Day 20 - To New Orleans and Mardi Gras Sunday

Today we traveled from San Antonio, Texas, to New Orleans, Louisiana, which took about 8 hours. We did a quick stop-over in Houston to see the office of Dr. Younan Nowzaradan, also known as Dr. Now, an Iranian-American surgeon, TV personality, and author. He specializes in vascular surgery and bariatric surgery. He is known for helping morbidly obese patients lose weight on the TLC reality television series My 600-lb Life. We are huge fans of that show... no pun intended.

Shane was worried he cheated on his diet too much and didn't make his weight goal this month.

I hope I have finally lost enough so that Dr. Now will perform my skin removal surgery.

We finally made it to the Big Easy after some bad traffic near the hotel. We immediately went out to the nearby Mardi Gras Parade to collect beaded necklaces. We luckily found lots of them discarded in the street.

Finally found Waldo.

Stopped in to hear some music.

Shane had a job interview while we were in town

There is a house in New Orleans, it's called the Rising Sun. 

We had a great dinner at Muriel's... Shane had Shrimp and Grits and I had the Pork Chops.

I believe this guy was in the Dick Tracy comic strip.

We went back to this club after dinner and heard more from another band.

It was quite crowded and the aroma of pot and puke mixed in the air. We decided to call it a night.

Day 19 - Traveling to San Antonio, Remembering the Alamo, & An Early River Walk Mardi Gras

Today we traveled from El Paso, Texas to San Antonio (about an 8 hour drive and it is only halfway thru the state). While here we visited the Alamo. Our hotel is the Drury Plaza Hotel San Antonio Riverwalk, which, as the name implies, is adjacent to the famous San Antonio River Walk. The hotel gave out free drinks to guests between 5:30 and 7, of which we took full advantage. Below are the pics from today

We could see Mexico from I-10 as we drove east this morning near El Paso. No sign of a Mexican-purchased border wall.

The speed limit throughout west Texas was 80 mph, which we liked.

The sky looks pretty cool as we drove through west Texas.

As we arrived in San Antonio, we saw they were having a floating Mardi Gras parade on the River Walk. 

We rushed over to the Alamo, as it was closing soon. We got to run through it quickly. No photos allowed inside.

A stature of David Bowie... I mean James Bowie. I'm pointing to his big knife.

Shane posed with the statue of Davey Crockett.

We got back to the floating Mardi Gras parade as a boat of drag queens went by. See the video below.

Tonight, we will walk around the River Walk some more and get some dinner. Tomorrow, we are headed to New Orleans and more Mardi Gras fun I imagine.