Month: August 2022

We woke up to a chilly morning in Cloudcroft, grabbed our first hot coffees of the trip, and then headed down the mountain, stopping to take in the Mexican Canyon Railway Trestle. We then coasted down the rest of the mountain through Alamogordo to White Sands National Park: our little Prius reported 99.9 mpg for the whole trip!

We hiked the Dune Life Nature Trail, briefly checked out the Alkali Flat Trail, and stopped at the small lake on the Playa Trail: it was amazing how varied the landscape was! We grabbed a quick taco truck lunch before heading to Pistachioland to check out the World’s Largest Pistachio and treat ourselves to some pistachio-almond ice cream. After that we made our way north to Ojo Caliente, stopping at the perfectly campy Clines Corners on a small stretch of old Route 66.

We woke early, Meg ran, and we had a quick breakfast so we could maximize our time at Carlsbad Caverns! It was a cool morning, which prepared us for the cool damp of the caverns. After purchasing our parks pass (yay!), we decided to take the Natural Entrance instead of taking the elevator directly to the Big Room: 1.25 miles long and 750 feet of descent. After 90 minutes and hundreds of pictures on the descent, we made our way efficiently around the Big Room, taking a few hundred more pictures: it was truly awe-inspiring.

Since we had taken a bit more time than planned at Carlsbad Caverns, we stopped for a quick burrito lunch and then we drove 125 miles (and 5,500 feet in elevation) to Cloudcroft, NM, where the lobby cat welcomed us to the charming Summit Inn. We had a brisk (it was 57 degrees out and windy) al fresco dinner at Dave’s Cafe, and then wandered Burro Street before heading back to the room to sort through all the pictures!

We started the day with a Hill Country food home run: breakfast tacos from a torta truck and kolaches from an old German bakery, which we ate at the pavilion in the town square. Suitably fortified, we tackled the 400-mile drive through West Texas to Carlsbad, NM. While the first half of West Texas was pretty and interesting, things flattened out and got monotonous after that, but we broke it up with a nice lunch stop in San Angelo. We managed to dodge most of the rain, catching only 5 minutes or so just after we crossed into New Mexico. After checking in to our tiny but cozy AirBnB, we celebrated conquering Texas with amazing tacos and melon agua fresca from Carniceria San Juan de Los Lagos.

On Saturday we drove 225 miles to Fredericksburg, with some pretty intense rain on I-10 just outside of Houston. We stopped in Bastrop (“the most historic small town in Texas”) along the way to eat our leftover pizza for lunch. After checking in to our very cute hotel we took a slow walk (it was over 90 degrees) along Main Street to Eaker Barbecue. Unfortunately, they were only serving a limited menu so we shared non-traditional but delicious half a smoked chicken along with extremely tasty green beans and Brussels sprouts. We followed up with a wine tasting in the garden at Pontotoc Winery.

Sunday started out with chores: Meg went for a jog while the temperature was still in the low 70’s, we grabbed breakfast burritos, then headed to the local laundromat to do our wash. After a mid-morning break to go pick up peaches (and peach cider!), Meg did a bit of work. We closed out the day wandering the local shops and then drove to Llano for dinner at Cooper’s Old Time Pit Bar-B-Que for some traditional Hill Country barbecue.

We made one more visit to Cafe Du Monde this morning and then packed up the car for the 375 mile drive across the swamps of Southern Louisiana, across the border to Houston, TX. We encountered about 15 minutes of very serious rain and lightning outside of Lake Charles and were very happy when we got through it. When we got to our friends Nick and Jake’s (who sadly aren’t back from a visit to NY yet) place in Houston, we made ourselves at home, started some laundry, and picked up some delicious pizza and salad from Tiny Champions.

Meg went for a jog in the French Quarter while the streets were still very empty this morning and then did some work. We revisited Alma for lunch, took many more photos of the architecture as we walked another 8 miles, and had our first experience with chargrilled oysters at a bar Matt visited when he first visited New Orleans 12 years ago.

We started the day out at Ayu Bakehouse for coffee and breakfast, and then came back to the hotel to book some of our upcoming accommodations. Unfortunately the rain decided to come down in earnest today, so we stayed in our charming hotel for the rest of the morning and most of the afternoon.

When the rain let up, we went for ice cream at the hotel’s ice cream parlor (!!!) and got a private tour of the old church space on the way. We then continued our tour of awesome neighborhood backyard spaces at Saint-Germain for wine and crudites, and then some amazing ceviche and esquites at Galaxie before winding down in the courtyard at The Elysian Bar at the hotel.

A big day of walking around the French Quarter, the Vieux Carre, the Marigny and the Bywater: 11.5 miles! We started, of course, with beignets and café au lait at Café du Monde, lunch at Rosalitas Backyard Tacos, happy hour cocktails and oysters at the St. Roch Market, and then a damp Thai dinner at Budsi’s. We can’t believe we crammed so much into just one day!

500 highway miles today from Atlanta to New Orleans via GA, AL, MS and LA. Just outside of Montgomery on I-85 our trusty Prius aggravated an old injury from a previous owner when it encountered a fresh, large chunk of semi tire at 70mph: the plastic shielding in the wheel well had come loose again. A dip into the toolbox at the next gas station put us back on the road quickly, though. After checking in to our charming hotel we treated ourselves to a killer diner at Alma, a Honduran restaurant in the Bywater.

Today we took to the interstates and drove the 250 miles from Cornelius, NC to Dunwoody, GA (outside of Atlanta) to visit Matt’s brother Daniel. Before we left, though, we got some heavenly biscuits from Milkwood for an on-the-road lunch. After an oil change we met up with Daniel and walked the Cochran Shoals Trail along the Chattahoochee River before grabbing tacos at Tin Lizzy’s.