The Big Easy

New Orleans, as someone there said, has character. They were gearing up for Mardi Gras, although it doesn't appear that they need a reason to party. We walked the French Quarter after a parade the night before - what a mess! It definitely is a "party place" all day and all night.

We did our first cruise on the "Big Muddy" on a steam powered sternwheeler. What a great time we had complete with delicious creole lunch!

Of course a visit must include cafe au lait and beignets at Cafe de Monde, so we enjoyed that treat one morning. Also visited the French Market which turned out to be a flea market of the usual "stuff". Walked lots of streets in the French Quarter.
We were not expecting it to be quite so dirty, even after a clean up from the parade. Many of the buildings are in disrepair and oh my goodness, watch where you walk on the sidewalks that are full of holes and loose slate pieces. They clean the interiors of the bars and restaurants by washing them out with hoses and lots of water mid-morning, ready for another day.

New Orleans is known for its street entertainers and they are everywhere doing many different things. Of course they all want a tip and one could spend a lot of money tipping all of them!
We saw many versions of this man, jazz players, magicians, street dancers, guitar players, and artists to name a few. It was fun to watch them.

Ralph went to the WW II Museum, while Pam walked in the French Quarter and found a street called Pirates Alley that was her favorite place in the French Quarter.

For a change, it was very warm, more like HOT, and humidity to match - they broke records! Usually we are breaking the "cold" records, so a pleasant change.

We stayed in a park on the north side of Lake Pontchartrain and drove the 24 mile causeway over the lake - worlds longest bridge! It is quite the bridge with its own police force.

We enjoyed our visit here, but time to move on down the road!

Moving West

After a cold and sometimes wet winter in Florida, we are on the move. This winter was certainly not like the past years we spent in Florida and has made us decide that Arizona is our place to be in the winter.

Our first stop was Pass Christian Mississippi. This is the area from Waveland through Biloxi that was ground zero for Katrina. It is now 5 1/2 years since this hurricane and you can still see the devastation. Many buildings are still just piles of rubble probably waiting for insurance companies to decide what to do. Highway 90 runs next to the water. This is the highway so often shown in pictures that was piled with rubble. On one side is The Strand, a man made beach that has the sand back in place and they are trying to regrow the sea oats to keep down the erosion.

The other side of this highway had homes, some large mansions, and businesses. There is the occasional home that has been rebuilt and some in the process of rebuilding. A few businesses have rebuilt, mostly Waffle Houses, McDonalds and a few casinos in Biloxi. However, there are miles and miles of driveways to nothing, streets to nowhere, steps to nowhere and parking lots with no buildings and For Sale signs everywhere. There are RVs parked on some of the vacant lots as if that is where the owners are living. Apparently many insurance claims were denied because the companies claimed that the damage was from water and with no flood insurance they will not pay. There was a 24' wall of water driven by the wind that hit this area.

The home of Jefferson Davis, Beauvoir, was spared but heavily damaged. Of the 7 buildings on the property, only 2 survived and one of those had to be torn down when FEMA declared it was in a flood plain and had to be moved 150' feet west to rebuild. The first picture is 3 days after Katrina and just a few days after this picture, much of the roof collapsed. Then a picture of what it looks like today. They were not able to get any artifacts out before the storm, but were able to find many of them and restore them. Others they have replaced with period pieces.


The RV park we stayed in was probably at least 3 miles inland and it was devastated. The owners at the time just left it. New owners purchased it a year ago, but they have a lot of work to do as it is still a mess. This whole area may never be what it was pre-Katrina.