Vacation: Day 3 thru 9 -- Good AND Bad!!

So I'm actually home now, but wanted to do this in steps because I'm insanely anal about things being in cronilogical order! Plus then I don't have to repeat my story over and over!! Enjoy!

Tues. the 11th - we flew from Minneapolis to Orlando. The flight went fine...I didn't throw up on anyone! ;-) Yeah for ME!! It took us about a hour to get our rental car and that whole jazz. I was pretty excited to find out it was a PT Cruiser. After driving one, I'm pretty sure I want one! We drove thru Orlando and stopped for lunch, then drove 6 hours more to get to Marianna, FL which is way up in the panhandle. And was only 15 miles from Chipley, which is where we needed to be, but their hotels wouldn't take the discount. Oh well! We got into our hotel around 9:30pm and Heather left us for a while with one of her FL friends.

Wed. the 12th - we didn't get up and going until after noon. Drove to Chipley, stopped at the auto repair shop, had a tow truck follow us to Heather's car--which then took them over an hour to get loaded up! So we didn't get the car back to the shop until 3pm! They said they'd be able to have it finished in the morning after a part came in. All that was wrong was the tensioner for the main belt (runs the water pump and everything else) was bent and the belt would slip off all the time. And she had two flat tires that needed to be repaired. So we had supper with our brother and his family--he cooked. It was alright, it's hard to enjoy food when there are bugs crawling all over the place. It was kinda nice to see his kids. I've never seen his youngest, Sarah and she's 4 now! Last time I saw them was for my dad's funeral, and they were pregnant at the time. Heather went out with her friends again and Derek and I just went back to the hotel.

Thurs. 13th - We got up and into Chipley around 9am and were hoping to get the car and be on our way to New Orleans for the night. BUT, NO!!!!! Of course, as I had predicted but was hoping against....Heather's car wasn't ready! And not only was it not ready...it wouldn't BE ready! Turns out somebody vandelised it pretty good. They had cut her fuel lines in 3 or 4 places to drain her gas tank, which was over 1/2 full. And they had cut other lines and STOLE the cadilatic converter!!! OMG!!! I WAS SOO MAD!!! She had it parked at a friends house (because our---no, HER brother wouldn't let it be parked at his house!! And this friend's house got vandelised too. Any and every line in her house was cut...phone, cable, electrical, cell phone charges, even extension cords! Her friend had the spare key for the car (which she couldn't find) and whoever did this to the car had to have the key because there was no sign of forced entry, yet to cut the hoses that they did, they would have needed inside the car to pop the hood!! And they took a whole case of motor oil and a couple of oil filters that were inside the car! Fortunately, they didn't find her laptop in a backpack that was also in the back seat! Her car could have been fixed but it would have taken over a week (or more, cuz everyone down there is sooooo slooow!!) and it probably would have cost $900-$1000+. We got a room in Chipley for the night so we could figure out what to do. After many phone calls...many, many phone calls and some tears of frustration----we figured it would be cheaper to drive the rental car all the way home then to drive back to Orlando and fly home. Plus this way we could still try to make a trip out of it and get to see Derek's dad. Heather and I went to clean out her car and get her personal belongings. The repair guy said we could leave it at his shop until we figured out what to do. We asked him to see if he could find anyone who'd be willing to buy it for scrap or parts. We left the keys with our brother---and that's where my responsibility for it ended! Not MY problem any more (technically wasn't mine to begin with)!!! Heather went out with friends again and Derek and I made the arrangements for the rest of the trip.

Fri. the 14th - We left Chipley at 4am and made our way along the coast line on Interstate 10. The sites were amazing. Driving thru Pensacola, FL and Mobile, AL, crossing bridges that were over 3 miles long across bays of the Gulf of Mexico. Seeing huge ships in the sea was a crazy site! Once we got into Mississippi we got onto US HWY 90 and that went right on the coast line! As we drove along the highway headed West, the beach and Gulf was on our left and all the businesses and homes were on our right. We stopped in Biloxi and walked on the beach of the Gulf of Mexico and collected some sea shells!! It was really pretty, but still a little tore up for all the huricanes. The crews were busy working on the roads and the beaches. There were still businesses and houses that were boarded up. The ones that had money to put back in their places were already fixed up. And then there were some places that were tore down. We got into Louisianna and made it into downtown New Orleans...The French Quarter. We only spent 3 hours there cuz we needed to get to Broussard to see Derek's dad. We wondered around a bit, checked out the souviner shops, and had lunch at ARNAUD'S restraunt!! Not kidding!! Arnaud's in a LA phone book is like Johnson here in ND! Derek's 4th or 5th great grandfather was the original settler in LA. So that was kinda fun. We took pictures next to the signs..I'll post them later. Then we had beignets (ben-yays) which are amazingly good french donuts! They're deep fried and covered in powdered sugar! Delicous! Trying to get out of downtown was fun! We ended up in the "projects" and that was creepy! After a hour of getting turned around and trying to get on the freeway, we were on our way to Broussard. We ended up not getting there until after 6pm. So the day was kinda shot.

We had dinner with John at a place called Gator's Cove. They usually have aligators in a pen by their restraunt but since it's winter, it's too cold....it was like 60 degrees and people were walking around wearing winter coats with hats and scarves, while I was wearing capri's and a tshirt!!! Crazy people man! We got an appetizer with fried alligator, fried crawfish, and fried crab claws. All I ate was the alligator but they still made me try the other stuff even though I had before and they knew I didn't like it anyway! Heather had a shrimp dinner, John had an aligator combo dinner, Derek had a crawfish combo dinner, and my dinner included fried pickles and a baked potato!! And of course, I still had to try Derek's and John's meals too. Grrr! I'm gonna start saying I'm allergic to seafood!

