Oklahoma City sucked. But last night while Brett and I were outside our hotel, a mooing truck drove by us.

No, that wasn’t was so important. Anyways, once we got out of Oklahoma and into Texas, our epic day began. We saw a B-22 Osprey (for the lamen like me, it’s one of those planes that transform into a helicopter) fly over us, and it was so badass. I felt like i was in a Michael Bay movie. We planned on Amarillo being just a pit stop for an oil change. My mom texted me and told me about Cadillac Ranch. I had heard of it before, but had no idea it was in Amarillo. We had to see it.

After we gave lil dizzy her spa treatment we headed towards Cadillac Ranch. I almost missed seeing them off the interstate, but we finally arrived. Parked in front of us was an old beaten up Datsun with suitcases strapped to the roof. Brett and I agreed that it was the ultimate road tripping vehicle. It’s seen a lot of road. We me a couple of guys named JP and Charles; they’re a father and son. I obviously took moustache pictures of them, wished them a fun trip and waved them off. Some other travelers gave us their spray cans so we could paint the cars too. we went with the obvious tag and gave a giant moustache to the first car in line. Thus leaving out mark in Texas forever! We even saw desert mouse.

While back on the road, we stopped at every gas station to try and find some lone star beer (exclusive to Texas). We were proven unsuccessful. Keep calm and carry on.

Now entering New Mexico we became time travelers and went back in time an hour. Hello from the future, bitches! The drive was gorgeous. We’ve been driving east most of the way, we hadn’t driven into a sunset the entire trip! Through all the storms and dark skies we’ve been in, we were rewarded with a partial cloudy panoramic sunset. It was better than any discovery channel show I’ve seen. With the iPod instantly playing Jonsi and about 3 hours of sunset, we watched the sun go sleep. Not to mention we hit our 4,000 mile mark of our trip while this was happening.

We noticed that about 1/4 mile ahead of us was an old, beat up Datsun. It was JP and charlie! We’d caught up to them! I was honking and we were waving and Brett took some photos of them and we asked them to hold their new moustache cards up for another picture. I was watching the road and when I looked over, I see them holding my cards up!! So I snap a picture and am totally stoked on life right now. That was the highlight of the entire drive for me.

We arrived at the Sandia Peak Inn and I buzzed the front desk a few times. After 10 minutes of waiting, I call the hotel from my cell. Kay, the owner, runs down the stairs apologizing. No big deal, keep calm carry on. We compliment her on the great reviews her place has on yelp and tripadvisor.com. She’s flattered, I’m sure. She was just a friendly person, I wasn’t schmoozing. Well, she upgraded us to the double queen bed suite. Sweet, thanks!

After putting our stuff in the room we went to grab tapas at a place called Gecko’s. there, we met a guy named Liam. He is a 16 year resident of New Mexico. We talked about traveling throughout the entire meal and finished with asking him what bar he goes to when he’s out. He told us to go to a Anodyne over on central and 4th.

Once we get to the bar, we walk up a flight of stairs and into an open pool hall with people reading, drinking, surfing the web and playing with their dogs. This place was the best possible recommendation we could’ve asked for. We play a couple of games of pool and chat with our server about things going on. We tell her we’re leaving tomorrow and she gives us “awww too bad” what? Why too bad? What cool thing are we missing?

“Zozobra.” she replied.

We looked it up and it looks like so much fun. It’s a mini burning man for Sante Fe where there’s a giant marionette sculpture that is lit on fire. You’re supposed to go to the marionette and cast any negative energy into the flames.

There’s no way we could miss this. This trip has been great because we don’t really have anything planned so we can stay another night in New Mexico if we wanted to. We can do what we want. This is OUR road trip.

Earlier in the night at Anodyne I got an email from JP asking if we could send him the pictures Brett took of him. When we met them, we and no idea they were father and son. We found out through their email. Brett took a really great shot of them in their car in New Mexico. These two are driving from St. Louis to LA for a Japanese car show. The ultimate road tripping vehicle became an icon for me. That car was probably driven with Charlie and his dad across the country. That car has so much sentimental value and this one picture captured that split second of a father and his son on a cross country trip bonding. You guys, we captured a moment in their lives that none of us would ever forget. It was too perfect. They are going to see a picture of themselves on a road trip in the Datsun that’s been with them for so long. Super cool. I wish I had an outside shot of us driving! They also invited us to the car show in LA because they had an extra ticket

It was such an amazing day.

