New Orleans

Ah, New Orleans.  There really cannot be words to describe this city, it is truly something that you have to experience first hand to understand what it is like.  Pictures can do no justice when it comes to the people that you will see and the aromas that come from Bourbon Street.  After a great time in Nashville, New Orleans was kind of a buzz kill.  The main street that we took into downtown was Canal Street which was actually a pretty nice scene.

Bourbon Street was an experience to say the least.  As soon as you turn the corner onto the party center, the weirdness ensues, fast.  The one thing that I will never forget or be able to take back is the smell of Bourbon Street: raw sewage mixed with 3-day-old trash that’s been baking in the sun.  As far as the scene goes, call me lame but it totally is not for me.  I took note of three main demographics on Bourbon Street: older people (40-60), locals from New Orleans, and roughly 3-year post-college grads acting like they are back in college.  Seeing all of the homeless people that will literally do anything for a dollar made me just go all philosophical and took away from the actual crowd a bit.  However, it did make me realize just how fortunate I am to have every single little thing in my life that I do, even the problems that I face.  I’m worried about my next oil change while these people are worried about making it through another night.

After a stroll up and down Bourbon Street, we decided to head back to Canal Street and see what that other part of the city was like.  It smelt much nicer and was a lot more upscale.  The River Walk was pretty neat as well with little seafood restaurants everywhere.  A few minutes sufficed on the River Walk so we headed to Harrah’s Casino right in downtown to see if it was any good.  If you’ve been to Foxwoods or Mohegan Sun, no other casino will compare unless its in Vegas.  We only spent about a half hour in Harrah’s then decided our time had come to move onto the next one: Houston, Texas

Check out the rest of the photos from New Orleans on The Ultimate Road Trip Facebook page!

The Chosen Path

As seen above, this encompasses Road Trip!  With departure less than one month away, some slight changes were made to the itinerary, but this seems to be the final draft.  The trip will go as follows, respectively:

• Departure begins from just north of Boston, Massachusetts on May 23rd at 5:00 p.m. to make our longest leg of the trip down the east coast to Nashville, Tennessee
• After a day or so in Nashville, we will drive to New Orleans, Louisiana
• After seeing what New Orleans is all about, Houston, Texas will be the next stop on the trip
• While in Texas, San Antonio will be in direct path of getting out to the West Coast, so why not check it out?!
• Cutting up diagonally through New Mexico, we will make our way over to the Grand Canyon to enjoy a night under the stars
• A short drive from the Grand Canyon will have us end up in the infamous Las Vegas, Nevada, which will be the only place that a hotel room will be necessary
• After a few days/nights in Las Vegas, the boys will head out to Los Angeles/Santa Monica, California to begin the mini-trip up the west coast of the USA
• The hopes are that 4 days will be dedicated to seeing California, working from southern to northern Cali, ending the 4 day trip in the Redwood National Park
• Once out of California, Bend, Oregon will be the next stop.  If time permits, we will venture up to Portland to explore some more West Coast shenanigans
• Starting the trip back to the East Coast will be a stop that all of us are looking forward to – Yellowstone National Park.  The plan is to camp there for roughly 3 days or so
• If time permits, a stop will be made to Arches National Park in Utah
• From either Yellowstone National Park or Utah, Denver, Colorado will be the next stop on the leg  back to the East Coast
• The second longest leg of the trip then comes, from Denver to the windy city of Chicago, Illinois
• After seeing what Chicago has for us, the big apple, New York City will be the final destination on the trip before home
• Finally, after a month of driving, exploring, and extremely messed up sleep patterns, the traveling trio will be back home in Massachusetts where the memories of The Ultimate Road Trip will live with us for the rest of our lives!

The time that we will be spending in each city will be completely variable.  The goal is to get out to the West Coast as fast as possible.  All of us have seen a majority of the East Coast multiple times in our lives and this trip is all about new adventures!  Any changes that will be made to the trip itinerary will most likely be last minute decisions, but that’s the beauty of Road Trip!