Well, this view isn’t as nice to wake up to as yesterday’s. Funny to think I fell asleep in Texas and woke up nine hours later in…Texas. After a shower and no shave I headed to breakfast.



Once again the food was decent though whose idea was it to make an omelet with asparagus? I like the vegetable but bleh. Our companions today were from the UK and I delighted in getting their opinions on David Cameron (hate him), the Scotland Independence Referendum (the Scots are a bunch of whiners) and the Royal Family (who cares?).





Not much to see today as we approached Houston, though that small town with the antique rail equipment was a nice exception.



Speaking of Houston, here it is. We had an hour here but sadly there was no way to go see anything as the station was a little outside of downtown. Not that there’s anything to do down there on a Sunday.



I’d arranged on Craigslist for someone to meet the train with the Sunday papers for my Dad. It worked like a charm (though it wasn’t cheap) and I think I’ll do the same thing on all our trips from now on. Life is better when you have your papes.





The station was a total Amshack, but at least they’d decorated it with all this fun memorabilia.







We headed out of Houston, passed a ballpark that may never again see playoff baseball, and continued east.



After we crossed Lake Houston it was time for one last meal on the train.







As we were skipping dinner on the train to save our appetites for New Orleans, I went with the special which came with a salad and a roll. It was pretty good as long as you don’t mind Cafeteria style chicken. Today’s dining companions were a couple in their 80’s who were celebrating 25 years. They were sweet, and as they didn’t meet their meant to bes until they were 53, I don’t feel so stupid for being 29 and single!



After lunch it was time for our next station stop, and last in Texas, of Beaumont which is apparently some big port city.



When I took this shot I remarked “nice skyline” and another passenger yelled at me “don’t be a snob!”



Cute little station though



You can actually see some of the shipping behind the buildings



Lake Charles means we have entered Louisiana where the scenery got prettier







Our last real stop before NOLA and a last chance for me to walk around



Yep, this is definitely Louisiana





We pulled in a couple hours after sunset (and just after finishing the last of our liquor!) which annoyingly meant missing the crossing of the Mississippi River on the Long Bridge. But most importantly, we arrived 40 minutes early at 9 PM in time for a good dinner.

New Orleans







Dinner tonight would be at Luke, located in the Downtown Hilton on St. Charles Street. It had the benefit of being open until 11 PM on Sunday and having a raw bar.



My kind of welcome!





For the record, the oysters were my Dad’s…I think they taste like salt water and snot



He likes em though



Me, I was just thrilled they had steak frites



Plus whatever this was. Fruit and sorbet maybe? It seemed a good idea when I ordered it.



The faces of two very happy travelers. All in all an excellent meal and one half the cost of our one in LA. Plus being as it was New Orleans, my Dad got some wine in a to go cup for the road. Speaking of the road, we finally hit some bad luck.



Thanks local DOT, way to drop I-10 down to one lane when I’m here. Oh, quick story. Our cab driver decided we were just a bunch of good old white boys so he could tell us his paranoid theories on how black people, especially black women, try to stage accidents with him because he’s a cab driver. Wrong audience buddy, you’re talking to someone who goes to a historically black university and thinks ignorance is the enemy. But I wasn’t going to let that ruin a good evening, and we got to the MSY Hilton safe and sound.



Pretty sure this is the exact room we had last December when we visited on another train trip. A couple notes about the hotel: it’s a good one. It’s located literally across the street from MSY (though I wouldn’t suggest trying to walk to the airport) and the staff is great. They made sure we wanted a room with two beds like we’d booked, gave us water at check-in and let me have bonus points and breakfast coupons. Perfect! Speaking of breakfast it was a full hot breakfast in the restaurant.





After another too early day it was time to head back to reality and the real world. Oh, one last note about the hotel, their shuttle runs as needed and takes about one minute to get to the airport.