So it begins....(Pt. 1)

I never expected this trip to New Orleans to affect me as much as it did. I didn’t even realize that things were still bad down there. When Mike suggested to all of us that we go down, my first thought was “sweet, road trip with the bros.” It was icing on the cake, but by no means was it a motivating factor on its own. I figured that as long as I went and did the work, that wasn’t that messed up a thing to say, right? How's that for rationalization?

As the date got closer, I started to get worried though. You know, that anxious knot in your stomach where you just expect something bad to happen. And it was mostly due to my family and friends. From how they told it, New Orleans was a wild west town with murderers on every street corner. After hearing them describe it, I was wondering how there was anyone left in the town alive.

But it was a road trip(and an epic one at that…21 hours), and we all know that I can never turn down the open road. I don’t know what it is really, but it definitely is going to factor into my career choices in the next couple months; I just have the wanderlust. Give me the choice between a week on the road, or a week on a resort, and I take the road every time (actually made that choice for this spring break, but those are stories for the future.) Maybe it has something to do with my upbringing, because it can never really be said that I was ever grounded in one place. I lived in California long enough to get attached, while visiting family in New Jersey, then moved to Jersey and kept going back to California. Compare that to some people who don’t leave their hometown until they are 18, and its no wonder that my imagination has no domestic borders. Just the thrill of being in a new state or city is enough.

Its so interesting to see all the differences, even the little things. For example, last year when we went to Texas, it was like driving through the billboard chart. You could listen and tell what songs were popular in certain areas and which were universally popular by the hours of time you spent listening to the radio in each market (except Sunday morning, then every station became a Christian station). To me, that is just really cool (hearing all the different markets, not the plethora of Sunday Masses).

So this road trip was no different. We drove west through Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, and finally Louisiana. That ability to just pull off and just explore is very tempting, and I never thought having something as bland as a map could give such a feeling of freedom. This resulted in two major instances of us exploring and seeing the area. The second, and briefer, was in Louisiana when we pulled off at a NASA installation thinking it would be cool to look around. The very uncool security guard at the gate dissuaded us of that notion, and we turned around as fast as the crappy dodge caravan could(not very fast). The first, and more interesting, was in Tuscaloosa, very early on a Sunday morning, when we decided to look around the University of Alabama. Let me tell you, what a campus. This place was ridiculous. Now, I have seen some large campuses(UNC, U of MD, UDel, UMass) and this one blew them all away. This school did right what ours failed miserably at. They were celebrating their 175th anniversary (our school is on 155), but they actually got the campus to ooze the history. You walk onto that campus, you can feel the history and pride. Keep in mind, this was on a Sunday morning before school started, so we saw a grand total of four people, so all this came from the campus itself. One other point of interest (for now) about the school. Greeks there must be the happiest people in the world. All the houses are these beautiful houses all next to each other, and they are across the street from Bear Bryant Stadium. That is a tailgaters dream come true. On the other side of the houses? A liquor store, deli, and greek embroidery shop. Now, at this point, we are thinking we have died and found our Elysium, but no sooner did we think that than fate slapped us for being so silly; this was the deep south, and on the third side of the houses was a rather large and impressive looking church. Kinda dampens the fun. Then, as we completed the circle, any envy I felt for those Greeks died a very quick death at the site of the campus police station practically on top of the houses. So, they tempt them with huge open porches, a large stadium, and liquor store in spitting distance, then put a church and police on the other side? Talk about mixed messages.

As we left Tuscaloosa, slightly more tired, and mighty disappointed the entire school was asleep/not there, we knew we had lots of road ahead of us (10ish hours, to be exact). What we didn’t know or realize was exactly what waited for us past Lake Pontchartrain.