18 Louisiana
I've been to Louisiana twice, and the two trips were disturbingly similar.
1. Drive from Cleveland to New Orleans with a car full of fraternity brothers for a fraternity event? Check.
2. Spend 3 days in agonizingly hot and humid weather. Check.
3. Drink and eat far too much? Check.
4. Drive back to Cleveland exhausted? Check.
Of these, the first trip was by far the most memorable. There is a chapter of Phi Kappa Theta in New Orleans that hosts a PhiKap softball tournament every spring. In my final semester of college, Spring 2000, that softball tournament fortuitously lined up with our spring break. I immediately proposed that we enter said tournament, a choice that was met with general acclaim.
Finding people who were interested in going to New Orleans for spring break wasn't the problem. Getting them there was; for whatever reason we didn't have minimum of 4 reliable cars needed to transport 15 people to New Orleans. Eventually we decided that renting a 15 passenger van was the way to go. Of course, we were all in college, so none of us were old enough to rent a van. We were able to work around that because Neal was married, so the usual 25 year age limit was waived and he got us a large Ford Econoline van. Then all we had to do was cram 15 brothers and all their clothing for 3 full days into it. I no longer remember the full list of attendees, but a partial list includes at least Neal, myself, Jason, Pat, Gabe, Jimi and John.
We left on Wednesday evening and drove straight through the night. According to GoogleMaps, the drive should have taken about 17 hours, but 15 passenger vans are not notoriously fast or fuel efficient, plus we were all crammed in like sardines. This combination of factors forced us to stop more often than usual. We rotated among three drivers, which wasn't technically allowed because only the driver of record (aka, Neal) was legally allowed to drive. Clearly expecting NP to drive 20 hours both ways wasn't going to happen, so Jason and myself subbed in. This was the first two times that I drove past Lynchburg. It also accounted for my first visits to Alabama and Mississippi, and if I recall correctly it was also notable for my first trip to Waffle House.
In any event, we finally arrived at the dodgy hotel that had been booked by the New Orleans PhiKaps. You could tell it was classy because there was not one but two channels of hard core pornography run off a DVD player in the front office. We didn't stay at the hotel much as were two busy drinking taking advantage of the cultural opportunities of the French Quarter. During the day the Quarter is quite nice, with plenty of good food and music. At night, it's pretty much the same, but with several thousand drunken idiots waving beads at every women in sight. We were there on St. Patrick's Day (a Friday night), which was a madhouse. I can't imagine what Mardi Gras must be like.
What else? We went to a crawfish broil at a bar owned by a PhiKap alum, which was a good time. We hung out with PhiKaps from a bunch of the southern chapters. We were the only northerners, and the only non-stereotypical fraternity boys there. This also meant that we got destroyed in softball (which we didn't mind). During the day those of us who weren't indisposed wandered the city. Jackson Square is really gorgeous. We had beignet at Cafe du Monde, you know, the usual tourist things. And then when we drove all the way back.
The second trip to New Orleans was in Fall 2001 for the Phi Kappa Theta Convention. This time I drove my car with Hank and Josh and Jon, so we got there somewhat faster. There was a few other fraternity conventions in town the same weekend, and the French Quarter was actually kind of frightening, just a horde of stupid drunk college students. Not my scene at all.
I'd like to go back to New Orleans one day, preferably for Jazz Fest which looks like my kind of good time.
Scoreboard
Full Credit - 12: Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Virginia, New York, North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, Louisiana
Partial Credit - 3: Delaware, Connecticut, Maryland
No Credit - 3: South Carolina, Rhode Island, Vermont
EDIT - Notes indicate the spring break trip was in 2000. Updated. Also, apparently Mike didn't go.
1. Drive from Cleveland to New Orleans with a car full of fraternity brothers for a fraternity event? Check.
2. Spend 3 days in agonizingly hot and humid weather. Check.
3. Drink and eat far too much? Check.
4. Drive back to Cleveland exhausted? Check.
Of these, the first trip was by far the most memorable. There is a chapter of Phi Kappa Theta in New Orleans that hosts a PhiKap softball tournament every spring. In my final semester of college, Spring 2000, that softball tournament fortuitously lined up with our spring break. I immediately proposed that we enter said tournament, a choice that was met with general acclaim.
Finding people who were interested in going to New Orleans for spring break wasn't the problem. Getting them there was; for whatever reason we didn't have minimum of 4 reliable cars needed to transport 15 people to New Orleans. Eventually we decided that renting a 15 passenger van was the way to go. Of course, we were all in college, so none of us were old enough to rent a van. We were able to work around that because Neal was married, so the usual 25 year age limit was waived and he got us a large Ford Econoline van. Then all we had to do was cram 15 brothers and all their clothing for 3 full days into it. I no longer remember the full list of attendees, but a partial list includes at least Neal, myself, Jason, Pat, Gabe, Jimi and John.
We left on Wednesday evening and drove straight through the night. According to GoogleMaps, the drive should have taken about 17 hours, but 15 passenger vans are not notoriously fast or fuel efficient, plus we were all crammed in like sardines. This combination of factors forced us to stop more often than usual. We rotated among three drivers, which wasn't technically allowed because only the driver of record (aka, Neal) was legally allowed to drive. Clearly expecting NP to drive 20 hours both ways wasn't going to happen, so Jason and myself subbed in. This was the first two times that I drove past Lynchburg. It also accounted for my first visits to Alabama and Mississippi, and if I recall correctly it was also notable for my first trip to Waffle House.
In any event, we finally arrived at the dodgy hotel that had been booked by the New Orleans PhiKaps. You could tell it was classy because there was not one but two channels of hard core pornography run off a DVD player in the front office. We didn't stay at the hotel much as were two busy drinking taking advantage of the cultural opportunities of the French Quarter. During the day the Quarter is quite nice, with plenty of good food and music. At night, it's pretty much the same, but with several thousand drunken idiots waving beads at every women in sight. We were there on St. Patrick's Day (a Friday night), which was a madhouse. I can't imagine what Mardi Gras must be like.
What else? We went to a crawfish broil at a bar owned by a PhiKap alum, which was a good time. We hung out with PhiKaps from a bunch of the southern chapters. We were the only northerners, and the only non-stereotypical fraternity boys there. This also meant that we got destroyed in softball (which we didn't mind). During the day those of us who weren't indisposed wandered the city. Jackson Square is really gorgeous. We had beignet at Cafe du Monde, you know, the usual tourist things. And then when we drove all the way back.
The second trip to New Orleans was in Fall 2001 for the Phi Kappa Theta Convention. This time I drove my car with Hank and Josh and Jon, so we got there somewhat faster. There was a few other fraternity conventions in town the same weekend, and the French Quarter was actually kind of frightening, just a horde of stupid drunk college students. Not my scene at all.
I'd like to go back to New Orleans one day, preferably for Jazz Fest which looks like my kind of good time.
Scoreboard
Full Credit - 12: Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Virginia, New York, North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, Louisiana
Partial Credit - 3: Delaware, Connecticut, Maryland
No Credit - 3: South Carolina, Rhode Island, Vermont
EDIT - Notes indicate the spring break trip was in 2000. Updated. Also, apparently Mike didn't go.