Friday Feb 09

New Orleans LA – Feb 06. 07, 08, 09
We drove only 350 miles this time, but still arrived tired. So we are going to try to do only 300 miles each trip.

Our RV Park leaves a lot to be desired. No cable tv (sigh), no wi-fi, unless you wish to pay $5/day. Very basic park. We went to downtown New Orleans on the 7th (Wednesday), 73 miles away, and walked around a lot. Visited the French Quarter, and found it to be relatively empty. I guess the action is at night. This is Mardi Gras Season, and this coming weekend will start the parades in all the cities. I found Mardi Gras to be in all the communities around New Orleans….did not know this. We saw a lot of damage from Katrina, mainly in the vegetation, but didn’t drive through any areas that were flooded from the storm, so cannot report on those. But the French Quarter showed very little damage. Maybe they’ve repaired it all during the last 18 month? We found the walk on the Mississippi River front to be very enjoyable. There was lots of traffic up and down the river. Almost took a tour on the “Natchez” river boat, but the urge over took us! We looked for a place to have some authentic Cajun food, and found very nice restaurant to have lunch. Yum…

On Thursday the 8th, we toured Baton Rouge only 20 miles away and toured it for several hours. The way Baton Rouge (Red Stick) got it’s name: the Indians would put the carcasses of animals and fish high on a pole, and the blood would drip down the pole. It was reported also that some heads of their enemies were also found on top of these poles, with their blood dripping down, Hence, red stick. They have a very nice walk along the MS River, and we did that for a bit. Then, we met a policeman on a bike, and asked him where the Visitor Center was. He directed us back along the river walk, and we walked uphill for several blocks, passed the police station, where the young man on his bike was again. We had only a couple of blocks to go. Very pleasant young woman at the Visitor’s Center. She pointed out several interesting sites to visit, the one she said was new….we could not find it, so decided to have lunch instead. First time we’d had catfish. Not bad, tasted like what we call Fish N Chips, but with a spicy coating and deep fried. As we were heading out of town, we saw the cop on the bike again…He waved!

Big event for Friday the 9th: A visit to the local Wal-Mart, can you believe it? We will be leaving this park early tomorrow morning, and we like to pull over at a rest area, fix sandwiches and eat lunch, then take a small walk. We will have a little over 300 miles tomorrow to Houston.

Panama City Beach FL – Feb 03, 04, and 05
It was a long drive from Tampa on the 3rd – Saturday, over 400 miles, and we were exhausted. We stayed in a small, but nice, RV park that was located right next to a private zoo. When we arrived around 5 pm and we were hooking up, we jumped nearly out of our skins by the sound of a roaring lion! We didn’t realize there was a zoo next door. Mr. Lion continued into the night. We did visit the zoo on the 5th, and found it to be small, privately owned, but lots of animals. There is a giraffe next to the fence that peeks at the people staying in those spaces….very curious fellow named Sydney. We found Panama City to be a typical beach town where Spring Breakers like to come. But the sand was so neat. It reminded us of the white sand at Crescent Beach on Siesta Key in Sarasota Fl. We had pretty cold weather, so were pleased to be heading West to New Orleans on Saturday morning the 6th.