for the lunar exhibit. Too bad! So Sad! But alas and alack, we made it to Pensacola.

"That's All Folks!"

Road Trip 2019 - Day 2

Day 2 dawned nice and beautiful and we hit the road once again. I was super happy because I kept seeing signs like the one below.

PASCAGOULA!!!!! No, that was not our next destination, just a town that we drove through, but it still made me super excited because it is such a great name! PASCAGOULA! PASCAGOULA! PASCAGOULA! Okay, I should explain why I love that name so much...it is all Hart of Dixie's fault. In season three, they mention Pascagoula and the name just stuck as being awesome! Not a great explanation, but it is what it is. This trip also taught me that Pascagoula is located in Mississippi, not Alabama. Who knew?!?!?

In Mississippi, we made sure to stop at Exit 2 because there is a lunar lander exhibit at the Welcome Center. Right next to the Welcome Center is the Infinity Science Center, so we pulled into the parking lot to take a quick peek and saw the Apollo 19 Saturn V first stage rocket. That turned out to be a good thing, because we couldn't even find the lunar exhibit at the Welcome Center!!!! And it shouldn't be that hard to find because it is 30 feet tall!!!! There was some construction/work going on in part of the lot, and I think that is where the exhibit is located. :( :( :( :( :(

Apollo 19 Saturn V first stage rocket

We needed to keep driving, so we decided to try and find the lunar exhibit again when we went back through the other way. Next up - Louisiana!

Louisiana was fun to drive through in the fact that it was mostly bridges over swamp land. Not so fun to drive in because drivers didn't understand the concept of "KEEP RIGHT EXCEPT TO PASS". People just loved to sit in the fast lane. UGH!

Yep, another bridge!

This is basically the view from I-10 throughout the state.

Another not-so-great thing about Louisiana is they don't believe in restrooms, which is completely unfortunate! People have to pee and it doesn't help when you are mostly surrounded by water!!! In the famous words of Ian Malcom, "When you gotta go, you gotta go!". The good news is we survived Louisiana and made it to Texas where we promptly found a rest area.

Welcome to Texas!

Being from the Midwest, I'm used to real easy rest areas: you get off the interstate, there is a simple buildings with bathrooms, and you get back on the interstate. Easy, right? Well that is not how it is done in the South. You might get off easily, but have a hundred doors to chose from and most lead to a small room with like three stalls, so basically lots of wasted space. Or you might get off and drive miles back into the woods before actually finding the restrooms. Or you might not have good restrooms off the interstate (that would be you Louisiana). Or you might have beautiful walking trails behind your rest area. Yep, that's right!

Wow, that's a large alligator snapping turtle!

The beautiful walking trail at the rest area...looks like a great walk, but so weird that it is at the rest area!

Okay, I think that is enough talk about bathrooms for now...so we continued our drive on I-10 towards our destination - Houston!!! Part of the reason for this road trip was to pick up states. I needed Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas and Natalie just needed Mississippi and Louisiana. However, we wanted an actual reason to go to Texas, not just make a random stop in the state. When we were looking into things to do in Texas, we saw that the Rodeo was going to be in Houston, which sealed the destination and reason!

I do love flat wide open spaces!

Rodeo Houston is about a month long event and we were attending the first night. It takes place at NRG Stadium (where the Texans play), so technically we picked up a football stadium. We got cheap seats, so we were HIGH up in the stadium, but it was a fun experience!!! My favorite parts of the rodeo are barrel racing and bull riding, of course! I would also have to say that Mutton Busting is great to watch. Little kids in full protective gear are put on sheep and have to ride the sheep as far as possible. It might be child endangerment because a few of them got rolled over on by the sheep! Another great part of Mutton Busting is the kids were asked what they wanted to be when they grow up:

"I want to be a Princess or a doctor" - one little girl said. Good choices, good choices!
The best response was by a little boy, "I want to be a normal human." Don't we all kid, don't we all.

Welcome to Houston!

Team roping

Steer wrestling

Bull riding

Bronco busting

Barrel racing

I didn't get a driving photo...so here is Natalie at the rodeo.

