My cross country trip !

First of all I have to apologize to Bob cause I didn't get a chance to go to the west bank in New Orleans so I got no pictures for you

Our itineraries were from LA to Vegas, stayed 2 nights there and head to Texas, stayed a couple of nights there since my wife's cousin live there and it turned out one of my long time friend from San Francisco also live there, so we all had dinner the 1st night in Houston, then we head out to Orlando, those 2 trips ( Vegas to Houston and Houston to Orlando ) we did them overnight. Stayed in Orlando 3 nights and because we went to Clearwater on our 2nd day and amazed at the white sand beach and how clean and warm the ocean water was, we decided to go to clearwater and stay there on our 4th night in Florida, then we left early morning and head out to New Orleans, got there a little late almost 6 pm, checked in at wyndham in French market, had dinner and a couple of cocktails, took uber to Cafe du monde, had coffee and beignets and took uber back to the hotel and crashed, woke up, checked out and started driving back, stopped in Houston again due to fatigue and crashed there for 1 night, then the next day was non stop over night trip back to LA.

It was very tiring but quite an experience, we put 6000 miles in that 2017 Ford explorer rental car.
When we were on our way back, in Alabama a rock chipped the windshield and I had to get that fixed right away before the crack begin to spread, I tried to look for walmart to buy windshield repair kit, and when we got to walmart, it turned out it was walmart neighborhood market, lol, luckily when we were on our way to the real walmart, we passed by a glass shop, we stopped and I asked the guy, well I got the weird stare by almost everyone in the shop, except the guy who ended up repairing the windshield, we talked and talked while he was working, after some time his boss came and told him to hurry up cause they got some other things to do ( I had a feeling that they don't like him talking to us ) and based on our conversations with a few people ( including the couple from Nebraska we met by the beach in Clearwater ), we were warned to be careful when we stop along some states such as Alabama and Mississippi, sure enough some people still don't like brown skin people down in those states.

I also learned that most Texas schools are in the 8 - 10 rating range, and that homes there are really cheap, lol, $ 200 k will definitely get you a 5 - 10 years old home with 4 br 2 ba, 2000 sq ft or larger, no state income taxes but property taxes are really high, some areas are close to 4%.
You also can get 4 br 2 ba home for around 200 k in Clearwater Florida, 5 - 10 minutes from the beach, yup, I'm shocked by that ! A home 5 - 10 minutes from the beach down here would be very close to a million if not more.
Unfortunately school system in Clearwater is not very good.
I disliked Louisiana, something about the state just don't feel right.
I was also quite surprised by Albuquerque, there was not much big buildings at all and it was dead by 9 pm.

Wow, you logged a fast-paced trip, I know truck drivers that cover less ground in a week.

I concur on Louisiana, I was not fond of that state for the same reason that you discovered getting your windshield fixed down South. I never felt all that welcomed.

At least you had a good time and should be ready to go from a busy travel itinerary to being back on the van sucking dog poo out of poly carpet.

Wow that's lot of driving. The beaches in Clearwater are nice powered sand beaches