Day 2: New Orleans
As Dallas famously chirps each morning, “Wakey wakey, eggs and bakey!”—and when you're rolling with the Bashfuls, you know it's going to be a good day. We emerged from our cabins at the FDR Campsite in foggy South Georgia, greeted by early light and the fresh scent of pine. Big shoutout to the Dopeys crew, the unsung heroes of the morning, who had our gear packed and ready to roll before most of us finished our first yawn. With coffee in hand and excitement buzzing, we hit the road and crossed state lines like pros—Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi—each one peeling past our windows in a blur of Southern charm. The highlight? A brisk but beautiful morning tour of Auburn University.
Leeann Dalton, Jana White and Emily Baile gave us some cool facts at Auburn outside the beautiful welcome sign and main campus. We stopped for some photos and rode around campus and saw their stadiums and practice facilities, as well as their academic buildings. We were also able to get a hold of some Auburn merch, which some even added to their wardrobes.
A TWB take over at Auburn!
Jana White teaching us more about Louisiana (we'll be there later today).
Leeann Dalton talking about the state of Alabama!
Emily Baile sharing facts about Auburn, did you know Auburn's mascot Aubie has won 10 National Mascot Champsionships?!
Smile you're on camera :)
Some of the guys checking out the view at front sign.
We all fumbled with our watches (some for a good 30 minutes) trying to turn them back an hour. After a quick photo op, we made a pit stop at WallyWorld. Some of us snagged Auburn swag (the bookstore missed our 6 AM spree!), while the cooks gathered breakfast essentials—cue nutritious Great Value pop tarts. Whether it was cherry or cookies n’ cream, we all got our 8 AM sugar fix.
We made our second stop at a Wally-World to grab some essentials, the cooks shopped for our breakfast and lunch for on the road.
On the bus we played countless card games, made friendship bracelets, played name games to memorize who was who, talked to Kitch (Grant's wife), on the phone, and gave Grant a fathers day gift (considering he is basically our dad for the next 23 days). He rocked our glittery "Born to Sparkle" hat all day!
For breakfast, our lovely cooks harvested fresh blueberries and cacao for our delicious blueberry and chocolate chip muffins. They also hand picked apples in the early morning to provide a more balanced meal! They prepared homemade DIY turkey wraps with ham/ turkey, cheese, and lettuce.
In the late afternoon we stopped in New Orleans for a little and the Bashful boys got 11 beignets and Asher ate 7 of them. Mathew and Hannah also made a decision out of boredom to take a bite out of a jalapeño (not as bad as they thought it'd be!). While we were in New Orleans we shopped for lots of post cards, stickers, shirts, and of course, BEIGNETS from Cafe Du Mont and Cafe Beignet. Delaney, Liz, Hollister, and Devin also got some refreshing snow cones.
Before we all broke off we listened to our own Bashful CJ Cody talk about the Mississippi river, Madyson Barnes talk about Bourbon St., Bekah Brand gave us historical context about Jackson Square
(Bekah told us that Battle of New Orleans was fought the day after a treaty was signed, but since communication was slower, the US didn't know about it until after)
Our next stop was at the Mississippi Welcome Center, where we got creative spelling out "Mississippi" with our bodies and snapped pics with an Elvis impersonator lookalike. Back on the road, our first TWB rain shower couldn't dampen our spirits—we turned the bus into a comedy club with card games and jokes flying left and right. Lunchtime brought pizza wraps, meant for five pepperonis each, though Carson went all-in with 12! Chips and cookies on the side kept us fueled and ready for whatever the road threw our way.
Tonight we stayed at nice cabins on stilts at Fountainebleau Park in Louisiana, we call it the “Taj Mahal” because its one of the nicest places we stay. The blasting AC is so incredibly nice, and having multiple bathrooms to shower in tonight was also a huge blessing. (It took the girls two and a half hours to shower last night, even with the extra stalls)
Once we were all unpacked we came down to the common area under our cabins and we sang danced and we had an mini impromptu revival sing-along lead by Hollister on guitar. Delaney Wood taught Asher Grant how to do the worm and they preformed it for everyone along with Carly Dewyea and Ella Spivey.
We ended the night off with a fun Dixieland Delight singing along competition in our dwarf groups where we the Bashfuls wiped the floor.
The sneezy group divided and conquered, having half of the group singing and the other half dancing.
The sleepy’s own celeb started off their song with a Dallas reference preformed by Caleb Kimbrough, wakey wakey!.
The grumpy group danced around RJ guitar & singing. The happy group were our cooks for the first three day and ended up not having much time to plan out there song the decided to beat on pots and pans while some sang.
The Dopey group danced and sang around Hollister also using the lights.
Our winning performance took a more romantic and literal approach with CJ and Asher, playing a couple and everyone acting every line.
Our luxurious slumbers tonight are at a place TWB fondly calls the Taj Mahal (indoors and blessed with air conditioning), but don't let the comfort fool you—we're hitting the hay early for a crack-of-dawn wake-up call. Bashfuls out!
P.S. Happy Father's Day, dads!
Waffle House Count: 35
