From New Orleans to Houston

I'm from New England. You can successfully touch 4 states by car in under 3 hours. It's a different story in the South. Getting from New Orleans to Houston on the good ole' Greyhound Bus was an eye opening adventure that I was excited to partake in. While on the 8 hour trek I decided to I wanted to compare the Southern experience of New Orleans to that of the different cities of Louisiana that we stopped in. Now obviously I can't come to a conclusion about the experience of a town or city from an hour Greyhound layover at some rinky-dink bus station, but surprisingly I got a good sense of the sense of unity that Louisiana feels culturally and just how special and unique this place we call home is. 
 Examples:

• The cities of Louisiana just feel like you're in the state. Certain architecture mimics European style in cities like Baton Rouge, Lafayette, and Lake Charles.
• A weird thing that I noticed: state police presence (highway patrol) was surprisingly much higher in Louisiana than Texas, something I found interesting considering the welcome sign for Texas included "Drive Friendly--The Texas Way". This was interesting considering the notorious idea of poor driving skills associated with Texas (Texans please don't take offense to this.. Ever heard of a Masshole? Yeah, we're pretty bad drivers too, if not the worst). 
• I definitely heard differing accents of people at the different stops along the way. New Orleans definitely had the most distinct. 
• The bus driver on the way back to NOLA actually had to contact his manager for advice on how to avoid the mobs of people celebrating from the Saints victory. I love this city