USA Road Trip » louisiana

Day 13 New Orleans Louisiana to Grayton Beach State Park Florida

admin — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 01:41:38 +0000

Unlucky day 13. We left New Orleans at a good time, to make Grayton Beach early in the afternoon. However at Mobile Alabama, we holed a tyre (or tire in the USA), fortunately right outside a tire shop. However they did not have a replacement, although they tried to fix the old one, but could not. They spent some time helping us, and charged us nothing. We then went to another one, but also no luck. However they sent us to a third, which did have a replacement.

The whole episode took about 3 hours, and we didn’t arrive at Grayton Beach until 7pm at night (losing another hour crossing into the eastern time zone in Florida. We then found someone had already taken our booked campsite, but they moved on. We think they were just hoping no one would turn up.

Its a nice State Park. The americans do know how to setup camping areas. Its not exactly wilderness camping (Water, 50 amp power point for powering your 10 metre long RV), but it is nice.

campsite Grayton Beach on the Gulf of Mexico

Grayton Beach on the Gulf of Mexico Florida. Calm and the water was warm.

Day 12 New Orleans Louisiana

admin — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 00:56:17 +0000

We drove down to Venice, which is near the mouth of the mississippi, at the southern end of a long peninsula. As we got further south the land got lower and lower, and the sea closer and closer. At Venice the port is only half a metre above sea level. We kept thinking that when Hurricane Katrina hit, it had a 6 metre storm surge in front of it, which would have put this whole area under water. Many buildings are elevated on stilts, and we went past the new High School, which is being built all elevated.

When we returned to New Orleans we visited the Lower Ninth Ward, which was the area most affected by flooding from the failure of the levees. The Lower Ninth Ward is mostly abandoned. There are boarded up shops, and at least half the houses are boarded up and abandoned.

One of the many,many abandoned buildings in the Lower 9th ward of New Orleans, still with FEMA rescue marks

There is a good explanation of what the various numbers and letters mean here

parked on the levee on mississippi watching ships sail upriver

Greg getting money from the Drive-Thru ATM

Thunderstorm and Tornado warnings while we are staying in New Orleans

Day 11 New Orleans Louisiana

admin — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 02:54:38 +0000

Lots of walking today. We walked tthrough the French market, along the banks of the mississippi, and through the arts district. Then back to the French Quarter, and then north to Treme. We then visited the State museum to see an excellent exhibition on Hurricane Katrina and how it all happened.

Treme New Orleans

Buskers in the french quarter New Orleans

parade New Orleans

Day 10 Lafayette Louisiana to New Orleans Louisiana

Judy — Sun, 03 Apr 2011 15:21:29 +0000

In which:

Greg celebrates his birthday, we visit the Tabasco Sauce factory, we drive to New Orleans and spend the evening wandering around the French Quarter and Bourbon Street

Tabasco Country Store

the bridge over the mississippi river that we drove over on the I-10 into New Orleans

Day 9 Martin Creek State Park to Lafayette Louisiana

Judy — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 14:57:55 +0000

We crossed the border into Louisiana. A couple of miles over the border we stopped at the Tourist Information Centre and picked up brochures and maps, and had a long and very helpful chat with a guide on what to see and do in Louisiana. She told us about Natchitoches, a little historic town south of Shreveport. The movie ‘Steel Magnolias’ was set and filmed there. We changed our plans and headed straight there, rather than going into Shreveport. Natchitoches has a street full of shops and eating places along the Cane River Lake. We had lunch at Papa’s Bar and Grill (which is right next door to Mama’s Oyster House) – Greg had a grilled chicken sandwich, I had a shrimp po’boy, which is the Louisiana version of a subway sandwich. It’s my mission to eat as much local food while we’re here.

We drove a couple of hundred kms south to Lafayette, population 200,000. We’re in Cajun country now, and Lafayette is right in the middle, and the largest town in the region. We are now seeing much more of a French influence, rather than the Spanish that we’ve noticed since we landed in California. Streets are called ‘Rue’, heading east is ‘est’, just little subtle things like that.

We ate at the Blue Dog Cafe in Lafayette. Cafe doesn’t really seem the right word for it – it’s actually a huge restaurant with at least 3 very large rooms full of tables, plus outdoor tables as well. And it’s all tables and chairs, no booths with bench seats like we’ve seen in other ‘restaurants’, which we think of as ‘diners’. Anyway … the reason it’s called the Blue Dog Cafe is that the walls are full of paintings of dogs that look very much like my brother Phil’s blue heeler, Brewster. The waiters wear t-shirts with the slogan ‘Sit. Stay. Eat’. And they serve fantastic Cajun food.

Greg had Blackened Catfish with Angel Hair Pasta and Spring Vegetables, I had Crawfish Etouffee* with Corn Macque Choux and both dishes were delicious. Here’s their menu, so you can see what else they offer, including photos of some of the dishes – click here.

The restaurant was busy, and our meals were a bit slow, which was fine with us – it gave us a chance to people-watch and draw crayon pictures on our ‘tablecloth’, but the waiter gave us a complimentary dessert – Bread Pudding with Pecan Praline Sauce. I had seen recipes for this dish and thought it might be like our Bread & Butter Pudding, but it’s much denser and tastes fantastic! We shared one between us, and we just managed to finish it. The total bill, including 2 local draught beers, was $40.

* Crawfish are freshwater crustaceans which taste like prawns. The guide at the Tourist Information Centre had mentioned that it’s crawfish season, so of course I had to try them. Delicious!

Blue Dog Cafe Layfayette Louisiana