I am 2/3s of the way to Orlando and having a great adventure.  Monday evening I flew from Honolulu, had a early morning stopover in Dallas and arrived in Springfield, MO late Tuesday morning.

My older brother Russ Prothero, a REALTOR® in Branson met me at the airport.  He had his suitcase, snacks and a case of water in his pickup truck so we hit the highway heading south.  I need to add we stopped for gasoline.  We I left Hawaii, our gas price dropped to $3.25/ gallon and we were celebrating.  It was $1.89/ gallon in Springfield. 

His GPS was set for the shortest route to Orlando.  Hmm let's see now, I have never been to this part of the country and we have an extra day or two to get there.  What to do?

I know let's go to New Orleans, I have never been there.  We can then follow the coast to Florida.  After a short 1200 mile drive we decided to stop in a motel north of New Orleans and spend the night.

After a good breakfast we drove the last stretch to New Orleans. Our plan was to get a hotel room and spend the day so we could walk down Bourbon Street in the evening.  After checking into our room, we followed up on our e-mails and checked Active Rain for messages.  I also sent New Orleans real expert Eric Bouler a contact message to let him know we were in town. 

I barely hit the send button, when my phone rang.  It was Eric.  Two hours later Eric was giving us a tour of his town.  What a truly gracious thing to do.  We did not even tell him we were coming (we didn't know either) and he was showing us around town.  He showed us the French Quarter, and a few other parts of town including the areas that were hit by the flood.  After driving us around town we got out and walked all around the French Quarter.

I truly enjoyed hearing about how he does business and gained some real good advice on improving my internet presence.  Eric has built a great niche' with upscale condos and has set himself up as a market expert for the areas he is working.

Mahalo (Thank you in Hawaiian), to Eric for his wonderful showing of hospitality.  I look forward to the day when he visits Hawaii and I can return the favor.