Day 2

The Debauchery of Chateau Bourbon

I think we all saw the Birmingham leg of our road trip as nothing more than a warm up for the events that were about to take place in New Orleans and what a warm up it was. A couple of cocktails, some old friends catching up, and a dueling piano bar are always a recipe for disaster. Thanks again to Daniel ‘Donkey Kong’ Kauffmann and ‘Why’ Todd Blanton for a wonderful display of hospitality but its time to get down to the main event. Despite my best efforts I’m pretty sure that it is impossible to mentally prepare yourself for Mardi Gras unless you have been there before. Pulling into the mean streets of NOLA was kind of like going to the beach with your family, when you get there all you want to do is jump in the water but your mom wouldn’t let unti she helped you put on your floaties and sunscreen. Everyone rolling in to New Orleans just wanted to jump into Bourbon Street and for us checking into our hotel was like putting on the floaties, we couldn’t get done with it fast enough but the Mardi Gras God’s had different plans. Unfortunately our road trip rocket ship (aka Otis) was just too tall with our camper on top to fit in the parking garage so we had to unpack all our stuff in the car and make room to put the topper inside the jeep (not a fun task when you are in the heart of probably the most exciting place on the earth at that particular moment). Finally we got settled and moved into our weekend home away from home with our 5 other roommates. In addition to my road trip companions we had the pleasure of shacking up with Frank ‘the birdman’ Wiedmar Jr., ‘Whiskey Bent’ Justin Winfield, Dane ‘Like the Dog’ Mattingly, Brett ‘how did you get that cut on your nose’ Gahm, and Joe ‘Boys on Bourbon’ Thurman. It will be hard to do that first night justice just by writing in a blog so I won’t even try but I will give you a run down on some notable events and for greater detail you will just have to wait for the release of my upcoming book, “America, You Got Got: The Story of The Greatest American Road Trip of All Time Ever. Period. Boom.” (Title is pending.) Real quick here is the jist of the night: Huge Ass Beers, Hand Grenades, Turkey Trots, and Krystal Burger. That’s about all that can be said for Day 2 on our odyssey.