Arrival in New Orleans

Tuesday, May 17 -   Leftover from yesterday, we traveled through the "duck capital of America," in Gueydan, Louisiana, on Highway 14.  Of course, we did not see any ducks.

Back to the Palmetto State Park.  They really did cut this campground out of the jungle, and it would take a machete to walk through the growth.  We are at the end of a cul de sac, and if our camping buddies were with us, we could have had our own private area.

Last night after dinner, we took a little walk on the path through this jungle.  We didn't really know where this path would take us, and the Vermillion River is near here, but we did not get there.

 However, as we were walking, and it was just before dusk, Joe heard a rustling in the brush and lo and behold, an armadillo strolled out of the brush and crossed the path about 10 feet in front of us.  It blends into the picture, but in the first photo, it is about in the middle, just to the right of the path.  In the second photo, it is at the edge of the green.  The lighting wasn't very good, so we didn't get very good pictures, but I was sure excited to see a live one!

We've seen several dead armadillos on the highways, but this was the first live on this trip, and just the second one I've ever seen.  We didn't have our New Mexico walking sticks but Joe says from now on, we have to have them.  Who knows what we might have to fight off!

We got up this morning to 68 degrees, another beautiful day.  We slept without air conditioning last night; we are so lucky with the weather right now.  We sat outside with our coffee while Joe contemplated his day -- I'm sure that's what he was doing.

We headed to New Iberia, but when we got to the intersection with Highway 90, it was closed and we had to detour on through town to Hwy 674.  We first thought it was road construction, but we heard over the CB radio that they were moving a tree.  I did a little research and found this: 
"Mr. Al, an ancient oak that stands beside U.S. Route 90 near New Iberia, will soon have a new home.  The massive tree, estimated to be at least 150 yearsold, was orginally scheduled to move last week but that had to be delayed after the lifting jacks sank into the soggy ground."

So today was the day they moved it, and we got caught up in the detour.  Then, just as we got to the intersection to get back on 90, there was an asphalt machine, unrelated to the road closure, blocking our way.  It was working on the frontage road, but that held us up another 10 minutes.  It's a good thing we don't have a schedule!  Then, just as they let us by, they opened 90 back up, both ways, but traffic had to get off and immediately back on at this exact intersection, so we had a little traffic to deal with then.  But, finally, we got back up on the highway and away we went.  Portions of this highway are really rough, reminds us of last year's frost heaves in Alaska and Canada.  As Joe drives along, he pays a lot of attention to the crops growing in the fields -- can't take the farmer out of him, I guess.  We kept seeing something that he couldn't identify, but, again after some research, we now believe it is sugar cane.  We saw thousands of acres planted with this crop, miles after miles, for 2 days.

As we drove through Calumet, I believe it was, we passed an above-ground cemetery.

We crossed a bayou here, which is fed from Lake Atchafalaya--the lake they are diverting some of the flood water through to protect New Orleans.  The water is not very many feet below the railroad bridge, and probably the one we were on as well.

And flood water is still on the way.  I think the crest here is another 7-10 days away, and I do not know where all that water is going to go.  But as we continued on through Louisiana's swamp land, we could imagine that this might handle a good portion of it, if it can get spread out over the swamps. 

We drove through Morgan City, and as we crossed that bridge, we could see the sea wall at the town's edge.  It looked like a lower flood wall had already been reached, but it looked like they did have some protection yet.  If you can see the printing on the wall, that's what I'm talking about.

We saw trucks with sandbags and a couple of times, we actually saw where they were either laying sandbags or driving steel into the ground to make temporary flood walls -- a multiple of flood control is in action down here.

I know these pictures don't show this very well, but there is a lot going on down here - it's good to see preventative measures and pro-action, instead of just reaction.

As we crossed the Mississippi River again, into New Orleans, it was running strong, and it is full.

We traveled 165 miles today and got to the campground around 3:00.  We picked out our campground, Pontchartrain Landing, at random, but it turned out to be really nice.  It's only 3 years old (build post-Katrina), and is right on the Inner Harbor Navigation Canal, which connects Lake Ponchartrain and the Gulf of Mexico.  It has a pool, spa, outside bar area, and they are putting in hookups for boats that will provide water and electric.  The Lake Pontchartrain seawall is just across the street, and the check-in girl said the water would have been at the top of the stairs here had this place been here then (didn't get a picture of those stairs).

