Where We Have Been - USA - New Orleans to Dallas

From New Orleans we hit the road in a rental car, crossing Louisiana and Texas (yes… it really is that big), heading for Dallas—eventually—and our flight home to New Zealand.

First up, we followed the western side of the Mississippi, hoping to visit one of the Plantation Homes. Unfortunately, because it was New Year’s Day, that wasn’t to be.

We stopped in Baton Rouge and ate our lunch sitting on the steps along the Mississippi’s edge, not far from where the USS Kidd—now a museum ship—is moored.

From Baton Rouge we continued on to Lafayette.

After a brief stop at Walmart—another American icon and, supposedly, a must-do (not really, but we were genuinely surprised by the range in what felt like a small town, given we were only hunting a charger cable)—we found ourselves crossing the impressive Louisiana Airborne Memorial Bridge, also known as the Atchafalaya Basin Bridge. At just over 29 km long, elevated and split, it’s one of those stretches of road that makes you sit up and take notice. Then it was on into Lafayette.

Lafayette was also where we had our first stay at a Drury Inn and Suites,—a well-priced, comfortable hotel chain that includes a simple dinner offering and a drink as part of the room rate. After hours on the road, that felt like luxury.

And because we were in Louisiana, we figured we had to do the Cajun/Creole thing properly. Bon Temps Grill came highly recommended, so we called an Uber and made a night of it. Carolyn went for Gumbo, David tried Fried Gator, and we spent a very pleasant evening being entertained by a young Lafayette singer-songwriter named Abi Claire. The restaurant was fairly quiet, so later on Abi introduced herself. She was amazed when we told her we’d just seen Stevie Nicks in San Francisco—and completely gobsmacked when we mentioned we’d seen Bowie live… twice.

The next morning had us up bright and early and backtracking a little to squeeze in an Airboat ride on the Atchafalaya Basin—an enormous river swamp system and a proper slice of Louisiana.

It was freezing, it was loud, and there were no alligators (wrong time of year), but it was still a real experience—especially skimming along at speed between the bridge piers of the Louisiana Airborne Memorial Bridge.

Back in the car—where we finally thawed ourselves out—we headed to Houston for our second stay at a Drury Inn and Suites. We were so tired we didn’t even try to push through; we simply took full advantage of the complimentary dinner and drink, then had an early night.

By this point, though, we were starting to run into time constraints and had to prioritise. The next morning we skipped the Houston Space Centre (reluctantly) and struck out for San Antonio, checking into yet another Drury Inn and Suites—this one right on the River Walk.

San Antonio was mainly on the agenda because we needed a stop on the way back to Austin, but we decided to make the most of it and visit The Alamo. It’s always been a “special place” for David thanks to childhood associations with Davy Crockett. And honestly? San Antonio turned out to be an unexpected delight. The River Walk is a gorgeous place to kick back—easy strolling, good food, and a relaxed atmosphere—and staying right on it was a real bonus.

From San Antonio it was back on the road to Austin to revisit our friends—this time for a birthday dinner for one of them.

After Austin we headed north to catch up with horse friends on their ranch, Marystown’s Shetland & Miniature Horses, near Waco. It was wonderful to reconnect and to see their beautiful horses again (we’d previously owned a 50% share in one of their stallions, who was imported into New Zealand).

They told us that, not long before, they’d had a goat disappear overnight—almost certainly taken by a large cat, possibly a Black Jaguar—which was both fascinating and slightly unnerving in the way only “ranch life” stories can be. Lighter entertainment came courtesy of a couple of squirrels teasing their small dogs. One would scamper down a tree and edge into the paddock, luring the dogs into a frenzy, while the other made a dash for the next tree. This went on for ages, and we couldn’t get over how cleverly they worked together—and how athletic they were, launching off the ground and landing on the trunk several feet up as if it were nothing.

Our friends treated us to lunch at a Mexican cantina, and later we ticked off a proper Texas steak at Texas Roadhouse—surely a must-do in Texas.

They also took us to the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum in Waco (yes, including a nod to the Lone Ranger and Tonto), and to the mammoth dig at the Waco Mammoth National Monument, which was genuinely fascinating.

From there it was back to Dallas, where we caught a Dallas Stars Ice Hockey game—great atmosphere, and a really fun experience—and we also revisited the bar we’d discovered on our very first night in Dallas weeks earlier.

We finished our first trip to the US with a lazy day in Fort Worth. We wandered around the Forth Worth Stockyards, were amazed (and slightly bewildered) by the sheer range of taxidermy animals available for purchase, and ended up at the Fort Worth Cowtown Coliseum to watch the Ultimate Bullfighters—think rodeo clowns rather than Spanish bullfighting. We also timed it perfectly to watch the cowboys herd the Texas Longhorns down the street. It was oddly mesmerising seeing the cattle tilt their heads so those enormous horns cleared the tops of parked cars.

Then it was off to Dallas-Forth Worth Airport to catch our flight home to New Zealand.