F to G: New Orleans, LA to Austin, TX

We had made an appointment in Austin for Monday, January 4 at the Sportsmobile Headquarters to repair our leaky roof. So we sadly left New Orleans on Sunday, the first city that we had enjoyed thoroughly since we had been living outside of city centers. On our way out of town we stopped at Stein's Deli - the only Jewish deli in New Orleans and got delicious sandwiches to fuel our drive. The drive through western Louisiana was impressive - most of the time it seemed that the highway was a bridge over swamp after swamp. We braced ourselves for Texas, a state that we had so far actively avoided during our travels. Perhaps it was our sentiments towards the state that produced the Bushes or maybe just that we took their anti-litter motto "Don't Mess with Texas" to heart, but we never wanted to go to Texas. But, Texas was the warmest route and we had to visit Sportsmobile in Austin, so on the afternoon of January 3, we entered the state.We ate at a strip-mall like Tex-Mex joint (cops at the next table, as always a good sign of decent food) in the sprawling NE section of Houston and continued to Austin. Sportsmobile had said that we could sleep in their parking lot the night before our appointment, so we did. We pulled into the parking lot around 11pm, took Buzz for a short walk through the industrial park and bedded down for the night, feeling quite camouflaged amongst the empty Sportsmobiles surrounding us.

Links: Stein's Deli, Sportsmobile