As the sun peeked over the horizon, we headed out of Mobile, first stopping at Starbucks, then topping off the tank, so we could make the 75-mile transit of Gulf Coast Mississippi without stopping.  After the “Yankee Go Home” episode back in 1979, we make a point not to set foot in Mississippi.  Seems the Unix Curmudgeon has a long history of having people confuse “troubleshooter” with “troublemaker,” probably because of his habit of kicking people’s trash cans down the stairwell to get their attention.

Anyway, we soon arrived in Louisiana, but it was closed.  The visitor’s center, that is.  But, it opened shortly and we got an updated map and guide for our short stay.  We searched unsuccessfully for beignets in Covington (once again, the maps in the GPS proved to represent a slightly-altered parallel universe) but did stop in Baton Rouge for Cafe au Laits.

Then, on to Texas, facing all 880 miles of I-10 ahead of us to the New Mexico border.  We discovered everything is big in Texas, especially the price of motel rooms.  We experienced afternoon rush hour through Houston, in a steady parade of traffic that thinned little into the dark, reaching Sequin well after dark, for the night, 625 miles today.