Gaa! We're here!

This was my first look at North Carolina. Not bad! It's very green here, with lots of accents (Ted and I jokingly began speaking with a drawl, and now we can't stop) and rain. Yes, it is August and it has rained once a day since we got here. This post is to document the long and sometimes unexciting legs of our trip.

Georgia, obviously.

Ted and I got tired of driving, and Tessa seemed awake and willing, so what the hey?

We took a couple rides on this New Orleans streetcar. Both drivers were pretty rude.

This is one of the things I miss most about my mission in Georgia - the constant competition for the most clever marquee phrase. They should really have a competition for the best grammar.

And the owners of this here house collect bottlecaps in, well, their dirt.

An homage to our friend Adler. We had no idea he had some hidden timekeeping place in N'awlins.

All right. Where's my freaking pot of gold? We're on student loans here!

Very cool bridge somewhere in Louisiana (I think). I was heavily drugged at the time.

Lots o' water in the South. I believe this was the Mississippi Rivverr. hehe

For the record, we didn't meet one French speaker here.

Here was the famous diaper blowout in Alabama. I couldn't stand the smell, so I just took the camera and walked far, far away.

Where was all this bird crap coming from outside our hotel in Nowhere, Texas?

Oh. This explained the inexpensive rate.

I admit I was never enchanted in New Mexico. They's alls a bunch o' liars!

These next three photos show only 3 huge billboards of about twenty (not kidding) advertising this "thing?" that was supposed to get us all excited about something wherever it was.

Well, here was the thing, a gift/souvenir shop, very loosely termed a "museum", perhaps because of this "thing" they so wanted everyone to see. Turns out the thing was behind a locked door and you had to pay the cashier $1 to sate your curiosity. Ted and I decided it wasn't in our new Starving Student Budget, so we passed on it, and spent $4 in drinks instead.

So there you have it, folks! Our adventure-filled cross-country trip! I injured my back two days before the movers came, and it hurt so bad Annette came and took me to the hospital for an MRI the day the moving truck was in our driveway. As the four guys were taping up all our belongings, I was hobbling out of the door, off to downtown LA to get earplugged and examined by some clanging tubular magnets. The diagnosis? I have 3 compressed discs in my back and all the muscles around them are in serious spasms. Tessa's been very good about it, but she hasn't lost any of the 19 pounds she's carrying around to help me out at all, and Ted's been nothing short of wonderful. With rest and some serious narcotics, I expect to be back to normal in maybe a month or two.