How hot is New Orleans?

When I was in Boston last week, I had a visitor from Hamburg, Germany who complained it was too humid a quarter mile from the shore of Dorchester Bay.  "Will New Orleans be humid like this?" he asked. Brother, he didn't know the half of it.  Not only is it more humid, it is 20 degrees (Fahrenheit) hotter.  I'm not complaining.

It is Day Two in the Crescent City and our experiences thus far are pretty much limited to unpacking boxes.  By motorcycle on the back roads last month the trip between Boston and New Orleans took a tad over 2000 miles in six days.  For this trip, the lady of the house and I left Boston on Monday morning at 10:00 (June 7, 2010) and arrived at the UHaul office on Tulane Avenue on June 9th at about 11:00AM.  I can't say a packed 17-foot UHaul trailing an equally packed Ford Focus was our vehicle of choice.  Only a masochist would choose to take this pig of a truck (which UHaul insists is an oversized van); it was our vehicle of necessity and we stuck to interstate highways only.  Total distance traveled via interstate: 1551 miles.

The difference between backroad motorcycle travel and interstate truck travel was a savings of about 450 miles and about 48 hours travel time and accompanying hotel bills.  I haven't tallied up the gas bills but here is what two people spent on meals.

June 7:  We ate breakfast at home, consisting of what perishable odds and ends we couldn't pack.  We ate a late lunch that served as dinner at the Airmont Diner somewhere in New Jersey.  It was a nice place and probably the last Greek diner we will see in a long time.  Total cost of dinner (all totals include tip): $25.11.

June 8:  The lady of the house, German by birth and never having been outside New England, had never heard of Waffle House.  We had an suitably exotic breakfast at a Waffle House in Raphine, VA for $12.68.  "So cheap?"  Get used to it, we'll be seeing a lot of Waffle Houses the further we go.  We did.  For lunch, we stopped at a Hardee's, also never seen by my companion.  It was somewhere in the middle of no name Tennessee.  Total cost: $8.78.  The review:  "It's like McDonald's.  I can cross this off my list."  For dinner, we supped at the Cracker Barrel in Meridian, MS.  It was surprisingly adequate and we paid the $25.89 total without regrets.

June 9:  Breakfast only, again at a Waffle House; this one in Picayune, MS.  We dropped a $20 bill.

It cost us a total of $92.68 for regular meals on this trip, not counting coffee and snacks, mostly odd candy found at truck stops along the way.  Lodging cost marginally more.  Gasoline was another matter.  As soon as I unpack some scrap paper, I'll provide that total spent on that commodity.  Naturally, no BP products were consumed in completing this journey.