Brakos' NFL Tour 2009

Day 1 - Friday, Sept 11

You know that kid's song "Rain, Rain, Go Away"? Yeah, preach it kiddos. Areal flood watches in the area, constant downpours, but surprisingly almost no lightning. This storm acted more like a tropical storm than your typical Southern thunderstorms. And this is going to persist through Monday. Thank God we're in a dome.

We left Houston just as the sun was in our faces heading down I-10 eastbound (stupid east-facing sun, 'bout near blinded us). Our dry spell was short lived, almost as though the Texas/Louisiana border was the divider between dry and wet.

We finally got into town around 1:30, checked into the Best Western on Canal, and waited for the rain to let up. It took it's jolly-good time, but finally started tapering off around 4 in the afternoon. I thought some of you guys would like this sign I found not too far out. LOL

Some window-shopping, panhandler-dodging, weather-watching, and general meandering later, it was time for dinner. And where else better to go than a local restaraunt? You know what they say, When in Rome... Okay, so it isn't Rome. Gimme a break here, okay? LOL

The French Quarter Pizzeria on Decatur, a block off Canal, gets the Brakos Seal of Approval. Not that restaraunts give a crap or anything. LOL We got ourselves The Big Easy, huge-ass pizza that has just about everything that should go on a pizza. Maybe it's because we had an early lunch or something, but Megann ate more than I did, and that almost never happens. LOL

These pics were from a short walk I took tonight around 10:00, during some off-and-on showers.

 

Dude thats like the best trip in the world anyone could think of. There really isnt anything else i could think of thats better.

sweet pics

 

brakos this is epic awsomeness

 

Awesome brakos!!! Keep the pics coming!

 

Good stuff, Brakos!

 

Awesome dude!!

 

Day 2 - Saturday, Sept 12

Whoever the kids were singing to yesterday, it mostly worked. A surprisingly nice day overall in downtown New Orleans. Well, except for that tornado warning over the Ponchatrain about 4:00. Not that I was paying much attention, mostly pissed because it interrupted my Houston/(5)Okla St. football coverage. Go Coogs! 45-35 :dance:

As I digress, the morning started off a bit drizzly, but cleared up later in the morning. We headed out to the Garden District (which is just south of downtown New Orleans). It's one of those national historic landmark places where they try to keep the buildings looking like they did from the outside. It's a very nice part of town, but you can still see some sections that Hurricane Katrina caused damage to.

Headed back to our hotel for lunch, then meandered around the French Quarter once again. In some strange fashion, we had thundershowers all around us, but none ever made it here. The UH/OSU game was on TV (surprisingly) at 2:30, and we stayed and watched the whole thing. After the onside kick at the end of the 1st half the neighbors called and told us to turn it down LOL. Dan always gets rambunctious when the Coogs play LOL. Then during halftime we had a tornado warning because there was a radar-indicated waterspout over Lake Ponchatrain. No damage that I've heard of, but it still interrupted the start of the 2nd half, which all-in-all isn't a bad thing. If you watched the game, you know why LOL.

Arby's for dinner tonight. Not as good as last night's dinner, but is that really a surprise? LOL

Gameday tomorrow! Hopefully we remember to actually take pictures. We completely forgot about the camera during the Texans/Vikings game, so no guarantees. LOL

As far as pics from today, Megann's hiding the camera somewhere, and she's already zonked out, so I'll get the pics uploaded tomorrow night. I think she has it in her purse LOL

 

I want pics.

