12NOV07 - Lake Charles, LA

Today we continued east toward Louisiana and after an hour on the road we began our transit through the metropolis of Houston! Houston is probably second to Los Angeles in the nation for the number of freeways going through and around the city! You’ve got I-10, I-45, beltway I-610, beltway 8, US 59, US 90, and others. On top of this there seems to be never ending construction at the major intersection of these highways. Thankfully we made it through at least three major construction areas with small delays and no scrapes. The only problem was northeast of Houston when we stopped to refuel both vehicles. One driver successfully negotiated the standard Texas u-turn to get back on the highway, only to see the other driver stuck in the wrong lane with no hope of getting on the freeway. Thanks to cell phones the convoy was back together within ten minutes.

Back in Louisiana we decided to stay in a RV spot at the Isle of Capri Casino in Lake Charles. You only get electricity but the cost is only $10, which gets you access to the health club, showers, pool and daily paper. Before we tried the casino it was off to our favorite Lake Charles restaurant Steamboat Bills. Turns out they were named one of the top ten restaurants to exit the highway for by USA Today in May of 2006. (In fact two of the ten establishments noted were in Louisiana. The second was Prejeans outside Lafayette. We highly recommend their eggplant pirogue!) Bills boiled crawfish were voted best in Lake Charles ten years in a row. Unfortunately it is still too early for crawfish, so we settled for oyster poboy and red beans and rice.

http://steamboatbills.com/