Jefferson County

In New Orleans we took a bus, followed by a train into town, then took a ferry down the Mississippi and had a look in town, the cathedral was closed so we went back tomorrow for it. It was so quiet and cool in there, did you know that the 200 year old church has lightbulb chandeliers? Then we went down Bourbon Street, it was hot and smelled like smoke... cigarette smoke... We stopped at Hard Rock Cafe, for the first time in ages, for dinner, I had to share ribs with dad. At first, I was disappointed I had to have ribs seeing as there was macaroni and cheese on the menu... I found a new love for ribs though! When we finally made i out of the alleyways, I was NOT upset. We took a train, then a bus, and got back to the RV. Day 2 wasn't that bad, we didn't do too much though, we stocked up on supplies for the last time, saw the cathedral, had Popeyes (I didn't like it, KFC is better), and went on the oldest functioning street car ride around the garden district. Come day 3, we got up early for the alligator swamp tours. It was great! We saw two alligators right off the bat, wild boars and raccoons, beautiful scenery and a small fishing village. We saw the alligators being fed marshmallows, why? Because alligators will eat things that are small, white and float on the water... like turtle eggs and marshmallows. It was fun, and only Jared got eaten! (He didn't... duh)

We headed into Houston for the second time, driving past all the flooding damage from hurricane Harvey. We dropped the RV back off at Tom and Jean's place, rested for a while, appreciated the size of an actual house in comparison to the RV... good times. When we needed to go, we went in Tom's truck to the airport. Once we got all our bags out, we said goodbye to Tom and checked in. After waiting for boarding, we -well- boarded and saw that the plane was the same as the one we arrived on. I managed to sleep twice for 30-60 minutes, watch The Incredibles, Diary of a Wimpy Kid The Long Haul and the Lego Batman Movie. The best parts of the plane rides are takeoff and landing, takeoff blasts you against your seat whilst landing gives you a bumpy ride (which I like for some reason...). We transferred from one plane to the next at Auckland, glad to be in NZ all the way no matter how hard the rain, and flew home. When we landed in Tauranga, we saw Aunty Kay waiting for us at the end of the departure gateway. She helped us take our 10 bags home as we retold our adventures.Read more