February 11, 2021
Houston, Texas— New Orleans, Louisiana
You experience a thunderstorm differently when living in a camper. It felt like we were outside in the middle of the storm, but for some reason we weren’t getting wet. I slept on and off and when the thunder struck so loud that Mike woke up too, I made intense eye contact with him, letting him know how terrified I was that we were sleeping in a tiny, metal box. After several restless hours, we woke up to watch the sky clear above us.
We said goodbye to Houston and Kristin and Carl, our new friends. We felt a tinge of sadness knowing Houston was our last leg on the Texas itinerary, but we looked forward to what New Orleans would bring.
Mike was playing Morgan Wallen’s new album and Berk was snoozing in the back of the truck as the two of us sang along. I caught the eye of a man in the car next to us… he rolled his window down and was yelling at us, throwing his arms in the air and pointing toward the back of our truck. Mike quickly reached for the volume and turned down the music, so we could hear what the man was saying. “Hey! Your bumper is falling off!” he yelled with a look of concern, over the whirring sound of highway traffic.
The man whizzed by us at 75 mph and was gone in a flash. Mike quickly pulled into the shoulder, but we were on a bridge in the middle of New Orleans, surrounded by wetlands and water everywhere. The shoulder was just big enough for us to fit, so when the tractor trailers passed us, the whole truck and camper shook leaving us more panicked than we already were.
The Dutchmen’s bumper was hanging by a thread and was about to come unattached. A tiny piece of metal kept the heavy, steel bumper from smashing into another car and potentially causing an accident behind us. We were so thankful that didn’t happen and that the random stranger caught our attention in time. The traffic was loud and way too close for comfort, so Mike kicked the bumper off with his foot, unfastened the spare tire and threw it in the back of the truck. With no other option, we left the bumper on the side of the bridge. It was too heavy and bulky to keep, so Mike moved it to the shoulder, then we hopped back in the truck and were on our way.
We arrived to Bayou Segnette State Park just before dusk. There was just enough light to see that most of the park was flooded and trees were down all around us. It had been raining for the past few days and it looked like NOLA had been hit the hardest.
February 12, 2021
New Orleans, Louisiana
We took Berk man for a long walk before heading into NOLA. The rain stopped and the weather was decent. We were excited to see New Orleans for the first time ever and during Mardi Gras. When we arrived we found out quickly that this was not your typical Mardi Gras weekend. The mayor had ordered all bars and restaurants to shut down if they didn’t serve food. COVID-19 was still very much present and like most big cities, they were taking precautions to keep people out of public places. The beignets from the famous Café Beignet helped make up for the lack of places to drink.
Thanks to my brother in law’s Uncle, we knew all the best places to stop and see. For lunch we tried Muffulettas (Sandwiches) and then drank hurricane’s at the Gazebo Café and listened to live music for the first time in months. The bandmates were all wearing triple masks, but the crowd was just happy to be hearing live music again. We pursued the shops, took pictures of the decorated houses and fended off a guy on a bike who tried shining Mike’s boots for money. We had a crawfish boil at Clesi’s for dinner which was super authentic, but the super spicy crawfish made our lips burn.
That night I ventured out into the cold to walk Berk. Our campsite was still surrounded by water like many of the others, but there were bridges connecting one section to another. I dropped Berk back off at the Dutchmen and headed for the showers. My toes grew numb as I made my way across the bridge from our campsite to the shower room, lugging our overly-stuffed laundry bag. I overestimated the temperature outside and underestimated the amount of dirty clothes we had acquired.
The washing machine would only accept quarters, but I only had dollar bills… and the walk back to the camper was far too long for my numb toes. So I got creative…the first dollar bill I put in the vending machine gave me quarters back, just as I had hoped. But the second and third and fourth gave me back cans of soda instead. Eventually, I had enough quarters to start our load of laundry and more soda than we knew what to do with.
A long armed, long-legged green tree frog greeted me as I stepped into the luke-warm stream of water. He stared at me and I stared back just as hard… terrified that if I took my eye’s off of him I’d end up like the girlfriend in Parent Trap, with the frog in her mouth. I showered as quickly as possible, said farewell to my frog friend, filled my shampoo bag with all the unnecessary soda, then grabbed our laundry and headed back across the bridge.
February 13th
New Orleans, Louisiana
We kicked off the morning at Two Chicks Cafe where we tasted the most delicious, freshly squeezed orange juice. Our booth was decorated with cows and there was a line out the door of people searching for breakfast and trying to escape the cold.
We walked a few blocks away to the World War II Museum where we planned to spend the rest of the day. We had heard the museum was world renowned and was a good investment of our time when visiting NOLA. The tour began with a 4D movie explaining all that happened during WWII in just 45 minutes. I jumped up and out of my seat several times because the planes and tanks actually shook our seats. It all seemed scary and real…and so in your face. The rest of what we learned that day would forever leave an impact. It made me realize that what I learned in middle and high school never really stuck. It felt like I was learning some of these details about the war for the very first time.
When we returned back to home base for the day, we spotted a little armadillo snoozing under our camper. New Orleans certainly introduced us to more unexpected animals than most cities we visited.
February 14th, 2021
Fairhope, Alabama
I made coffee and packed our lunches while Mike hooked the camper up for an unromantic valentine’s day excursion to Alabama. We both showered before leaving NOLA, knowing we wouldn’t have the chance to where we were headed next. We left Louisiana crossing our fingers and toes that nothing would fall off our vehicle in route to Alabama. We crossed into Mississippi and drove for a couple hours before entering the gravel parking lot that we’d call home for the night.
Through Harvest Host we booked our stay at BILL-E’s Restaurant and Grocery. It was an old run-down restaurant that had a lot of character and an even more interesting atmosphere when you stepped inside.
The best way to explore a new place is to run throughout the streets or trails within it, so like clockwork when we set the camper up, I laced up my sneakers and went on my way. Running will always be an escape for me. An escape from being cooped up driving in a car all day, an escape from my mind and whatever minor thing is stressing me out at the moment and an escape to find the beauty of a new place. This was my very first experience in Alabama and I wanted to fully immerse myself, so I left my headphones behind and went all in. As I made my way past the cute, southern style homes and back toward BILL-E’s, Michael and Berk met me for the home stretch.
I did not shower because I didn’t have the option to (The beauty of our broken water heater), but we freshened up for dinner, which was also our tenth Valentine’s day together. The fact that we were walking across the gravel parking lot to a sketchy restaurant which made the date even more thrilling. We ordered beers and quickly realized that BILL-E’s wasn’t prepared for the influx of customers they would have for dinner that night. The service was TERRIBLE. Our server literally forgot everyone’s orders and brought all the tables all the wrong food. One man was getting seriously angry, but Mike and I just laughed and tried to make the situation feel less overwhelming for the waitress than it was. I tried my first fried green beans (That we did not order) then walked 15 steps back to the Dutchmen for a movie night and cuddled with Berk. It poured rain all night and into the morning, so we slept in and waited for the rain to stop before planning our next adventure in the sunshine state.
Travel the Fernweh 