We stayed in Batesville, Mississippi. The motel was OK but the water there was pretty bad. In the shower I noticed that I could use as much soap and shampoo as I liked, and I still felt strange and not clean. Kim concurred when I asked her about her level of showering satisfaction. I guess that's what hard water feels like? Yuck! Anyway we were definitely respectful of the wonders of modern water treatment technology after having experienced its absence.
Part of the way through Mississippi, I got a call on my mobile phone from a recruiter at Viant's San Francisco office (I had already done a couple of phone interviews with Viant and I was definitely only interested in the SF office) who wanted to set up an interview with someone in their Dallas office as we were passing through. The phone paid for itself right there.
Here is the motel we stayed at in Batesville.
We hit the 1,000 mile mark (from Fiid's house) in southern Mississippi.
Here's the capitol building in Jackson, Mississippi.
Here's the mural at CS's restaurant in Jackson.
It's not everyday you see a house going 75mph.
I'm not kidding, I was going 70 and it was getting away.
It almost wrecked. That woulda been cool to see and photograph...
We arrived at New Orleans at 5pm. The streets were already mostly blocked off which made it very difficult to get to our hotel. Traffic was a mess because so many of the drivers were confused tourists just like us. We found a parking lot about 10 blocks away from the hotel and walked over.
If you have never been to Mardi Gras, here is what to expect. There are weeks and weeks leading up to the day of Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday). This year, that day falls on this coming Tuesday, February 16. Perhaps you have seen pictures of people wearing strings of plastic beads, dancing in the streets, etc. This happens on a huge scale. There is no open container law, and the legal drinking age is 18, not 21 as in the rest of the U.S. So there are tons of 18-21 year olds here just to drink, and everybody sells cups of various alcoholic drinks. So there are tons of college age kids and adults wandering around drinking. Glass bottles are outlawed so it's all plastic cups and bottles. The "French Quarter" is a part of town where the streets are all blocked off right now. There are tons of bars and shops which have second and third story balconies. The streets are absolutely packed with partiers (with drinks as described before) who are hoping to see a spectacle of the following type: An individual on the blacony has some nice, pretty plastic beads. This individual sees an attractive member of the opposite sex on the street and yells "SHOW YOUR TITS", or some variation in the less common case where the person with the beads is female. About 1 in 25 or 1 in 50 propositioned people actually lifts their shirt and shows their breasts, genitalia, etc. Suddenly 50 cameras flash, immortalizing this moment of exposure for everyone to see. The person on the balcony compensates that adventurous individual with the beads. And it repeats, again and again.
We have seen a LOT of naked breasts today.
Qualcomm has amusing billboards. I am rusty at Calculus but I believe the solution is booth 3125.
Here's our hotel room in New Orleans.
There were some interesting trees in Mississippi, mainly because they were the only thing blooming there.
So I caught up.
The bayou.
More bayou.
New Orleans skyline.
More New Orleans skyline.