Another day of driving is behind us. We’re now two-thirds of the way through our trip, and today we came pretty far: a total of just over 500 miles all told, spanning four states (Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana). We encountered no more of those mystery traffic jams like yesterday’s parting shot from I-75 (which is famous for such incidents, I might add) but there was a heckuva lot of tailgating along I-10 today.
We were about 50 miles out from Lafayette when a large semi truck ahead of us merged into the left lane, apparently in order to pass another semi truck that was ahead of him. Only he didn’t pass it; instead both trucks effectively blocked both lanes of the highway while doing about 5 MPH under the speed limit. We were right behind them at the time, and quickly found ourselves sandwiched in between the trucks and a whoooole lot of impatient, pissed-off drivers behind us.
After eventually having enough of this — the last straw was a Chevy Silverado that was so close to my ass it seemed like he wanted to hitch a ride on it — I faded to the right and dropped back, whereupon we watched the ensuing show with great wonder and amusement. That Silverado flew up on the semi in the left lane until I swear he was kissing the back of the rig’s trailer, and stuck there. If the semi driver had just tapped his brakes, the guy would have been salad dressing. Even KITT gave his semi more room when trying to drive aboard.
The truckers got their revenge, though. Eventually the two aforementioned semis positioned themselves so that one was ahead of the Silverado and the other behind, and they squeezed him into an absolute box. Must’ve freaked him out.
Finally we made it to our destination unscathed. My impression of Lafayette is that it’s a fairly old town; its poorly-maintained roads are small and Midwest-like and they meander through both residential and commercial areas without forming many straight lines. There are some quaint, classical businesses here, including an actual community pharmacy and medical supply store, which was cool — I thought had all been driven asunder by corporate chains by now.
We ate at a Thai restaurant for dinner — sorry to disappoint, but none of the local Cajun/Creole fare caught our eye based on the prices and reviews on Yelp. Breakfast tomorrow might be another story; the hotel’s breakfast options look far inferior to (and more expensive than) this morning’s excellent and affordable buffet extravaganza. Overall I’m far less impressed with tonight’s accommodations, but they’re certainly not bad and well worth the low price we paid courtesy of Priceline.com.
Wow. It sounds like the space shuttle is landing on our roof. I forgot that we’re right down the street from the Lafayette airport. Hopefully they don’t run any overnight flights that might wake me up later. Apple seems to have slept through this one, so she’s probably OK either way.
Our destination of Frisco, TX is about 400-odd miles from here and should account for just shy of 7 more hours of driving tomorrow. We’re already getting excited just being this close to the end of our journey. With luck, tomorrow I’ll be able to snap a quick photo when we cross the Texas state line for the first time.
One final word: the iPad continues to be a pleasure to type on. It’s not quite the speed and accuracy of a real, physical keyboard, but it beats an iPhone hands down.
Until tomorrow, goodnight y’all — as everyone here in Louisiana would say. (Seriously — I’ve heard “y’all” more times this evening than ever before. The front desk lady somehow managed to use it three times in one sentence!)
That whole thing with the semi-trucks reminds me of that scene in Smokey and the Bandit where the semis hide Bandit away from Sheriff Justice. YOU ARE LIVING THE MOVIE, MAN.
Except at that point Bandit and Snowman were “Eastbound and Down,” but whatever.
Ha, I was thinking about that scene, too, when I saw it happen…