Road Trip . . . surviving hundreds of miles with two teenage boys

My odometer

I survived a four day road trip covering fifteen hundred twenty five miles, visiting four colleges,  with two teenage boys in one car.  It was quite educational, in many, many ways!  There were lots of conversations about music, sports, movies, TV shows, school stories and whatever else boys tend to discuss.  I did most of the driving while the boys navigated.  That worked out pretty well until one son put us on an hour long loop . . . but I surprised myself with my patience and just made it part of our story.  We covered LOTS of miles and lots of topics and had a great time.  We also managed to eat pretty well, with only one “fast food” stop.  (That happened one evening around 6 p.m. when someone asked what was for lunch.  Lunch?  Oops, how did we miss that?)

I will confess to feeling like an old woman after so many hours sitting.  My hips, hamstrings and lower back were not very happy.  It was pretty brutal.  I made it a point to check out the hotel fitness rooms and, gees, that was quite a contrast!

Our first stop was Baton Rouge after driving eight and a half hours.  After finding our way to the LSU campus and getting our bearings we found dinner at The Chimes http://www.thechimes.com/.  I had a few raw oysters and a cup of gumbo.  Quite tasty!  If I were a really good blogger I would have photographs to show you.  However, it makes the boys crazy so I tried not to embarrass them.  The next morning I tried out the small fitness area.  The elliptical did not work so I moved on to one of two treadmills.  After 30 minutes on the treadmill it began making some noises.  I decided the other treadmill looked newer.  Guess not because I couldn’t get it to budge.  Back to the initial treadmill.  This time it would not begin at all.  Aaarrghh.  Therefore, I spied the medicine balls and went through squats, lunges, crossover lunges and abs.  I left feeling much better and ready to get back in the car for more hours.  See the fitness center?  The walls were quite bright, but it did the trick.

From Baton Rouge we traveled to New Orleans.  Due to a medical convention in the city there were absolutely NO rooms in the entire city!  I had gotten the last room available!  I had hoped against hope that when we got there something would open up, but no such luck.  So, we stayed at some motel I will not name, a few miles  outside of New Orleans.  It was not pretty.  Believe me.  I would not even take my shoes off in the room.  The closest thing to a fitness center was me trying to stretch on the bed.  (I wasn’t about to even lie on the floor.  Ick.)

We did have a great time driving around, showing the boys the sights, and had a fabulous dinner at Jacques Imo’s.  Check it out here http://jacques-imos.com/.  It was a really fun place and great food.  The boys were far too embarrassed to let me take photos of our dinner to show as proof.  Just take my word for it – delicious. The next day, before leaving, I made sure the boys had beignets before leaving.  They were in heaven! 

After driving over 5 hours (I think I told them it was only a two hour drive) we finally arrived in Oxford, Mississippi.  I was SO happy to check into a nice place where I could walk in my room without shoes!  The next morning I got up extra early and was even happier to work out my sore, tired bottom and legs in a wonderful fitness center.