I'm still on the motel shared computer, can't do more than a quick check-in.
In summer at 30 degrees N, our daylight period still runs a bit over 12 hours. In the absence of heavy traffic and if you don't have to make too many stops, you can follow U.S. Interstate 59 south from Bessemer AL to a little place called Slidell LA on the north shore of Lake Ponchartrain, then transfer to I-10 to move to the south shore and eventually to the house in Metairie LA.
At 70 mph interstate speeds, using cruise control, and allowing for a lunch break and a couple of short potty breaks, that comes to 6 hours, maybe 6 1/2. So just about a half a day. We haven't hit the autumnal equinox quite yet; therefore, we have more than 12 hours of daylight remaining. Not to mention that we will be going west. (Think of the novel "Around the World in 80 Days". We have extra daylight because we will be chasing the sun.)
Colin, a fair enough question about gas lamps. The gas lamps in use in the French Quarter are for the tourists. Street signs are on those lamps. We have standard mercury vapor or calcium vapor street lighting elsewhere in the city. And, truth be told, the area where you find the gas lamps has so much light spilling over from the garish advertising in each shop that you could read fine newsprint in that light, with or without the picturesque and totally impractical gas lamps.
The "real" gas lamps that we would use if it came to that are quite common in our area. They are called Wellsbach (sp?) burners, made of a cloth "mantle" (looks like a little cloth sack) soaked with a super-saturated salt solution that has been allowed to dry over a period of repeated dipping in that solution. When you light the burner, the cloth burns away but the salt, having crystallized fairly solid by that point, remains as a fragile crystal mesh. Which gets hot enough in a natural gas + air flame to glow almost white-hot. Unless you've seen one, you just don't appreciate how much light they put out. Two of my uncles had them as yard lights. So don't downplay gaslight technology.
Anyway, our plans have stabilized. My oldest stepdaughter had a business pass to enter our area to check on her employer's servers. She was no more than three miles from our house, so she checked it. We are OK, no damage except for a couple of loose branches in the front yard. We have power, we have flushable toilets, we have filtered water, we have gas in the house. We're good. So Thursday I'll pack up wifey and the mother-in-law and hit the road.
Gotta tell you, gang, I really do appreciate the show of support and my wife was touched as well. Thanks.
What's the point in stopping if you're not going to fill up on caffiene? You can't drive away with it because then you spill it and end up in a legal dispute because the Starbucks guy believed you when you said your wanted hot coffee 
