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Day 3 of the Tyranny Trip, which kicked off after we added a new young lady to the Frank's Chicks flock, and Ron as a FrankPal. A bit of driving (a bit is relative, only 300 or so miles, but it included 90+ minutes of 5 MPH traffic), then a parade, N'awlins style, and finally, I dragged Tubby back to Bourbon Street a bit after midnight. Whoa...!

8:16am There is no alarm. It's a Sunday, the day of rest. At least that's what the community standards of this state indicate.
8:33am Tubby is the last in line, but finally takes a shower. I set the stopper in the sink and created a miniature duck pond; it was lovely.
8:54am We all load up into the transportation module and head out to Bonita Lakes to meet Manda, who emailed me and wanted to be one of the Frank's Chicks. And, now she is.
9:07am Manda and her dad, Ron, popped by, and we did a meet and greet, exchanged conversation and FrankStuff, and the like.
9:22am Having waved (or winged) goodbye to Manda and Ron, we wandered around Meridian for a bit, stopping for soda, gas, and snacks. Tubby has since adopted his annoying, and totally stupid/fake sounding, southern accent already. Darn it.
10:03am After completing our purchases at the Sack & Save, we return to the motel briefly to post updates of our Manda meeting.
11:12am The web posting are complete, the packing of the car is done, and we're checked out of the room. We couldn't help but make a curious glance over to see this sight, though.
11:19am Feeling like tempting Fate just for the sake of doing so, I decided to have Tubby drive today, and since it was only a few hundred miles, I figured little harm could come of it. In retrospect, I was right. I love that.
12:14pm We rolled into Laurel, Mississippi to look around, and then, we rolled on out.
13:22pm Our convoy of one arrived in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, where we engaged in the eating of lunch from Sonic (good food, but service left something to desire), and wander around. I suspect we spent more time here than I'd normally expect, as it was a warm day, and it's a college campus. Tubby seemed distracted, but at least didn't hit anything.
3:03pm We reached McComb, Mississippi. I had planned to wander through more of the town, but I wasn't really able to find more than a few gas stations and some houses. I'm sure I was just on the wrong road (highway 98, if you're looking on the map). So, no other pictures.
3:44pm We passed from Mississippi into Louisiana whilst traveling southbound on highway 51.
3:48pm We hit Kentwood, Louisiana. The hope, truth be told, was to have my picture taken in front of Britney Spear's house (or rather, the one that she bought her mommy). As my luck isn't 100%, though, the address we managed to scare up was an old one, and not the picture of the estate that was featured on news stories after her 55-hour marriage to Jason Alexander.
3:52pm We left Kentwood. If we were Britney, and we're not of course, the opinion is she should invest a bit of her piles of money back into the town -- it could use a jump start. Or more.
4:36pm Nearing New Orleans, we crossed a 22 mile long bridge sort of highway (the highway was on stilts over water and marsh) as we went from Mile Marker 22 to 0 along Interstate 55 south. Along the way, a view of a nifty grass fire (on the not marsh area, obviously).
4:58pm Even closer to town is where traffic dropped to 5 miles an hour. For miles and miles and miles. Life is less than peachy right now.
5:54pm The boy opted to exit the freeway once the Superdome was within a stone's throw, and we navigated along surface streets the three miles to the hotel.
6:31pm Mind you, the last 35 minutes were to go three miles. Yes, 1, 2, 3 miles. But we're now at the hotel.
6:46pm The check-in clerk, Eugene, informed us our reservation was here, but due to a break-down in one of the washing machines, they were running really late in having rooms made up and ready. He asked us to return in 60-90 minutes. (The conspiracy-theory sorts amongst us figured it may have been only a ruse, and that our rooms were given away -- despite being pre-paid in full via Hotwire -- and now they were bumping people who hadn't arrived yet on reservations to free us some rooms.)
6:48pm In any event, we checked our luggage and headed out to Canal Street to see the parade. Just to make you click on more stuff and make me seem busy creating updates, the links are on a picture page separated from this one, versus trying to get you to click a bunch of links from here.
9:17pm After crushing our way back to the hotel (Radisson, if you're dying to know), we found Eugene and were given two rooms on the fifth floor. (Near one another, but not too near... the girls in one room, the boys in the other, and the bird Robyn came with us, since I'm not sure quite which team that little peeper is playing on.)