 

It wasn't my fault! LOL

Day 3 - Sunday, Sept 13 (Lions at Saints)

Well, I picked the right city to start out in, as the New Orleans Saints defeated the Detroit Lions 45-27 in a closer battle than most expected. As compared to the Texans getting slaughtered by the Jets... it's Chris Myers' fault. LOL

Yesterday's excitement from the Coogs/OKST game yesterday transferred over into Sunday's matchup. The Superdome was about 90% capacity, and the crowd got into the game early as the Saints prolific offense put up two quick touchdowns on the arm of Drew Brees to take a 14-0 lead. Detroit put up some power of their own, closing the gap to 14-10 after a big punt return gave the Lions' offense field position to punch it in with Kevin Smith. Jeremy Shockey caught two touchdown passes to close the half at 28-10. The Lions matched the Saints score-for-score starting with Shockey's second TD grab, holding their deficit after the 3rd quarter to just 11 points. The final drive for the Saints came in the beginning of the 4th quarter, with Drew Brees collecting his 6th TD pass of the day to Heath Evans to seal the deal for New Orleans.

The hometown crowd was an excitable bunch, with the people all around us dressed in black and gold. The stadium noise didn't seem to be that loud considering the total containment from a hard-domed stadium. I've heard louder crowds at the Astrodome during the Run-n-Shoot era Oilers. Also, I'm not sure who designed the seat colors, but they look horrible even to a colorblind person LOL. We had to cut the tailgate short after numerous thunderstorms rolled through Louisiana, making the fans thankful for the dome.

I got my camera back from Megann, although as expected I was too damn busy watching the game to take pictures, but I do have a few from pre-game, along with yesterday's from the Garden District. And yes, she did have it in her purse. LOL








Plan for the rest of the week: Not sure, until we head to Biloxi for a night before going to Nashville on Friday. We'll probably hit the casinos at least one day, so wish us luck. LOL

 

I'm seriously happy for you, but I grow more jealous with every update you send.

 

That is freaking awesome...

 

Day 4 - Monday, Sept 14

Well, today was sort of a rest day. We went to Harrah's casino around lunchtime to test our luck. I started off slow, got on a hot streak about half-way through (up about 150 at blackjack), but finished off about 40 ahead. Dan lost about 20, and I'm not sure how Megann did, but she didn't say she lost everything or she hit it rich, so probably lost a bit. We didn't bring the camera, but if you've been to any of the Harrah's casinos, it's the same thing, just French-looking LOL. Lunch was at the buffet, pretty good, but the pizza place was better.

We've got another 2 days in town, and we'll probably spend some time tomorrow touring the Cathedral. The weather's been great today, except for the usual "popcorn storms" we always have.

The Monday Night games were surprisingly pretty damn good, with lead changes down to the final minutes. I wasn't going to watch them at first, but Dan insisted, and there wasn't anything else on TV. LOL

 

Day 5 - Tuesday, Sept 15

I believe we have found the end of civilized life along the Mississippi River today, after a 2-hour drive to the small town of Venice, about 80 miles away. It is a very quiet place, considering there might be a hundred people there, and it's about 10 miles from the nearest town, and there's only one road leading in and out of the town, which takes about 30 miles until a second one shows up. If you want to get away from it all, but aren't feeling suicidal, a quick drive down the river may be the way to go.

Other than that, not much exciting. I think we're all out of energy for this week. We'll most likely hit the casino again tomorrow, and if not, who the hell knows? LOL

New Orleans Air Force Base (hell if I remember what it's actually called LOL)

Skeleton of a Church (destroyed by Katrina in 2005, at least that's what the local said)

The river at the end of all civilization LOL

The river closer to the city


Deleted from camera: Four pictures of seagulls. LOL

 

The seagulls would have been awesome dude.

I'm so disappointed.

 

I didn't delete them! Megann did!

 

Goshdangit Meg...

Hope you guys are having fun brakos!!!

:cheersbeer:

 

yeah, although I think we're wishing that a week was only 5 days now. LOL

 

That's the toughest part of life on the road.

It's like war.

Vast stretches of boredom, punctuated by moments of sheer terror.

 

No crap. LOL

It's actually not too bad really. I'd be doing the same thing I'm doing now if I was at home, so...

 

Does Meg delete pictures of seagulls at home as well?