Our first order of business today was showers. When I got my Planet Fitness membership for myself, I had to get the Black Card (the more expensive one) in order to use any gym worldwide, rather than just one locally. The benefit of this is also that I get to bring one guest in with me for free.
We first stopped at a Walmart to get Kyle some shower shoes (flip flops), since you really don’t want to be standing barefoot on those floors, and I got gas while he did that. I also found out yesterday that I can potentially call a CBP “Deferred Inspection Site” to help deal with my documents issue, so I did that while I waited for Kyle.
The woman on the phone wasn’t very nice and she was really hard to hear, but I eventually got an email address to contact that she said would be able to help. I sent them an email and got an ominous response that just said “Where are you right now”. No greeting, no sign off, just that. Now, with no additional context and knowing the current state of immigration in the USA, I don’t really want to tell the CBP exactly where my currently-misdocumented self is even if I know I’m legally in the country, but I told them I was near Lafayette, since I presumed they were going to tell me about the deferred inspection site in New Orleans.
They asked for a photo of my passport and said they would then be able to figure out the best option for resolving the issue. I double checked that it was coming from an official government source (it was), and set myself a reminder to send that over later.
We took our showers, which feels great after a few days, and then got back to the car. We checked the tire pressure again which was now at 20psi (recommended is 30psi) and Kyle suggested we go get a portable air pump which was a very good idea. We headed 5 minutes down the road to an O’ Rileys and picked one up for $25 and used it to fill the tire right in the parking lot. We’re keeping an eye on the tire and so far it doesn’t seem to be leaking too badly but there’s always the worry that it gets worse.
We then went to a Jimmy Johns, which is sort of like Subway, and got some food, before heading to Lafayette two hours away to meet up with a friend for coffee. We met up at “Jet Coffee”, enjoyed some good conversation, and then parted ways so we could go to Baton Rouge, the capital of Louisiana.
It’s only an hour or so to get to the capitol building from where we were, but unfortunately the one super long bridge along the way on the interstate was closed in our direction due to a crash, so we had to detour around which took almost 2 hours total. Not the worst, but obviously not ideal.
We got to the capitol building and went around to the front to take our photos, which was a little challenging given it’s the tallest state capitol building at 450 feet tall, and is only one of 4 state capitals classified as a “skyscraper”. It’s also only one of nine without a dome on top.
As we looked around, we read the names of all the states engraved into the steps up to the entrance, where a staff member asked us if we wanted to go to the top. We said sure, and she seemed to be grabbing a set of keys, which made me think this was an exclusive offer that not everyone gets, but no, turns out she was just fidgeting and anyone can go up to the top.
We went all the way up 25 floors to the observation deck, where you can walk around the entire building and get great views of Baton Rouge below. We watched someone struggle to exit the staff parking lot, and spotted our car. Kyle also expressed his sadness for the Mississippi River being brown.
After 10 or so minutes we headed back downstairs, got a little lost since the elevator let us out at a different spot than where we got in on the way up somehow, but then found our way back to the car and got on the road towards Jackson, Mississippi, the capital. The drive was really nice, with golden hour shining light through the trees, and most of the drive being on country lanes rather than interstates or busier state routes.
We got to Jackson around 7:30 as it started to get dark, and we were able to park nearby and quickly get our photos at the capitol. It’s a nice capitol, with some wide open green space around it, but we didn’t stick around too long and were back on the road towards our rest area pretty quickly.
