The day started early, too early for me. The day started with an introduction to the town mascot, Ole’ Hardhide, a gator who hangs out in his cage right in the middle of Ponchatoula. You can sure bet that it’s the first city I’ve been to with a living mascot, especially an alligator. Once again it all begins the amazing food marathon of Louisiana. The crew, Vernon, Brandy, Vince, Missy, Michelle and Tyler met up at Paul’s Cafe. …

For those of you that don’t know what that stands for it’s New Orleans, LA. New Orleans is one of the most unique cities in the country in many different factors. The history there is strong and is very well preserved and remembered. Some cities are just like any other city, but New Orleans is different. And of course in the last year no other city was in the news more than New Orleans. …

Tonight is the hardest I have laughed in a long time. The evening was full of humorous stories, small jokes on each other, and some prime Louisiana cookin'. The afternoon started by meeting a fine gentleman by the name of Vernon. Vernon comes from a family of 8 children where he grew up on a farm in Hartford, MI. A career with the Navy brought him across the world and he would eventually land in Ponchatoula, LA. …

It was a long night last night as I made a night of it at SXSW in Austin and crashed with a couple students from the University of Texas. They were happy to welcome me and as Couch Surfing hosts on a regular basis they were used to having guests like myself. It was a long night at SXSW and one if the latest nights of the trip. I didn’t wake up until noon. …

There are endless perks to my 50 state travels, but this is as good as it gets and absolutely makes my day. My cousin Matthew from Suttons Bay, MI and his 3rd grade class have shared a few e-mails with me from school. I thought this would be very worthy to share with everyone else. I hope just reading their questions and comments brightens your day as much as it does mine. …

The artifacts are still coming in. The latest addition is a book given to me by Meredith about travels in small-town America, “The Lost Continent” by Bill Bryson. With all my other travel books to read I probably won’t get through this one anytime soon. But I’m in a cozy house that’s perfect for reading, so I mine as well read a few pages before moving on. I successfully made it through two pages before returning to my computer to write what you’re reading now. …

Back on November 21st I wrote a blog of my top played music at the time according to my iTunes. It’s almost four months later and I’m wondering if my top played list has changed much. So it’s time to find out. I suggest reading the previous entry as well. This time I’ll only comment on the songs that I didn’t comment on earlier. “Heartbeats” by Jose Gonzalez — This song has come up several times on the trip, The Knife version was playing on another passengers laptop while waiting to board the plain in Hawaii, we talked about it over and over at Happy Narwhal Records, and today it was being played on Current TV (my favorite channel that was introduced to me by Debby in Arkansas, a must see channel for anyone who hasn’t). …

So I’ve stayed with over 50 hosts at this point, that equates to living with over 150 people I have never met. Living with them for at least a few days. In those few days a lot of insight comes out. I have a hard time summing up what I’m learning about the American people, mostly because it’s coming at me at a rate so fast that it’s hard to process. …

There are certain assumptions we all make, big or small. Across the country people joke about southern accents, cowboy hats in certain parts of the country, cities where people are supposedly rude, or places like the Hamptons. Now before this trip I have never been anywhere in the southern half of the country. Texas is far removed from Michigan, a pretty long ways away. However, that doesn’t mean we aren’t familiar with the saying, “Don’t mess with Texas. …

It’s a rainy afternoon here in Lago Vista. And I like it. Rain makes the air fresh and the Earth green. I"m chilling in the basement in the house of my latest hosts. The door is wide open with a nice cool breeze coming in. After temperatures in the mid 80s yesterday today feels like a nice lazy summer day. It’s a little cooler which is nice and since it’s raining there isn’t much that I can do outside. …