Family ReunionMy lifestyle blog about my Family Reunion in Houston Texas My odyssey to Houston Texas was the destination of my 2015 Family Reunion on my dads mother side. I want everyone who reads this post to hop alongside and live my journey. We will start the odyssey from Atlanta,Georgia to Tallahassee,cruise on Interstate 10 West,cross the mighty Mississippi,the Bayou Swamp,talk about that Texas Tea,arrive in Houston Texas,my Family Reunion,the collaboration with my cousins business,and ending of my family reunion blog. The evening of July 16,2015 at 4pm is when i loaded up all the luggage and fired up the Lincoln Town car immediate destination Interstate 285 south bound. I always check my oil and transmission fluid before a trip and this was no exception. Everything is loaded up and now it's time to throw on the stun-ta shades and punch it towards 285 south. I wanted to take the 675 exit but was running my mouth and missed it. It would have took me further south to bypass going toward Hartfield/Jackson International Airport. I merged onto Interstate 75 south right into a traffic jam. Wouldn't you know it i should have taken 675. I ran into rush hour.  There was some construction on the road and that made it even worse. Atlanta Traffic is really horrible during rush hour and with construction it just was plan bad. We are now making our way towards the Tangier Outlets which are in Locust Groove. The Tangier Outlets are the landmarks i use for arrival or departure into Metro Atlanta. We continue on our trek towards Macon. I decide to take the 475 bypass which is quicker than going 75 through Macon. I will eventually link up with 75 south again. As i come off of the 475 bypass onto 75, we continue towards Cordele Georgia. Another crucial landmark as we come into Cordele Georgia is the Florida/Georgia parkway. The Florida/Georgia parkway is our link from 75 south to Albany,Georgia. I take the Florida/Georgia parkway and cross Lake Blackshear. I am now in Albany Georgia. From Albany Georgia I hop on 319 south towards Thomasville,Georgia. This is a stretch where the speed limit constantly changes. There are police waiting to bring in income for there departments so you have to keep your eyes far down the road looking for them. I have now made it to Thomasville,Georgia. I am not sure what's in the water here but this town produces per capita some of the best football players in America. After 4 hours of travel we finally see the Welcome to Florida sign.  . I am now in the capital city of Tallahassee,Florida. This is a medium size city that has a big city feel to it. Tallahassee,Florida is not that big but from crime to entertainment you can find it here just on a smaller scale. If you ever come here make sure you stop by 2 staples i recommend. Guthrie's and What a burger. A little outside of Tallahassee there is a small town called Midway and this is where my father stay. We pull in the yard I get out and greet everyone and lay down to get some rest. It is now 11:00p.m and we are to leave at 12a.m. I am awaken by my father to help load up. I take the luggage out my car and load it in one of the 2 vans we have for the trip. I will be helping on the 10 hour drive to Houston from here so i will be in the passenger seat next to my father. We are ready to depart Midway Florida towards Houston Texas. We make our way toward I-10 west bound.
We are now on I-10 west bound. Everyone in the van was making small talk but eventually as time wore on you can tell people are slowly getting sleepy. I am starting to get sleepy myself but I decide to stay up to make sure my dad doesn't veer off the road. We are heading towards Pensacola Florida. Pensacola Florida is the last city in Florida before you enter the state of Alabama. Arriving in Pensacola about 2 hours into our drive, we cross some bridges and are now about to enter a tunnel under the water that will take us into the State of Alabama. We are now in Mobile Alabama and stop at a store to take a break to use the rest room. I remember as a a teenager when i moved to California taking this same route on my way to Sacramento and back to Tallahassee. I-10 runs from Jacksonville Florida to Los Angeles California. It is time to get back in the van and continue our trek. Once again we are all joking and talking as we continue towards our next city. It doesn't take long to travel through Alabama. We are closing in on Louisiana. You can tell Louisiana is a swampy place cause the landscape is changing a bit. After about two hours or less since we arrived in Alabama we cross the border in Louisiana. We stop at the rest stop to take another break. I have been taking short naps to help keep my father awake and now it is my turn to drive. It is now around 6:30 a.m. and day break. I go and use the restroom,stretch,talk a little with family and now i am in the driver seat. i punch the van onto 1-10 west bound from the rest area and see I-10 west towards New Orleans and I-12 towards Baton Rouge. We take the I-12 towards Baton Rouge. Back when i moved from Tallahassee to Sacramento, the bus would go to New Orleans of course because they had passengers to pick up and drop off. I-12 is actually the fastest route and this is the route we take. This is mostly a boring route on I-12 westbound. Cruising on I-12 we are closing on Baton Rouge. We arrive in Baton Rouge and are now about to cross the mighty Mississippi River. The Mississippi River empties into the Gulf of Mexico about 100 miles (160 km) downstream from New Orleans. Measurements of the length of the Mississippi from Lake Itasca to the Gulf of Mexico vary somewhat, but the United States Geological Survey's number is 2,320 miles (3,730 km). We cross over the Mighty Mississippi and are now headed towards the Lafayette Louisiana.We are still on I-12 and now we merge back onto I-10. Between Baton Rouge and Lafayette lay about 15 miles of swamp called the Bayou. This stretch of I-10 takes you over nothing but water and swamp for about 15 miles. There is no where to turn around so you better be filled up before tackling the Bayou. We have to keep our heads on a swivel cause it is only two lanes and driving this van it kind of hard to see in certain spots. We finally come off of the Bayou and enter the city of Lafayette. We make a stop to grab some breakfast. It is now like 8:00 a.m. I need some coffee so i grab some. My