Calf roping

"That's All Folks!"

Road Trip 2019

Well I guess it is about time to post something, so here we go....Y'all get to hear about the awesome road trip that my sister and I took recently. I'm going to break it into multiple posts like I did with my last trip for a couple reasons: 1) if it all was one post it would be EXTREMELY long 2) if I break it into multiple posts, it looks like I am a MUCH better blogger than I actually am. :) Strap yourself in and get ready for complete AWESOMENESS.

***Warning - harm may come from my horrible humor in the following posts***

Day 1 could be titled Planes, trains, and battleships...wait, what? I don't think that is how that saying goes. Though to be honest - planes, automobiles, and battleships - would actually be a more accurate description.

Technically, our story starts before Day 1 of the road trip. Natalie flew into Jacksonville Saturday night and I was meeting her after work. We had reserved a hotel in Jacksonville so we didn't have any unnecessary driving the next day. So Saturday I finished with work, got my stuff together (including a giant box of snacks...can't have a road trip without that!), and drove to the Travelodge by the airport. When I got there to check in and told them my reservation, this is the response I got, "I'm sorry, we don't have a room for you. We are all filled up." EXCUSE ME?!?!?!?!? I have a reservation. Then the lady is like, "I don't know when you made the reservation, but it depends on our occupancy" Umm, I made it a few weeks ago, which means I SHOULD HAVE A ROOM (no I didn't actually yell at her). Then it was basically "doesn't matter that you made a reservation, we have no rooms". I didn't feel like getting into it so I just shook my head and left, because that was a load of crap! What I should have done is pulled out the definition of reservation: "the act of keeping back, withholding, or setting apart" because clearly Travelodge was to dumb to know what it meant. When someone makes a reservation you are suppose to hold back a room for them! I ended getting a hotel right next store and the lady working there said she used to work for that Travelodge and they were always pulling shady crap like that. They give walk-ins rooms that people have reserved because they can get them to pay double. Turns out we aren't the only ones who have had this issue. At least two other people who flew in to Jacksonville and had reservations at that hotel were also told there were no room for them that week. So here is a tip: if you are ever in Jacksonville NEVER EVER EVER EVER stay at the Travelodge Inn & Suites by Wyndham Jacksonville Airport.

Okay, enough about that stupidity...on to the adventure. Sunday morning we got up and made our way to Mobile, AL.

READY FOR THE ROAD TRIP!

I have a weird habit of taking lots of pictures of Natalie driving so be warned.

You have to love a rest area that has a fighter jet

So beautiful!

Let the adventure begin...

The reason we chose Mobile as our first destination is because I wanted to visit the USS Alabama battleship...yeah, I know. I'm weird. But seriously, battleships are AWESOME!

WE'VE ARRIVED!!!!!!

Ain't she a beaut?

Look I found my room on the battleship!

This is what happens when you cross me...

At least we still get three squares a day in the brig

Quick sidenote: I never take selfies because I am not a fan of them. However, I wanted pics of Natalie and I together, so that meant selfies. *Sigh* But anyways, I am really bad at selfies, so enjoy! :)

Now that's what I'm talking about!

Look, I joined the Navy...

...just so I could do this. :)

Mobile skyline as seen from the USS Alabama

Our new home!

Mobile Bay

Besides the USS Alabama, there was also the USS Drum submarine, military helicopters and planes (most on loan from the Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola), and tanks!

Thank you to all who have served...you will never be forgotten!

Natalie found her new vehicle. :)

SSR Blackbird

Duly noted: better read that manual real close!

B-52 bomber Stratofortress "Calamity Jane". The decals are for bombs dropped during Vietnam.

On top the USS Drum (Gato-class submarine), the oldest US sub on display. Served during WWII

After spending a few hours touring the USS Alabama, USS Drum, and surrounding grounds, we made a quick drive through downtown Mobile and then made our way to our hotel. There were still a few hours left to explore, so we decided to go check out Dauphin Island. We drove around the island, walked the beach some, found some delicious seafood, and watched the sunset.