Monday, November 18, 2024

Road Trip Day 8

November 17, 2024

 

After a quiet evening in the room last night (with Mum getting about 14 hours of desperately needed sleep), we departed New Orleans today and were sad to leave. We’ve had a wonderful time here, learning the history, seeing the sights, sampling the amazing food, and meeting the friendliest people. It’s definitely a city we all want to come back to.


But it’s time for us to head for home, so we loaded our gajillion bags in the car and did our best to avoid the football traffic for the New Orleans Saints game that was starting in a couple of hours and headed off to Birmingham which was about a 5-hour drive. We made it much longer by stopping in Laurel, Mississippi. 



It’s the home town of my favorite home renovation couple on HGTV and they highlight their town a lot on the show. It was exactly the half-way point and it was time for lunch so we spent a couple of hours absorbing the charm of the town.

 

We arrived right at lunch time to find one place open, Wilson’s Commissary, which is where everyone comes after church services.

 


It was similar to Martin's Restaurant that we went to Montgomery, where you choose a meat and sides. The food was excellent and it was fun to experience the after-church lunch crowd - the place was bustling! After lunch, we explored some of the shops that were actually open on a Sunday. Small southern town = lots of closed shops. Fortunately, the Scent Library was open. This is a candle shop created by the wife of the HGTV duo and the scents of the candles she created were wonderful.


 I loved the decor of the shop and could have spent hours but we needed to press on to Birmingham. We arrived around 5:30 after dark and after checking in, Terry and I went off to a grocery store to buy dinner for tonight and lunch for tomorrow. The suite has a full kitchen in it and none of us felt like going out to a restaurant so we microwaved some lo mein and egg rolls, turned on a Christmas Hallmark movie and then popped some popcorn and settled in for the evening. It was exactly what we needed. 

2 comments:

Tess said...

So cool to stop in Laurel, I love Home Town too! Your Mum is a trooper indeed and I can believe you all needed a cozy night in!! I can’t thank you enough Cathy for blogging this trip! You are an amazing writer! ❤️

Anonymous said...

The trip sounds amazing. I can’t wait to see pictures snd hear all about it Jean. Hometown is one of my favorites too. Hope to get there to see it one day. Enjoy the family Thanksgiving. See you soon Jeanne. Donna