We arrived home shortly ago. We began this morning in New Orleans at about 10:10. One side note on last evening - we had been paying $24 a night for parking at the hotel only because on the side streets in the French Quarter there were no spots. However, last night I found one on Royal St. and parked there, and the car made it. No break-in's, no tickets although we did receive a parking ticket later this morning when we left our car in what we thought was an "ok" area for about 15 minutes but returned to a pink-slip of paper on the car.
Anyway, we left and soon after leaving I noticed something awry with the car. My guess was that there was a tire problem. We had already had a tire problem upon leaving the zoo because we had run over a screw. Caleb and I changed the tire in the belly of a building yesterday afternoon while it stormed. So, I thought it was the spare or perhaps the other front tire giving me the grief. I had already purchased two new rear tires before leaving on the trip. The problem was characterized by a shaking of the steering wheel in my hands and rhythmic thumping as I traveled down the road to Baton Rouge. We could travel about 60 mph without my hands vibrating too much. At a Baton Rouge Walmart, the Express Lube and Tire told us that it would be a 3.5 hour wait. So on we traveled to Port Allen, right across the river from B.R. A very nice gentleman and his wife helped us at their local tire joint. He balanced a new front tire, fixed the one with the screw and sent us on our way. For awhile a little better, then worse but not bad enough to stop. We traveled about 60 mph the rest of the way home, approximately 9 hours worth.
On the way we stopped at Sonic twice, Subway, a Schlotzskys - however you spell it - for a bathroom break for Jeb, and a couple of other gas stops.
Good to be home. No bad mail. No bad phone messages. Grass green, plants and dog alive.
Wednesday we visited the Audubon Zoo, one of our favorites. For the most part, things there seemed to be back to normal though they were probably a little understaffed due to the absence of personnel at the snack/drink shops/carts. The animals, with no notable exceptions, were present and made them themselves quite visible. After the zoo, we changed the tire, rested in the hotel, and drove around N.O. some to get a feel for the hurricane damage. More on that in a later post.
We debated stopping along the way home and letting the kids swim one more time in a hotel pool and jump from bed to bed. Obviously, we did not. By the way, they did get Leslie to jump from bed to bed in the hotel. That was their big goal.
Zoos we have visited:
Aububon
Fort Worth
Dallas
Abilene
Waco
Caldwell Zoo in Tyler
Some small zoo in north Mississippi, maybe Starkville
Columbia, South Carolina
San Diego, California
Nashville, Tennessee
Washington, D.C.
San Antonio
Amarillo
Albuquerque
Oklahoma City
Anyway, we left and soon after leaving I noticed something awry with the car. My guess was that there was a tire problem. We had already had a tire problem upon leaving the zoo because we had run over a screw. Caleb and I changed the tire in the belly of a building yesterday afternoon while it stormed. So, I thought it was the spare or perhaps the other front tire giving me the grief. I had already purchased two new rear tires before leaving on the trip. The problem was characterized by a shaking of the steering wheel in my hands and rhythmic thumping as I traveled down the road to Baton Rouge. We could travel about 60 mph without my hands vibrating too much. At a Baton Rouge Walmart, the Express Lube and Tire told us that it would be a 3.5 hour wait. So on we traveled to Port Allen, right across the river from B.R. A very nice gentleman and his wife helped us at their local tire joint. He balanced a new front tire, fixed the one with the screw and sent us on our way. For awhile a little better, then worse but not bad enough to stop. We traveled about 60 mph the rest of the way home, approximately 9 hours worth.
On the way we stopped at Sonic twice, Subway, a Schlotzskys - however you spell it - for a bathroom break for Jeb, and a couple of other gas stops.
Good to be home. No bad mail. No bad phone messages. Grass green, plants and dog alive.
Wednesday we visited the Audubon Zoo, one of our favorites. For the most part, things there seemed to be back to normal though they were probably a little understaffed due to the absence of personnel at the snack/drink shops/carts. The animals, with no notable exceptions, were present and made them themselves quite visible. After the zoo, we changed the tire, rested in the hotel, and drove around N.O. some to get a feel for the hurricane damage. More on that in a later post.
We debated stopping along the way home and letting the kids swim one more time in a hotel pool and jump from bed to bed. Obviously, we did not. By the way, they did get Leslie to jump from bed to bed in the hotel. That was their big goal.
Zoos we have visited:
Aububon
Fort Worth
Dallas
Abilene
Waco
Caldwell Zoo in Tyler
Some small zoo in north Mississippi, maybe Starkville
Columbia, South Carolina
San Diego, California
Nashville, Tennessee
Washington, D.C.
San Antonio
Amarillo
Albuquerque
Oklahoma City
posted by Brian Miller at 7:39 PM
1 Comments:
It's been a while, but the Gladys Porter zoo in Brownsville was well worth the visit - consider adding it to the list.
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