After that we went to meet Derek's Great-Grandma Jennie Lee. She is John's mom's mom. She is 90 years old and still going strong. She still drives and lives on her own. She was really cute and adorable. Then John drove us around Lafayette and all it's little suburbs. I'm pretty sure it'd take me a whole year to learn the street system there!! It's absolutely nuts!! The streets basically go around in circles...they don't follow a north/south, east/west pattern! John said it's because when the people down there settled and started making roads and streets they would just use the trails made by the cows. Cuz they obviously new the shortest distance between A and B-----it was A, C, E, F, D, T, and then B!!! Fucking ridiculous!! This is also why we ended up on the worng roads sometimes...and making numerous u-turns, because they don't label anything down there! You'd see a sign saying "To I-10" and you'd go like 8 more blocks and you'd never see another sign telling you how to get there. Even though you knew you had to take a left or a right somewhere, there'd never be a sign. People down there don't need signs because "Turn right where Aunt May's house was that burned down 3 years ago" Oh yeah there!!! Idiots--just cuz they know their way around, they don't feel the need to label it for others who don't!

We got checked into our hotel and we were suppose to leave the next morning to head back home, but I felt bad for only seeing John for 6 hours or so, so we decided to stay one more night in Broussard. I called and changed the rental car plans yet AGAIN. And got everything straighted out.

Sat. the 15th - We slept in...a much needed sleep, because John had to work. He ended up working alot longer than he had hoped so we didn't get to drive over to another town to meet some other relatives, but had dinner with John again and got to spend more time with him just hanging out at his house and seeing all his newly acquired "toys" (meaning things he probably doesn't need, but he gets them for real cheap, and can't pass up a deal!). We got to see his property he has there. It's almost 2 acres that his dad had before he passed away. It was heavily wooded but John has cleared it all off and has it up for sale now. It's right in the middle of a nice residential area so hopefully some one will snatch it up. We called it a night around midnight and planned to leave the next morning.

Sun. the 16th - We got up and ready and went for breakfast with John at this place called "Mel's Diner." It reminded me of our Kroll's diners but it wasn't a chain, it was local people. And they had THE BEST BISCUITS I've ever had in my life!!! They were amazing! We left town around 10:30am and after less than an hour had to make our last tourist stop.....ARNAUDVILLE!!!! This is where Derek 4th or 5th great grandfather settled. We had to stop and take our pictures next to the city signs and I'm sure people probably thought we were retarded, but I didn't care. I'm pretty sure EVERYONE down there is retarded in one way or another! We got back on the road and headed home. We made it thru LA, into Arkansas, stopped in Fort Smith for supper at Logan's Steakhouse-which was a really bad rip off of Texas Roadhouse! And were on our way again. Derek drove the whole way almost to the Arkansas/Missouri border.

Mon. 17th - After 16 hours behind the wheel (at 2:30am) he had me take over. I drove the rest of the way to Fargo, going thru Kansas City, around Omaha, and thru Sioux Falls. After that Heather fell asleep on me too, so I drove the last 3 hours trying to keep myself awake! It was a little bit easier after the sun came up, but then I could see snow and knew that I must be getting close! It really did suck driving north and slowy seeing the tempature drop and drop and drop. It was only 55/60 degrees when we left LA but by the time we hit Missouri it was in the 40's and when I finally got into ND it was 25!!! Welcome Home!! We got into Fargo at 10:30am on Monday, only took 8 hours to get there from AK/MO border! And it would have been less if we didn't stop to eat. We made a couple of stops at the mall and such, picked up Donna Wolf's car that she had left there for us to use, took the rental to the airport--got raped up the ass, and were on our way home! We got to DL around 4pm and I was so glad to be home.

Everytime I called the rental car number and changed the dates/drop off location (which was alot, given all the changes I made), I always made sure to ask what the total would be. The last one I got was $732 for the whole 7 days. And they said "the total with taxes and fees" was $732. And what do ya know, when I'm returning the car and checking out---that's not the total!! It's $914!!!!!! Apparently, the insurance option I chose was $25 PER DAY, not just a single $25 charge! I was SOOO SOOO MAD!!

Needless to say, the trip was kinda pointless, considering that our motive was to bring Heather's car back with us but it ended up staying there. All in all, we had a good time. The begining was good (concert, train and day in Minneapolis). The middle sucked ass (3 days instead of 2 in Florida). And the end was fun (getting to see the Gulf, John, and Derek's great grandma, and the trip home. At least I can say that I've been there and took the scenic routes through 12 states.
North Dakota> Minnesota>Flordia>Alabama>Mississippi>Louisianna>Arkansas>Texas - We took the long way around Texarkana, just so we could go into Texas!!>Back into Arkansas>Missouri>Nebraska>Iowa>South Dakota>Back to good old North Dakota!!!

I'm pretty sure I gained about 10 pounds while being gone! Nothing in the south is healthy for you and no one seems to be the slightest bit of concerned about being healthy! Everything is deep fat fried and usually breaded. Even on the hotel breakfast bar in Broussard, their milk options were 2% or Whole!!!! Crazy!! So we are back on Phase 1 of the Fat Smash Diet and I'm struggling with being motivated enough to work out. The food part isn't too bad, but having to go somewhere else to work out is such a process! But I've already lost 5 pounds so I'm gonna stick with it!

Hopefully I'll be able to post pics later today. I can't do it now cuz I don't have them with me at work. Which is where I just spent the last 2 hours typing this---I'm sooo busy here ya know!!

Here's a link to a map of the whole trip we took!