Waking up hung over and dragging ourselves out of bed, we finally made it to our car to get some food. Verin, the concierge, recommended we go to a place called Lil’ Dizzy’s. We took her recommendation seriously because she’s lived here a long time and goes to that place a lot. We pretty much had to try it or she would get mad at us, and we didn’t want that to happen.

Lil Dizzy’s is a small place, probably sat about 30 people. When we walked in, we were greeted with a smile from an older woman and a head nod from a jolly priest. The place smelled AMAZING! I had a quick look at the buffet to see what they had, and immediately had to have it in my belly. There was grits, fried chicken (light and dark meat) steamed veggies, potatoes, salad, rice, gumbo and bread pudding. You guys, the gumbo was THE BEST gumbo I’ve ever tasted. There was so much flavor packed into it. In the middle of our meal, the rain really started to come down a lot. It was an amazing feeling to be having authentic home cooked southern food in NOLA on a rainy day. It just felt authentic all around. Lucy and Rosalin were 2 of the nicest ladies I’ve met, ever. They were so warm and friendly, and are the definition of southern hospitality. We found out later that they were celebrities! George w. Bush ate there after Katrina hit.

Rosalin had a secret service agent assigned to her to keep en eye on her while preparing the food. She actually made him strain macaroni for her and prepare the food! He even took notes on How she was preparing the food because he wanted to make the food for himself too haha! That’s the type of place this was. It was a family, and I’m so appreciative to them for accepting us into their home and treating us not as tourists, but as guests. I was actually reminded a lot of my great grandma while I was there. If you’re even remotely near the south, you HAVE to swing by and say hello, you won’t regret it.

We took moustache pictures with them and they thought I was going to use the pictures for teasing them. Then they realized what I was doing with them and thought it was hilarious. They were so adorable and I will never forget those two wonderful ladies.

The rain picked up again and the coast guard cancelled all swamp tours in the area, so we thought it would be a good Idea to try and find some alligators on our own. We followed the Mississippi and then crossed it and drove through the nearest national park to try and find a spot where we could park and explore the bayous. The second the storm cleared we pulled over to snap some pictures. About 4 pictures in and a couple hundred feet from the car, the rain came down like a bucket of water. We made a mad dash to the car, soaked like we just came out of a pool.

We drove back to our hotel to get ready to catch a funk band at the iconic Maple Leaf Bar. But first, we grabbed dinner at a place called Jacques-imo’s next door. It was positively reviewed in yelp and it was our last dinner in NOLA. We ordered the Shrimp and alligator cheesecake, fried rabbit and sweet potatoes and deep fried drum, both dishes we’ve never had. Our waitress, Amber was super friendly and actually sat our table with us a few times to hang out. When she boxed up our food, she hooked us up with some coconut bread pudding! The food was so good, that we couldn’t waste it, so we decided to head back to the hotel to put it in our mini fridge.

While walking to our car, we saw a couple of hipster girls sitting on the hood of their red truck drinking a bottle of whiskey, heather and Hipster McGee. They were pretty much too cool for us. They made fun of hipsters, yet they had a painted keyboard and a cement block with the word “Lton” on it. W chatted for a bit, but then had to leave before I went crazy.

We went. Back to the hotel and saw that Verin was working and asked her if there was anything else to do that would be fun and closer. We met her fiancé and we all just ended up chatting about NOLA, bars and some spooky stories. That being said, we didn’t make it back to the maple leaf bar. Brian from Goorin Bros. Hat store invited us to a show at a place called the Saturn. His buddy was playing, Vox and the Hound and brian was dj’ing all night between sets. Brett and I thought that he was nice enough to invite us, so the least we could do is show up and check out a super local show.

This place was SUPER LOCALS ONLY. I also felt pretty old being there. But the band was great and brian had some rad songs on his list so it was worth checking it out. We were exhausted so we called it a night…oh, and I vomited. Good night!

Jason