maybe I should stop worrying and get some sleep
I just got back from my second trip to Louisiana this summer and, this time, can say clearly what we all would have expected: Louisiana is gorgeous and should be preserved and loved, while Texas should be fenced in and destroyed.
Last night we drank and listened to jazz. I woke up this morning in a wonderful old hotel in New Orleans. I read, watched the rain, and had breakfast in the French Quarter. We took a boat ride through a swamp and learned the history of a small Cajun town from a mulleted boy and the nicest waitress I've ever met. We ate fresh boiled crab and learned that alligators like marshmallows. It's all beautiful and everything feels like it's where it should be.
We drove home through Texas surrounded by the disturbingly beautiful yellow lights strung up around the towers of the oil refineries. Drove on the 12 lane freeways stocked full of SUVs past a scenery of stripmall chain restaurant Lexus dealership Volkswagen dealership Citgo McDonald's Popeyes stripmall stripmall Enterprise stripmall chain restaurant Texaco Valero stripmall RV park strip club hotel motel Jack-in-the-Box strip club stadium sized church stripmall chain restaurant Circuit City Target superstore McDonald's Hummer dealership stripmall chain restaurant apartment complex McDonald's
It's Conservative Land: a George W, gas-guzzling, artery clogging, personality quenching theme park.
This sounds preachy and silly, and I'm sure there are very nice sections of this state. Perhaps it's just the drive from Beaumont to Houston that is particularly terrible. You could say I feel this way because I've only seen the best parts of Louisiana and the worst of Texas, but I think my intense feelings for each say something on their own.
Last night we drank and listened to jazz. I woke up this morning in a wonderful old hotel in New Orleans. I read, watched the rain, and had breakfast in the French Quarter. We took a boat ride through a swamp and learned the history of a small Cajun town from a mulleted boy and the nicest waitress I've ever met. We ate fresh boiled crab and learned that alligators like marshmallows. It's all beautiful and everything feels like it's where it should be.
We drove home through Texas surrounded by the disturbingly beautiful yellow lights strung up around the towers of the oil refineries. Drove on the 12 lane freeways stocked full of SUVs past a scenery of stripmall chain restaurant Lexus dealership Volkswagen dealership Citgo McDonald's Popeyes stripmall stripmall Enterprise stripmall chain restaurant Texaco Valero stripmall RV park strip club hotel motel Jack-in-the-Box strip club stadium sized church stripmall chain restaurant Circuit City Target superstore McDonald's Hummer dealership stripmall chain restaurant apartment complex McDonald's
It's Conservative Land: a George W, gas-guzzling, artery clogging, personality quenching theme park.
This sounds preachy and silly, and I'm sure there are very nice sections of this state. Perhaps it's just the drive from Beaumont to Houston that is particularly terrible. You could say I feel this way because I've only seen the best parts of Louisiana and the worst of Texas, but I think my intense feelings for each say something on their own.