They have a shuttle here that takes guests down to the French Quarter, so we are planning on taking that tomorrow and checking out the city.  We may go off on our own the next day.  There's lots to see here so we'll probably be here 3-4 days.  It was an interesting day, and the good news is that they don't think the flooding is going to be as bad as earlier expected.

Travel days

Sunday, Monday, May 15-16 - We are leaving Corpus today, so I got up early and headed over to the laundry to get that caught up again.  John took Bridgette and Barbara to the airport (they had an earlier flight than he had), then came back out to the campground, so we went to breakfast, then to the grocery store.  We did a little clean-up (way overdue), then headed to the airport with John, then on out of town.  We dropped him about 11:15, and our goal was to get past Houston today (Sunday) to avoid rush-hour traffic tomorrow.  Joe drove 286 miles, eating lunch at the wheel, but we found a campground about 40 miles east of Houston and got off the road about 5:00.  The campground, Turtle Bayou RV Park, didn't look like much from the road, but we only needed it for one night so we decided to stop there anyway.  We registered, then the campground owner took us over the hill, down by the Turtle Bayou, to an absolutely beautiful setting, nicely mowed, with picnic and deck areas, right by the bayou.

After we hooked up our electricity we walked around the park and down to the water (saw a few turtles).  We kept looking for alligators, but only saw turtles.

The weather was very nice again today, low humidity, 80's.  There was a windsock on the deck and it was, amazingly for Texas, absolutely still.

I'm sure Joe is sharing his infinite wisdom with me here.

He likes to take "self-portraits" of us, so here is one of us on the deck.  We did see some fish jump from this deck, and he thinks they were "flying fish," because they landed a few feet away from where they jumped out of the water.  Of course, he's now into "flying" everything since the flying crab in Corpus.
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We had a peaceful night and a pleasant morning.  Joe took this picture this morning because the water had such a good reflection on it. 

We had to defrost our frig this morning, another chore long overdue.  But we got that done and got on the road about 9:30, and crossed the state line out of Texas at 11:15, after fueling.  We found gas today for $3.679, which was cheaper than in Corpus.  Here's the port at Beaumont, Texas.

We crossed the Sabine River again, I believe we drove along this river when we came down from Toledo Bend.

After crossing into Louisiana, we stopped at the Visitor Center to get maps, brochures, and find out if the roads to New Orleans were open, which we were told they were, so we left I-10 at Lake Charles and headed down Highway 14.  Here's the bridge over Lake Charles (for Eric), and the lake itself.

The part of Louisiana we are crossing now is consider the "prairie," and we did see a lot of flat fields, with some even being worked with tractors.

Something else we saw along here, and we had seen last year in Louisiana, are flooded fields with little traps on them.  These are rice fields, and their second crop is crayfish, so these little traps or baskets are for the crayfish.

Finally, we called it a day, and found a campsite at Palmetto State Park, outside of Abbeville.  This was another very nice place.  It was about 8 miles from town, and we didn't really know where we were going, but Joe said that we have always had good experiences at the state parks, and it has always been worth the drive.  And this one was no exception.

We really are in the swamp here, and Joe mentioned that there are probably bears around.  I didn't think so, but when I read the rules, sure enough, there are bears in the campground.  It sure would be neat to see one, through the windows of course.  We do have a blackberry briar right outside the kitchen window, so I'll have to be on the lookout.  However, the trash barrels are not bear-proof, so I'm not too hopeful.  There are some magnolia trees around our campsite, and we finally got a close-up picture of one of those beautiful flowers.

This is the campsite next to us, which could be for Jeff and Brenda, Collins and Marilyn, and/or Dave and Mazie -- anyone who would like to accompany us on our trip.  We miss you all.

Bridgette's Graduation Day

Saturday, May 14 - Today is Bridgette's day!  It was a long, arduous road with more than her fair share of challenges, but she made it in grand style, and today she got to be the star!

