Lin Emery, Wave, 1988
American, born 1928
Gift of Frederick Weisman Company
New Orleans Museum of Art
New Orleans, LA
We decided to head home today as we wanted to beat the snow storms that they have been predicting all week. We have been watching the weather carefully along our route over the past few days, as we are not quite ready to leave New Orleans, but also do not want to get caught somewhere on I65 or I75 in the snow.
Wanting to still make the most of our day we decided to head to the The Sydney and Walda Bestoff Sculpture Garden at the New Orleans Museum of Art before heading out of town. The Sculpture Garden which houses more than fifty major works of twentieth century sculpture is free and open seven days a week. Unfortunately and understandably the garden is not dog friendly, so we had to take turns walking through this well-designed and beautiful space.
Rene Magritte, Labors of Alexander, 1967, Cast bronze
Belgian, 1898-1096
Gift of Muriel Bultman Francis
Sydney & Walda Bestoff Sculpture Garden
New Orleans, LA
The 5 acre garden immediately adjacent to the New Orleans Museum of Art in City Park is an impressive collaborative effort between the Bestoff's, The City Park Improvement Association and the New Orleans Museum of Art and its many donors. The collection contains works by such internationally recognized artists such as Henry Moore, Rene Magritte, Auguste Rodin, Pierre Auguste Renoir, Barbara Hepworth, Aristide Maillol, Isamu Noguchi, Lynn Chadwick, George Segal, Louise Bourgeois, Robert Indiana and Claes Oldenburg & Coosje van Bruggen.
Robert Indiana, LOVE, Red Blue, 1966-67, Aluminum and acrylic polyurethane enamel
American, born 1928
Gift of Sydney & Walda Bestoff
Sydney & Walda Bestoff Sculpture Garden
New Orleans, LA
The work of more contemporary sculptors such as Linda Howard, Leslie Dill, Rona Pondick, Jesus Bautista Moroles, Deborah Butterfield, Jaume Plensa, Alison Saar, and Leandro Erlich are also well represented.
Jaume Plensa, Overflow, 2005, Stainless Steel
Spanish, born 1955
Gift of Sydney & Walda Bestoff
Sydney & Walda Bestoff Sculpture Garden
New Orleans, LA
I first became aware of Jaume Plensa's work at the Vancouver Sculpture Biennale last year and was pleased to see him represented here.
Spanish Moss covered tree
Sydney & Walda Bestoff Sculpture Garden
New Orleans, LA
Walking through the grounds of the Sculpture Garden and driving through City Park reminded us of the giant oak tree on our front lawn and the trees dripping with Spanish moss that lined the streets of our neighbourhood when we lived in Albany, GA.
Northbound I10
As we headed out of town on I10 towards I59 we noticed this flatbed with its load of recycled cardboard. Not once did we see a recycling bin or any acknowledgment of recycling as we walked around New Orleans.
Truck
Kangaroo Express / Huddle House
Laurel, MS
Recognizing that we had not been particularly diligent about stopping at truck stops as often as we could on our trip south, we vowed to try harder heading north. As we did not stop for lunch before heading out of New Orleans, we decided to look for somewhere where we could have an early dinner. We noticed a couple of trucks exiting I59 at Laurel, MS so decided to follow them.
Kangaroo Express / Huddle House
Laurel, MS
This particular exit had a Kangaroo Express with a Subway, Bean Street Coffee Company, and adjacent Huddle House Restaurant. Across the street was a Texaco, however, the Kangaroo / Huddle House combo seemed to be the stop of choice.
Kangaroo Express
Laurel, MS
Immediately upon entering the store we were greeted by the Roo For the Road signage offering four choices of high calorie snack combos for $2.50.
Kangaroo Express
Laurel, MS
This store was much smaller than many of the truck stops we had visited so far, and therefore the available grocery shelving areas were more limited. Despite this limitation, the selection of canned food items was an improvement over many we had seen. In addition to the SPAM, which appeared to be a truck stop staple, this Kangaroo Express also had tuna, a couple of varieties of Healthy Choice Fresh Mixers, sardines, and a variety of canned and packaged soups and chili.
Kangaroo Express / Subway
Laurel, MS
The onsite Subway offered their usual menu, plus pizza with their typical selection of fresh baked breads, vegetables and sliced cheese and meat.
