The Devil....OOPS!!! I Mean Melaney Went Down to Georgia (Same Diffrence lol)

Oh man I can already tell this one is gonna be a long one (Thats what she said....)! but I guess thats what I get for not updating this as often as I should!

So I flew my friend Crystal in from Georgial, she is stationed out about 2 hours away from me out here, so she could do the drive to Atlanta with me. When she got here I wanted her to see every thing that there is to see in Utah!...we were done in like 5 hours haha! We went on a tour of the confrence center and walked arround temple suare and went to the Beehive house. It was really cool :)

We started our road trip super early.. .. yeah we were up before the sun....and we made our way out to the Grand canyon. We decided to stop and take pictures of evey state sign as we drove them. So, we drove out toward Zions National Park and we had been driving for like 3 hours when we saw this place from the road... so you know we HAD to stop haha!

We didnt buy anything but we still got out to look arround because it was awesome. Then, it wasnt long before we started to see signs for this indian cave/ museum...and so, you know we HAD to stop for that too haha! it was actually pretty cool...they had some dinosaur tracks in there and they had a huge rock collection and it was seriusly a huge cave that the guys family had turned into a bar...lol it really just looked like this guys excuse to brag about his family history and to seel a bunch of crap. I have some pictures of it but none are really intresting or wortht the blog space...it was cool but we didnt stay long. So, we kept going and drove like forever through these really cool mountain ranges.... and we had to stop to get a tumble weed out of my car...

It had started making all kinds of noise so we had to clean  that nasty grill! Then we kept on keepin on.... we were told that the north rim of the grand canyon wasnt going to open untill may 15 so we were like 3 weeks to early for the short trip...so we had to go arround to the south rim which added another 3 hours to our tirp...but it was TOTALLY worth it! I am sure most of you have done the family trip to the grand canyon before but my parents were never to big on the idea of taking us all to just go stare at a big hole in the ground haha! and honesly, i get that... BUT that being said, it was so beautiful! I still dont even belive it was real! It looked like a painted backdrop! The whole things is kinda hidden by trees (at least on the south rim) untill you get close enought and then all of the sudden there us this HUGE hole in the ground! and it is so colorful and just absoulutly amazing! pictures cant even do it justice! So, crystal and I, being, well, crystal and I, decided to hop the fenc that was put there for our protection haha but we thought it was hilarious to take pictures pretending we were falling in hahaha! thats just our humor... so we got as close as we could...but as you can see from some of the pictures it was a really windy day so it was scary...im not gonna lie! but was funny to watch the other tourists get all nervous watching us haha!

haha the 2nd pic is when the wind almost blew me into the grand canyon so i had to grab on for dear life hahaha!! yes, my blog readers get to see some pictures that i did not post on facebook where my family would see them and lecture me hahaha!! Id never hear the end of it! Well after we got our fill of the grand canyon we drove through arizona and then new mexico. We wanted to stop and get some real hand made indian mocasins so we pulled up to this place that had some really cool dinosaurs out front!...and you know we had to take pictures...

 Man I was hungry! Look at the huge bite I took out of that guy!!! lol well.... the sad story here is that when we pulled up to get the mocasins...the place had JUST closed like 6 mins ago and the people were still there but the doors were locked...we were sad! so, we didnt get out mocasins...on my way back out to The west side ill stop and get some :) it was kinda dissapointing but the cool photo op made it worth it :)..... but then i was wearing saldals and got a bunch of little thorn things stuck in my flip flop and it went so deep that they actually got through to my feet! ouchie!!! well we continued on trhough all of new mexico, we stopped in albequirkee (yeah i cant spell that and im not gonna run spell check on this one) and all i could think of was how Ethel Mertz was from there! hahaha. We reaced the New mexico/ texas border at like 3 am and we checked into an airforce base hotell and knocked out! we had driven about 19 hours and gone 980 miles or so. yeah what a day!

Ok so we woke up at 7 the next morning and hit the road again! We had the ambitious goal of geting through all of texas and down lousiana to new orleans.... yeah that was a long day! we stopped off and got some REAL mexican food...I hadnt had any in a while cuz lets face it, I had just spent the last year in provo...we spent a lot of the day just driving. Crystal actually had me stopp along the side of a farm and she pulled some fresh real cotton for me to see how it grows naturally hahah ummm yeah that was so illeagl! lol but it was awesome! I still have it in my car as a littls souveneer :).... as we drove off we saw a sign that said "Tresspassers will be shot" haha good thing we saw that AFTER or we may not have done it... lol nawww...

Well we drove...and drove.....and DROVE ...................................and still drove.........all day we drove through texas! It was kinda nasty looking desert in the morning but by the evening time we had reached the pretty parts that were very green and we started seeing the HUGE mgea church complexes out there. it was funny! they have church buildings the size of malls! thats when i knew we were in the south and the bible belt. So we FINALLY made it through to louizana and it was already getting dark but we were able to get pictures of the state sign :) We drove down the entire length of the stae and it actually went pretty fast. We drove through some swamp gas! it was crazy! i kept getting this nast film all over my car hahah! thats how muggy and steamy and swampy it was there! i had to keep wasing my windos so i could see! I also like tripled the amout of bugs on my grill in lousiana alone! but it was really kinda cool ...that part of the drive was when i really started to feel like i was in a whole new part of the world!  So we drove over the mississippi river! it was really cool to actually see it with my own eyes but it was dark so i couldnt get any pictures and we drove over a bridge in an industrial area so it would have been all nasty looking so i decided not to get pictures....and we were really tired. we had been pushing ourselves to make it to New orleans so that we could spend most of the next day in the city. So we checked into a hotel like 10 miles outside of the city...... story time: when we got there, a laker game had just gotten out when they wre playing in new orleans and some people were still in the parking lot and some were checking into the hotel...and crystal and I were like the only white people in the parking lot. so we go pay for our room and there is this couple inside and the lady is at the desk paying and her man is sitting in a chair waiting for her. Im not gonna lie, i saw him looking at my booty but ...ehhh it happens so i just kept on doing my thing. Crystal went up to the room to get settled and I went back to the car to get my toothbrush out of the car. on my way back in i walked past the couple from inside. as I walked past, the lady smaked the guy and said really loud "If I catch you looking again in gonna cover your  'EFFIN'(cesnsored) eyes!" hahaah hmm I wonder what he was looking at? lol I guess they dont get many "whootys" (white girl with a booty) out there! well this day was 18 hours and we went to bed at 2 and went about 800 miles or so.