We picked up Bridgette, John and Barbara just before 8:00 a.m. and took them to a fine Whataburger breakfast.

Well, at least we took her to the Original Whataburger, which is just off the beach, and is the only two-story (we think) Whataburger,  She was too nervous to eat much anyway.  Then we dropped her off at the American Bank Center Arena (where the Corpus hockey team plays), and did not see her again until she walked in the processional into the ceremony.




Most of the pictures we took inside the arena did not come out very well, the lighting was not sufficient, but I'll post a few.

 

Time seemed to drag while we waited for the big event to get underway.  

Finally, the Processional began and started filing in to fill the seats.  The faculty was seated first, but Bridgette marched in just after them, because she was in the FRONT ROW.


In this picture, Bridgette is in the front row, 4th from the right, with the black tam.  On her left, in the blue tam, is her advisor, Dr. Greg Stunz, who hoods her on the platform when they announce her name.

Bridgette was the only Ph.D. candidate receiving her diploma today, so she was in a category by herself.  Later, standing around outside, we would hear people whisper "she's the one who got her doctorate" as they pointed to her.  John said they heard that in the elevator too, so she really got to be the star today.
But we took lots of pictures outside, so I'll post some of them.

 

As you can see, this is a beautiful setting, and the day was perfect -- low 80s, low humidity, slight breeze -- Corpus at its best.  I think this was probably the nicest day, weatherwise, that we had ever experienced in Corpus, and it couldn't have picked a better day!

Here's Bridgette with her advisor, who is a great person, mentor, and friend to both John and Bridgette.  When Bridgette lost her advisor last year due to a tenure issue, Greg stepped in and took Bridgette on, even though he had just then finished with John.

This was Greg's first Ph.D. graduate to walk at graduation, so he was very excited (and a little nervous) to get to do the hooding process on stage.  He, along with the rest of us, had tried unsuccessfully last year to get John to walk, and since Bridgette's ceremony, he said he is now going to make that a requirement for all future Ph.D. students -- that they have to walk at graduation!

So here's the rest of us:  Bridgette and John.

Bridgette and her Mom:

Her dad couldn't come -- he had to work, so here's Bridgette talking to her Dad on the phone just after graduation.

John held her gown and hood while she was on the phone -- I guess this is the closest we are going to get with him and a cap and gown.

Here's Bridgette with the in-laws.

The regalia is a really big deal, and the colors, tassels, caps and hoods are color-coded for the different degrees.  The doctor's cap is a six-sided velvet tam, and a Philosophy degree is dark blue.  The gowns also differ--bachelor has long, pointed sleeves; master has an oblong sleeve, and the doctor's gown has bell-shaped sleeves.  The velvet border of the hood represents the degree or the color of the field of study, current trend is for the color to represent the field of study, but historically, dark blue was characteristic for a Ph.D. in any field.  Cap tassels for the doctor's degree are gold, while the tassels for the master and bachelor degrees are black.  Holders of all these degrees wear the tassel on the left.  The ritual of bachelor degree candidates shifting the tassel from right to left marks the conferring of one's first university degree. 

Finally, we left this area and drove over to the party!  On the way, we passed the Holiday Inn, which was the turn-around place for Bridgette's marathon training, so she has fond memories of it.  She and her friend, Sandra, ran this coastline drive many, many times, and she wanted to run it one more time, but we never had time for that (when she had running shoes on).

The bay was very pretty today, and there was no haze so we could see a good distance.  There was a line of sailboats right along this drive which brightened up the horizon.  (If you click on the picture, they may show up a little better.)

So we got to Megan's and Brian's for the party.  Although it was to celebrate 4 people (2 master graduates and one person leaving the lab), but Bridgette was truly the star.  Everyone was so thrilled for her accomplishments.

Greg always brings his family to these affairs, and he has two of the cutest kids [Madeline and Hunter], which Bridgette will miss, so I'll put their pictures, and their mother, on here for posterity.

Bridgette wore her cap almost all day, as well as a big smile.  Congratulations, Bridgette!!!