Kangaroo Express
Laurel, MS
We had not really noticed this was absent from most of the other truck stops until we saw it here. Cases of beer and advertised beer specials! This was also the first time we saw a truck driver with any alcohol. Not once had we seen anyone order a beer with dinner, or purchase beer to take to their truck. I actually noticed a driver carrying a case of beer out to his truck here, before realizing that indeed this stop had cold beer to go.
Kangaroo Express / Subway
Laurel, MS
While we had not noticed cold beer at any of the other stops we had visited so far, we had noticed that there appeared to be a lack of seating for drivers who wanted to get out of their cab to eat their own meals, take a break, or sit down after they picked up a coffee or snack inside the store. The restaurants had abundant seating, but if you did not want to actually sit down and order food from the restaurant, there was really nowhere to go. I don't know if it was because of the Subway, or just a feature of this particular Kangaroo, but they did have what appeared to be a rather drab and depressing seating area at this location. We wondered how hard would it be to have a couple of tables and comfortable chairs where drivers could eat, relax, read the paper, do some paperwork, or maybe check their email.
Kangaroo Express / Huddle House
Laurel, MS
I have to admit that it was the 2 Cheeseburgers for $6.99 sign that caught my attention together with the large Country Fried Steak Breakfast Platter poster in the window. So, we decided to venture across the parking lot to see how Huddle House fared against our truck stop dining experiences so far.
Kangaroo Express / Huddle House
Laurel, MS
The menu was extensive, although the Country Fried Steak with White Pepper Gravy for $6.99 seemed to be the most heavily promoted item together with their New Breakfast Melts - Philly Cheese Steak for $5.99, Smoked Pork Sausage for $5.49 and Bacon and Egg for $4.99. We were impressed that while they did not advertise any healthy choice items with their own symbols they do offer a number of more healthy options including: cholesterol free egg substitute on request, a golden waffle instead of biscuits and gravy, a choice between regular and sweet potato fries, or on their sandwich combos you can substitute the fries for a slight extra charge with a bowl of chili ($1.39), a bowl of soup ($.99) or a side salad ($.89). While you could add a side salad to any meal for $1.99, you could double your fries for only $.69.
Ribeye steak was once again on the menu as it had been in each of the truck stops we had visited. A 10 oz cut with Texas toast and two sides with a choice of baked potato, mashed potato, french fries, sweet potato fries, vegetable of the day, side salad or hash browns was $11.99, with the smaller 6 oz portion for $8.99. Other dinner options included Country Fried Steak for $6.99, Butterfly Shrimp for $7.49, Chicken Tenders, Chopped Steak a PorterHouse Pork Chop and Grilled Chicken Dinner all priced under $7.50 with Texas toast and two sides.
Grilled Chicken Salad
Kangaroo Express / Huddle House
Laurel, MS
We both opted for salad and had a choice of a Crispy Chicken Salad for $5.99, a Grilled Chicken Salad for $5.99, a Large Tossed Salad for $3.99, a Side Tossed Salad for $1.99 and a Ham Salad for $5.99. As one of our rules was that we were never going to order the same thing, Phil ordered the Grilled Chicken Salad, which left me with the Crispy Chicken Salad as I wanted some protein and don't typically eat ham.
Crispy Chicken Salad
Kangaroo Express / Huddle House
Laurel, MS
I requested lemon wedges instead of dressing and was provided with a small bowl filled with fresh juicy lemon wedges. Phil was not so fortunate in his request for low-fat salad dressing. Our waitress looked stunned as if she had never been asked for this before. Salad dressing choices were somewhat limited, so Phil opted for the Thousand Island which weighed in at 21 grams of fat, 20 mg of cholesterol, 350 mg of sodium and 190 calories.
Crackers and Salad Dressing
Kangaroo Express / Huddle House
Laurel, MS
Fortunately Phil did not use both packages of the salad dressing as that would have been 64% of his recommended daily fat allowance, and we left the eight packages of crackers alone.
Truck
Kangaroo Express / Huddle House
Laurel, MS
While these were not the most exotic chicken salads we had ever had, they were fresh, tasty and for $5.99 good value for the money. We left ready to tackle the next stage of our trip, but realizing we would not make it to Birmingham before dark.
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