Friday...I'm in love.

My oh my it's going to be hard to leave New Orleans. The place is intoxicating and addictive - though its easy to stumble across the 'bad' parts or blatant tourist traps.

Rich and I had another amazing WW2 experience today. We're not intentionally seeking out war history but it just seems to find us. This place blew my mind (to use an Americanism). It was a 4D cinematic experience called 'Beyond the Boundaries'. It cost millions to make and was hosted/narrated by Tom Hanks. I'm not sure I have the words to adequately describe it - but it was like nothing I have ever experienced before. The film is about 50 minutes long, during which your chair rumbles as you're shot at by a tank, your eyes fill with steam as you witness the heat of intense German bombing, you fear for your life as a Nazi searchlight hones in on you in a concentration camp, quake with fear as you're obliterated by an atom bomb, and bawl your eyes out at all the spoken memoirs of soldiers. Seriously, forget the jazz and the drinking for a moment, and come to New Orleans just to see this movie. Mind boggling.

Anyway - with our WW2-buff-appetite well and truly satisfied - we spent the rest of the day and evening exploring the city more. It's such an odd place. You stumble from one brilliant moment to the next without noticing the transition journey. We spent some time in a glass factory where they let you blow your own glass, ate burritos the size of our heads, and discovered the most amazing array of live music, free of charge on random street corners. I have attached a video of the best band we found.

By far the most exciting part of the day was when we randomly walked past a miniature pot-bellied pig. I squealed (like a pig appropriately) with excitement and the owner let me feed him popcorn as we discussed the NHS and American Health Bill. Feeding a pig and politics at the same time - only in New Orleans.

There are downsides though. Today we had coffee and beignets (not bayonets as I insisted on calling them) at the famous Cafe du Monde - which its sort of the law to do. We had been warned by our beloved Lonely Planet that the place is highly overrated but went anyway. It was highly overrated. Just chockablock full of other hopeless tourists being served by moody waitresses as part of a conveyor belt operation. The famous Bourbon Street is also a letdown - especially on a Friday night. There's a distinct smell of disinfectant to mask the vomit in the road, the lone song of a saxophone crooning is drowned out by drunken jocks on stag weekends screeching 'Come on Eileen', and street hustlers stand in darkened corners like vultures waiting to pray on intoxicated tourists.

That aside - I still blooming love the place and will be very sad to leave tomorrow.

Tomorrow.....

This is where the bad part happens.

To put it shortly, Rich and I still aren't entirely sure on our route or where to head to next. All we know is that we want to get through Texas fast and there's nowhere nice to stop on the way. Believe me - we've really tried to find somewhere. So tomorrow marks the real 'road trip' aspect of the trip. Which basically means I have to drive until I'm flat-out dead before collapsing in a dingy chain motel by the side of the interstate. We're hoping to get to Oklahoma in two days but that depends entirely on my motoring stamina. Damn the car rental company for charging an insane price for a second driver.

I know I know...it's all about the journey not the destination right? But I think this part of the trip is going to be pretty boring. So if I don't post for a while it's probably because I have nothing to say - or we've been murdered by a chainsaw killer on the side of the road...

Love to y'all and wish me luck as I embark on my way through the Bible belt.

Holly xxxx