pops is ready to drive so i am back in the passenger seat. We merge back onto I-10 and leave Lafayette on our way to Lake Charles. After about 30 minutes we arrive in Lake Charles. Lake Charles is the last city we see before we arrive in Texas. I can tell we are getting very close because for the first time on the trip I start to see what some have called Texas Tea. Texas Tea is oil of course and I see it all around. It is now time to talk about Texas Tea.We are now entering the Lone star State of Texas. The city that we first come to is Beaumont Texas. Once again i see Texas Tea all around. I see oil refineries on my left and my right. It seems like the whole city is full of them. It is a very small town and we are passing this city in no time. We continue on our trek on I-10 east bound toward Houston Texas which is about an hour away. It is time to make another pit stop to get gas. We also need to get coffee and fill up. Everyone is wide awake now anxiously awaiting our arrival to Houston. The hour fly by as we arrive into the outskirts of Houston Texas. It has been a long trip but along the way we had a lot of fun. I haven't been here since I was a youngster and arriving here brings back memories. We roll on into downtown Houston and merge onto the 45 south. We take a pit stop to get our bearings straight. Everyone goes and use the restroom and just to take in Houston. It hot as fish grease here much warmer than Atlanta. It time to get back in the vans so we put the Holiday Inn in our GPS and we are on our way. We merge from the 45 to US59 west. The rooms we are staying in for the Family Reunion is Holiday Inn West chase. One thing i am seeing that makes Houston Texas different than Atlanta Georgia is their Cloverleafs or Spaghetti Junctions. In Atlanta we have one major Cloverleaf but in Houston i have already seen three. On our way to our hotels, i have seen the most strangest thing. It was like a maze to get to our hotel. Once we got off the freeway it was almost like we went in three circles to just get to our hotel. Once we made it to our hotel, we all checked in and prepared to relax for a while.The hosting family had a meet and greet setup for us at a park not to far away. After resting we all departed for the park. At the park, we received our orange family reunion shirts. We all ate and went back to the rooms. It around 7 pm and getting dark. After arriving back to rooms. We decided to find the liquor store and grab some drinks. At around 11 pm my family members and i are in our rooms drinking and having a good time. It is around 2 a.m. and most of my family have left my room heading to get some sleep. It time for me to get some sleep also and me and my wife drift off to sleep.We woke up around 8 a.m. the next morning. We went to get some breakfast, chit chat and take photos. Our plan for the day is to get go the the Aquarium,Buffalo Solider museum,The Galleria Mall,and then Dave and Buster for the family Banquet.The Galleria Mall was really exciting but the parking was horrible. It took us almost two hours to just find a park. Once we found a park, we all got out the van and went into the mall. Inside the mall they had a skating rink leading to the food court. We all ate at the food court. We did not stay that long it was time to go to the Aquarium.Arriving at the Aquarium we bought our passes and entered the Aquarium. We saw Alligators,Snakes,and even a big White Tiger. I thought i would have a starring contest with the Tiger and the Big Cat did not waiver.Eventually i won the contest as the Tiger looked away. I am the King of the Aquarium. We took pictures and prepared to leave. It is time to head to the Buffalo Soldier Museum. Arriving at the Buffalo Soldier Museum we looked around at all the artifacts before we went to the main hall.The main hall was where the real treat was because there was a lady who was to play Harriet Tubman. What a show she put on. She played Harriet Tubman so well i thought i was on the underground railroad with her as she told the story. She talked about how there is a need for a new underground railroad with the children.The new underground for the children would be dealing with reading and learning about there history. It was really inspiring and she acted it out so well. After the show we all took pictures with her and bought memorabilia from the museum. It time to load up the vans and depart for the hotel to change into our banquet clothes. Arriving back at the hotel we shower and get into our nice banquet clothes . It is time to depart and head for Dave & Buster. At Dave & Buster we are lead to the banquet hall take our seat to get ready for the conclusion of the formal part of the family reunion. While talking to my cousin Candice i found out that she was into to business like i am. She has her own blogging business. She works as a lifestyle blogger. She has also wrote a book about how to become a lifestyle blogger. Then name of the book is #MakeUrPenLoud How To Be a Lifestyle Blogger Inked by: LoudPen. She was selling the book for $10 dollars if my memory serves me correct. I bought the book to help her out plus i could use some more knowledge about blogging. We exchanged business information to collaborate in the future. The hosting party had a contest for the most unique short set. This was really fun because it gave those who competed a chance to show off there creativity. It is time to eat and vote on which city will host the next family reunion. The cities in contention were Jacksonville,Quincy,and Tampa. Tampa won so my sister Erica will be hosting. I think Tampa will be fun it is a city with a lot to offer. Of course the beaches are pres-tine but there is more to the city than just the beaches. I will wait until then to blog about the Tampa Family reunion. We have a family reunion every two years so it will be Tampa 2017. The banquet is now over and it's time to head back to the room. What a long day and now it time to rest. We go to sleep after another family drinking session in our room. We wake up around 9 a.m. the next morning. Before we pack up we go down to eat breakfast and take some more pictures. It getting close to ending this blog because our family reunion has come to and end. I hope you enjoyed the ride and hope to see you back to my website for my what's hot blog. |
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