stage 5: Texas & Lousiana

From New Mexico, we drove into the big desert of western Texas, dipping south into El Paso. We'd planned to drive into Cuidad Juarez across the border into Mexico--Justin's grandma was born there. But we decided trying to get back through with all the stuff in our car--it was packed to the gills--might be a problem at border patrol. So we contented ourselves with looking across the street at Mexico instead.

It didn't look much different than El Paso, really.

Driving on through the empty parts of Texas, we decided to head a little north toward the Dallas/Fort Worth area, 'cause, you know, why not?

No, really, Justin has an aunt who lives there, and her youngest child is a boy Juma's age (but a head taller). We spent the night there, and let Juma and Justin's young cousin, Jake, play the next morning until Jake had to go to his first day of kindergarten. Again, we didn't take any pictures of this stage of the trip. Don't know what we were thinking...

So on to the next day, when we drove down into Louisiana and stopped somewhere in the middle to camp where it was hot and humid and green, everything the South is supposed to be in August.



Then it was south to New Orleans, a city we've always wanted to visit, and pretty much gave us our first incentive to drive 2000 extra miles through the country to get from California to Connecticut. So we couldn't miss it.






We just had time for lunch, though, as we wanted to make it to the panhandle of Florida that night. We picked a place with classic Creole fare, and ordered crawfish etoufee and fried alligator. Yum. (I was wimpy and ordered salmon, but I did try the other dishes.)

Here's the alligator: Juma devoured it.