Ahhh day 3...my fave day! we woke up at 9 showered and got dressed then headed out to explore new orleans.... I LOVE NEW ORLEANS!!!!! its so intresting! I am still obsessed with it! it has such a rich history and intresting arctecture and its in a crazy location and has a culture of its own! I love it so much! There is no place else like it...at least that I have been! We drove over where the mississippi rive dimps into the gulf of mexico...we saw the gulf of mexico and then we saw a sawmp up close! it was crazy! tress just growing out of water! then we saw some bayous! those are crazy ond only exist in a couple of staes in the south! I wanna go explore one some day! im kinda obsessed with them! i didnt think they actuall existed!  well we get into the city and we parked at the welcome center and walked about a block to one of the citys above grond cemitaries. These were pretty cool and kinda creepy! If you have seen Disnesy "The frog Princess", these are the semitaries they are running with the talisan at the end when the little voodoo people come and take the black magic man at the end.... they are real! crazy hu! So, this toumb with all of the X's on it is the toumb of marie laveau....who was a famous voodoo pristess.....the ledgeand is that if you make 3 X's on her toum, knock 3 times, spin 3 times and leave an offering for her, you will get a wish because even in her death she is that powerful.so....we did it :) and I dont wanna ay waht my wish was but so far.... its comming pretty true ! people left things like mardigras beads, alchol, money flowes sea shells... it was really cool.

So we finished up at the cemitaried and went into the french quarter which is the part that new orleans is famous for...thats where burbin street is... and yes thats me pole dancing on the street sign haha...then we stopped in a store to look at some beads and i wrestled an aligator lol... i got some lkers and dodger REAL mardi gras beads...but dont worry i paied for them i didnt flash anyone haha! and we tried on some masks too! man all of this made me really wanna go to Mardi gras!! it sounds like so much fun! to bad all of the tourists turned it in to one big drunken sex fest :( the whole prinipal behind it sounds cool! its parades but on by diffrent people every day for like 2 weeks! they have big dances and throw things to the crowed like beads from floats and every one dresses up and wear masks! i really wanna go! whos in??? This picture is of some chick getting married at the big chapple they have there...and she had her own little parade down the stree with a jazz band and everything! it was pretty rad! I would totally do that!!! and thats my face in a mardi gras mask :) improvement? lol

so, we kept walking arrounf and went into a bunch of shops and enjoyed looking at all of the cool shops that have the balconys and plants hanging from them. there was live jazz and street performers! eriously, it looked just like neworleans square in disnelyand! it was crazy! they really did a good job of capturing it! ....im not gonna lie... because burbon street is full of a bunch of bars that never close...its kinda a dirty city in some parts...they actually tell you to watch where you step to make sure you arent walking itn puke hahah! my kind of city! but we walked arrounf to this preety park area and to the famous street that new orleans ins know for its like claude and st francis or something liek that... then we found the beautiful catholic cathedral that is always depicted in new orleans. that part of the city was really croswed! its in this area where you can catch an old school steam boat and take aride up a part of the mississippi rive "mark twain" style.

Then after all of that, we got hungry and we wanted to eat on a balcony so we walked arround till we found a place with balcony dining. We lucked out because the only place we could fin just happened to have really ...really good food and good service..and really good prices! i dont remember what it was called but it was amazing! inside was decorated with trees like a bayou (pirated of the carabean style). So we sat on the balcony and enjoyed the live jazz and the wedding parade. I got the new orleans classics trio which was gumbo, jambalaya and red beans and rice...it was sooo good! i wanna go back so bad and get more! man that stuff was good! i highly recommend to everyone that you take a trip to new orleans at least once in your life!!

We ate our food then had to leave :( it was sad! but we agreed that we would be back before i go back to utah. We drove arround the city for a while trying to find some of the hurricane katrina dammahe...we drove arround for like 2 hours cuz we kept getting lost because there was still a lot of construction on the bridges and levies.... but we could see in down town how high up the water wen on the freeway overpasses! it was crazy! you could see the parts of the building that were under water. i dont have a picture of that but that would have been an intresting one to have for this blog. We found where all of the houses were that had washed away and may of them had rebuild their homes and there were brightly colored and in SUPER high "stilts" almost 2 stories high to be extra safe. Well after that we hit the roas arrounf 4 pm and made the drive straght through. We went throuh the rest of lousiana, through a small chunk of mississippi then up through alabama and into Georgia. And we made it to crystals house at 3am. the total trip took 3 days and about 2600 miles. it was so much fun! it was awesome to get to spend that time with Crystal and to get to see the country! The shouth is hot and humid but it is also sooo green and pretty! there are so manynatural sources of water! it really is nothing like any other are that i have ever seen before! trees in the water... green everywhere! its so lush and preety! Im still waiting to see some fireflies but I am told they will be here next month yey!!! im excited!!! So, all in all, it was an awesome trip! I made it without any car trouble and with out getting lost. i really have been blessed!!!