A Short Trip Across The Lake To A Nice Park

We have been having some really nice weather the last few days and I think spring has come to Louisiana as some of the trees that were looking dead have started to leaf out.  So off we go to the other side of Lake Pontchartrain. 

As we drove through town on our way to the Causeway, I managed to snap a picture of one of those "Shotgun Houses", that used to dominate the 9th ward.  They are narrow little houses that are very long reaching all the way back to the lane.  The front and back doors are aligned, so they could get a breeze through the house in the hot Louisiana summers.  They called them shotgun houses because they used to say you could shoot in the front door and out the back and not hit anything. 

As we got onto the Causeway New Orleans is fading into the background. 

And you can't even see the other side. 

They have markers every mile as you cross and seven turnarounds. 

Finally the other side comes into view. 

At the 24 mile marker we finally approach the end of the Causeway.  

This side of the Lake seems much more jungle like.  Very different. 

We have a very nice campsite. 

 And we even had a campfire tonight.  We will go out and do some sight seeing tomorrow. 

We Didn't See Much of Anything Today.

This morning I looked up the information for Fort Pike National Historic Site.  It was about 35 miles away, but we decided to go and tour the place. 

You can always tell you are about to go over a waterway that takes sea going vessels, because the bridges are so high; 

We arrived to find the place totally enclosed with frost fencing and "Closed"signs all over the place. 

It turns out it was repaired after Katrina and re-opened but was closed again after damage from Huricane Gustav.  It has been closed for over 2 years since it was last damaged and no one bothered to update their internet sites.

With Dan in the truck as lookout, I managed to sneek through an open gate and snap this picture but couldn't get any closer.  Needless to say I was very angry, so when we got back to the trailer I sent a couple of very strongly worded emails to two US government departments. 
Unfortunately it wasn't very satisfying. 

Anyway I took some pictures of the development
out on that penninsula.  It's just like what we saw on Galveston Island. 

Lots more homes on stilts. 

Notice the bridge?  It looks like it is sideways.  Well it is, it's a swing bridge.  So far since arriving on Friday, we have been held up in traffic, from a car accident on the freeway  (that took forever), two ferries, a lift bridge letting three boats through and now a swing bridge letting one boat through. 
The traffic in this city is a nightmare, because it's full of so many waterways. 

And these gorgeous homes are all built on private canals so they can park the huge boats right behind their houses.  Even if I could afford those houses and those boats I still wouldn't live in this city.   It's a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there. 

Destrehan Plantation

I picked out two plantations to see today, but due to time constraints we only got to see one, but it was great.  In it's heyday it was a huge operation sugar plantation with over 1000 slaves.  Attached are just a few samples of the many, many pictures I took today.

This gentleman in the Union Army uniform was our guide for our tour.  He's wearing that uniform because this plantation was a stronghold for the Union Army administration once the Civil War ended. 

This is what was called the pre-kitchen.  All of the cooking was actually done in the cook house which was another building far from the main house.  Then the food was brought in here to be assembled and prepared for the table.

This was called the China Kitchen where an indoor slave plated up the meals, from the pre-kitchen, onto the good china and took it to the dining room.  She was also responsible for feeding the masters children here and teaching them manners. 

This was the overseers office.

This bedroom belonged to the lady of the house across from her children's rooms.

This is the master's sitting room.

And this is the master's bedroom.

All of these sitting rooms and bedroom had doors that opened onto this upper veranda that surrounded the house and also onto the hall that faced the large entrance staircase, to take advantage of the breeze from the Mississippi River. 

One of the many bedrooms was later made into a billiard room.

The slave quarters that are close by on the grounds now, were actually moved from over a 1/4 of a mile away.  They never would have allowed the slaves to live that close to the main house. 

The back two corners of the main house had huge tanks to collect rainwater.  One still does, but the other has been outfitted with an elevator, to make the plantation totally accessible.

What looks like a giant wash basin is one of the pots that the sugar cane was boiled and rendered in. 

This is one of the slave quarters.  There are two doors because each of these buildings housed two families.  There was a chimney in the center with a fireplace that opened into each side.

This approximately 10 X 10 room had to house an entire family for living, cooking, sleeping etc.




You might find this article interesting   http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2011/01/23/untold_story_of_us_slave_rebellion_retold_centuries_later.html


We have decided to stay in New Orleans for another day so we hope to go to the French Quarter tomorrow.

More 9th Ward and a King Cake.

So, of all the new homes in the 9th ward, these are my three choices. 

They are modern, but not too extreme like some of the others.

They fit better into the neighbourhood.  It's to bad that some of those cute little ornate shotgun houses could not have been restored or duplicated.







Now for the "King Cake".  The traditional colours for Mardi Gras are Purple, Green and Gold.  They produce beads, masks, all sorts of decorations in these colours and the traditional desert at Mardi Gras is the King Cake.  This is like a big gooey twisted cinnamon bun with jam that is covered  with bright purple green and gold icing.  It is very sweet, but you have to have one when you come to New Orleans. 

So that's my report from New Orleans, for tonight.   I have just spent the evening researching which plantations I want to see tomorrow.

Big Changes in the 9th Ward.

We went back and toured the decimated 9th ward of St. Bernard Parish in New Orleans.  Things are looking up in some areas, but some are also very much neglected.  According to all reports they have built 73 brand new homes for dislocated New Orleans residents. 

They are all supposed to be built green.  (energy efficient, and environmentally friendly materials)  It's hard to tell by looking at them, but most of them are ultra modern.  They certainly don't look like the rest of the 9th ward that is still standing. 

They look totally out of place when you see all the rest of the little shotgun houses that used to be the only style here. 

 Some of them are Beautiful, some are Quite  Striking  some are just plain Ugly. 

As you can see by the street signs they certainly need some infrastructure fixed up as well. 

 

Then you still have some of the homes that are uninhabitable, but no one has the money to tear them down and rebuild.  There are thousands of homes that need to be refurbished, repaired and replaced, but it seems that everything is moving very very slowly for some and very quickly for others.  And everything seems very haphazard and unorganized. 

 

Lake Charles to New Orleans

"Okay the trailers all hooked up where are we going now?"

We set off this morning for a short trip to Fausse Point State Park, but it was such a good day for traveling, warm sunshine, and no wind, we got to the turn off and decided to continue right on through to New Orleans. 

 

Over many bridges over many canals, rivers and bayous.  

This city and surrounding area is all Canals, Rivers and Bayous. 

So as we went over that last bridge, I never imagined that "Gladys" (our GPS) was taking us straight for a very small ferry that would not accommodate our trailer.  It seems I forgot to change the settings back  to "Avoid Ferries" after our ferry ride off of Galveston Island.  So we veered off just before the ferry and I reset "Gladys"and she re-routed us to our campground, avoiding all the ferries, which of course added 28 miles to our journey and sent us right through down town New Orleans, with trailer in tow. 







It gave me a chance to snap some good shots of the New Orleans Skyline. 

But as usual good old "Gladys"got us there in the end despite our errors. 


I love this campground it's very roomy and lovely and clean. 

We are booked in here for this whole weekend and maybe beyond.  We'll see how it goes.