9:42pm As the human sorts settled in, I discovered the in-room DSL was about $10 a day, but sucked my will to live when it came to actually being useful. (I had to use dial-up before I could actually post anything or surf the 'net.)
10:51pm Robin and Rachel return from the car and are all settled in, or as reasonably so as one can be while still waiting for the last few odds-and-ends to be taken care of by the hotel. (Their room wasn't made up, and our room lacked towels.)
10:53pm The two girls headed down to find food, while I made Tubby do my typing. While I'm a good typist, the hunt-and-peck method with wing and beak just isn't as speedy as fingers -- even if I do have to spell most every word for him that has more than three letters in it.
11:28pm The food thing took longer than expected, but after eating and preparations were made, I told Tubby he was going to take me out on Bourbon Street regardless of the lateness of the evening. (I do, after all, have a TON of duck beads to give away, and this is just some of all that I brought.)
12:32am Unable to stall any longer, Tubby was finally forced to take me to Bourbon Street. While it may be an odd look anywhere else, here we fit in: a white, head-shaved dude with rubber ducky beads around his neck, carrying an incredibly handsome and desirable maned duck, also with beads around my neck. And we headed out the door for the eight block walk to Bourbon Street.
12:47am Like the parade page, I'll refer to stuff in the pictures in more detail, but the summary stuff is on the other page. As we walked back, the question of what happens to all the crap thrown is answered for us. The refugees of the beads that weren't loved or wanted are left on the ground, tattered and broken.
12:49am In a nutshell, we walk one block past Bourbon Street (too many people in the way), then up one block, then back to Bourbon Street. It's extra walking, but gets us into the middle of things without the crowding and pushing.
1:07am The games begin. We are asked for a string of duck beads, which I happily offer up. The guy who asked then told his drunk girlfriend she had to show herself to us; Tubby declined (partly out of disinterest -- she wasn't cute -- and partly because she was too drunk to really know what was going on.
1:18am A guy in an electric wheelchair also asked for some duck beads, and again, I happily offered them up. But it seems when others ask you for beads, you're supposed to ask for something in return, perhaps a glimpse of under the shirts (one lady flashed her thong). This, I wasn't prepared upon.
1:22am Over the course of the next 15 minutes, I studied the craft of asking for beads to flash someone, asking for someone to flash you for beads, and the negotiations surrounding both transactions.
1:40am When this adorable brunette from New Mexico happened by, I thought she was cute, and I would have sworn Tubby stopped breathing (or at least I wasn't hearing his usually rhythmic wheezing). She called out for beads, and then said it wasn't worth it -- she apparently wanted five sets, they offered one. She muttered something about being cute, and walked away.
1:41am I suggested to Tubby that we do a ducks for duck trade -- we'll give her some duck beads, and she'll pose for a picture with me. It seemed fair, and having watched two other guys offer her beads (crappy ones, at that) and demanded a peek, she said no. I liked this girl -- she had standards. But then again, she *is* from New Mexico, so I should have expected that.
1:55am I was sure I would die of old age, but I got a picture with her! She'd asked a passer-by for his duck beads, he said no, and told her to ask this guy, pointing at Tubby. Tubby spoke, suggesting the ducks for duck idea, and she looked tentative. He jumped into the silence by saying it's just a photo as she's dressed now, nothing lewd. (She was apparently thinking about it, though.) When she asked, "That's it?," we were in. And the rest is Duckistory.
1:59am Suddenly, the boy is as giddy as a school girl on prom night. I opted to take him home before his newfound ability to speak to girls got us in trouble.
2:17am We got back to the room, and I found the internet connection still sucks (it takes 30 seconds or more to post a picture, or even to see if it wants to do that much). Phooey!
2:21am With a Dr. Pepper in wing, I begin working on my web updates, and applying DuckOut to the somewhat naughtier pictures (sorry, but we're not one o' them naughty sorts of web sites).
3:01am We go to Plan B -- dump the "high speed" internet and go back to dial-up. As a means of comparison, 48 Kbps is a speed improvement.
3:49am Updates are done posting, and we're off to sleep. G'night, y'all!
 

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