Road Trip East Day 4: New Orleans, LA to Knoxville, TN

I woke up at around 9am this morning and went for a final walk around the French Quarter. My friend Jeff has been to NoLa a few times and he introduced me to beignets, which are a deep fried square doughnut topped with an avalanche of powdered sugar. I texted him and asked for the best place to get beignets and he told me to head to Cafe du Monde. It's just across from Jackson Square, so I headed over there and found a table in their immense outdoor seating patio. The place is crowded and I can see why--their beignets are fantastic! You get 3 per plate and they arrive piping hot, steaming, and drowned in powdered sugar. Everything is sticky because the sugar gets everywhere. I also had a New Orleans style cafe au lait with chicory coffee, which was strong but delicious.

After I snarfed my beignets, I walked around a bit more but it was already very hot and sweaty so I went back to the hotel and checked out. I was so sad to leave the W, but I had to press on. My drive out of New Orleans took me further east on I-10 over the other side of Lake Pontchartrain. I can see why the two main routes out of New Orleans were clogged with traffic during Katrina, as they are only two lanes each way and there's no other way to escape the area. There are signs on the causeway that say "Hurricane Evacuation Route" but that's not going to do any good if everyone else in the city is trying to go the same way as well.

I left I-10 behind after 4 days of only heading east and turned northeast on I-59. About 40 miles outside of New Orleans, you cross the border into Mississippi. The further away from the coast I got, the more the landscape changed. The land became rolling instead of pancake flat and there were pine trees lining the road. The dirt was an orange yellow color that was very bright and unique. 59 goes through Hattiesburg, which is the site of Southern Mississippi University.

I then passed into Alabama, and the landscape became even greener with big trees lining the highway and the road even more hilly. I went through Tuscaloosa and Birmingham. Both had higher traffic than outside the cities, but no traffic jams. A lot of construction, however, which was sort of annoying.

After Birmingham, the road goes through Georgia for about 20 miles and then crosses into Tennessee. Overall I covered 5 states today! The scenery in Tennessee is very pretty, with tree covered hills and green valleys. It reminded me of Vermont or upstate NY. At one point I saw some hills that look like Mohonk.

The only reason I have heard of Chattanooga, TN is because of the Glenn Miller jazz song, "Chattanooga Choo-Choo", but apparently it is a real historical train. It was just around sunset when I arrived in Chattanooga and I saw a billboard advertising Sugar's Ribs, Voted #1 in 2008! I knew I had to try this place. Sugar's is located on a high cliff overlooking the valley and the highway so it had a great view of the sunset. I had a half rack of pork ribs, cornbread and corn on the cob. It was so good! They had all different kinds of sauces to try, including super hot, vinegary, sour and sweet. My favorite was the Tennessee sweet style sauce. I also got to watch some of the USA/Czech exhibition soccer game on ESPN weirdly enough.

After the ribs I got back on the road and ended up in Knoxville, TN for the night. Just as the sun was setting I kept seeing these little flashing lights by the side of the road and I couldn't think of what they were, until I realized they were fireflies! It's been so long since I saw them!

Tomorrow I will spend the night with my friend who just graduated from UVA Law. She lives in Charlottesville, VA.