French Quarter

Wednesday, May 18 - This moring we took the campground shuttle down to the French Quarter for the Katrina/City Tour.  We had a few minutes before we boarded the tour bus, so we walked down to the river, which was just right there.

They were also getting ready for the Riverboat Cruise, so the steamship Nathez was right there in port.

A lady played the calliope as they boarded the boat, so we could hear her playing from our tour bus.  As we toured the city, we saw lots of historical statutes.  New Orleans is a very old city, with lots of history, especialy during the civil war.

The bus driver drove us through the Lower Ninth Ward, which sustained most of the damage from the flooding after Hurricane Katrina.  Remember, the flooding was due to the levee failure at Lake Pontchatrain, not the hurricane itself.  We saw many homes in various states of disrepair, a lot of vacant lots -- the driver said this used to be a densely populated neighborhood so all the vacant lots used to have buildings on them -- some construction going on.  On some of the houses still standing we could see the water line left from the flooding, and the markings put on by the rescue people checking that the houses was vacant.  The Brad Pitt Organization as well as Habitat for Humanity have been very active in this area, and our bus driver said that the Brad Pitt homes are very unusual looking because they are built to be efficient, wired for generators, built on stilts to be safer.  They look different than the other homes being constructed there.

Our driver was pretty good, he narrated the entire time we were on the bus, so we learned a lot of New Orleans' history - historic and more recent.  We stopped at one of the above-ground cemeteries that are so popular here. 

Then he took us through the City Park and to Lake Pontchartrain.  The community beside the lake is very nice, with huge homes.  He called this a "tear down" community, because often people buy these big old houses for hundreds of thousands of dollars, then tear them down and built a new, huge house on the lot. 

The bridge over this lake is the longest bridge in the world that is continuously over water.  The lake is 40 miles long and 25 miles wide.

Back on tour, he drove us past some of the grand, old mansions.  Some of these have been divided into apartments, but many are still single-family homes.

They still have an active street car line here, and the streetcars traveled this street, which took us past Tulane and Loyola Universities.  There were also lots of churches in this street, on the streetcar line.

This is also part of the Mardi Gras parade route, and there were lots of beads hanging from the stately trees lining the street, and even on the overhead power lines.

Another old tradition still alive in New Orleans is the mule-drawn carriages that go up and down the street moving tourists from one location to another.

Some of these animals are just beautiful, and the carriages are decorated with flowers (so are some of the mules).  We didn't ride on any of these, but we saw lots of them.  We had lunch right on S. Peter Street, which is the one right along the river.  A jazz band entertained us while we ate.

Then we walked through some of the shops in the French Quarter, including a flea market area.  Joe found some hot sauce named after him.

I found a solution to my bad-hair days.

I didn't buy this mask, but I did buy a similar one, not quite as impressive as this one (if I had time to go back for this one, I would have).

These streets here have solid buildings, two to three stories usually.  Most of them have balconies on them, and may of them are decorated with flower boxes, very colorful.

We then walked up the famous Bourbon Street, but it was only 3:00 p.m., so there wasn't too much activity; we did pass a few strange-looking people, and there was bar after bar, but they weren't jumping yet.  I'm sure by nightfall there was a lot more going on down here.

We decided to stop for a drink, back on the corner of S. Peter Street and Toulouse, and I talked Joe into going over to Harrah's Casino so we took the later shuttle back.  The World Series of Poker was going on at the casino, but we didn't try to go to whatever floor that was taking place on.  We don't know if was open to the public or not. We are enjoying "carnival margaritas" here.

We had about a 3-4 block walk, and we passed by Bubba Gump's restaurant.

So we spent a couple hours donating our funds to the casino, then we walked back and had the famous "Cafe Du Monde beignets" (french donuts), which were delicious.  We didn't even know at the time that this was a "have to" if you visit New Orleans, but we found out later this is a landmark, so we were glad we indulged.

So we caught our shuttle back to the RV, and were glad to rest our feet.  This was probably more walking than Joe needed on his newly-repaired foot.  But it was a good day, and we enjoyed seeing what we did of New Orleans. 

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.