Jaunted

The $2 per car park entry fee was a steal, granting access to a pavilion of Air Force, Army, Coast Guard and Navy aircraft that I loved and my girlfriend loved watching me drool over. It was the first time I'd ever looked into the bomb bay of a B-52D. With tickets to actually tour the Alabama herself priced at 12 bucks a head, we decided to call our plane spotting enough and get back on the road.

Not much further down Interstate 10, another distraction appeared: The Stennis Space Center. Pulling into a combination rest stop and visitors center off Exit 2 on a Tuesday, we were quickly disappointed to learn that tours of the facility where stages of the Saturn V were tested--and where these days Space Shuttle engines are flight certified--only run Wednesday through Saturday. Fortunately, the rest area had a substitute space experience in the form of a mock-up of Aquarius, the lunar module Biloxi native and Apollo 13 pilot Fred Haise would've set down on the moon, had the crew's oxygen system not gone wonky and inspired a flick in which Bill Paxton would play Haise.

Gulf Coast Americana fully exhausted, we launched ourselves down the final stretch to New Orleans, parking just a few blocks from Acme Oyster House, another bivalve bar listed in Sex, Death & Oysters, which I'd picked up the day before. A cold gin martini with a twist and a dozen later, we walked over to Antoine's, the nearly 170-year-old restaurant where Jules Alciatore invented Oysters Rockefeller in 1899. But rather than sit in one of the rather stilted dining rooms, we tried the couple-months-old Hermes Bar next door, where the full menu is available but the attitude is a bit more relaxed. Naturally, we ordered more oysters.

Our New Orleans eating accomplished, we drove to the West Bank to stay with our friends Shelley and Peyton. Rather than head back to the French Quarter or Carrollton, we went out to a nearby Chili's where the beer was on special two-for-one. I didn't expect to have a decent time at Michael Scott's favorite restaurant, but I did, and later that night, for the first time in a long while, I was happy to settle into bed at a friend's house instead of at a hotel.

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· A Rental Car Road Trip on a Shoestring Budget [Jaunted]