USA Road Trip » mississippi river

Day 20 Paducah Kentucky to Blue Springs Missouri

admin — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 03:35:18 +0000

We spent the day driving across the south-western corner of Illinois, and almost right across Missouri. Tonight we’re staying just outside Kansas City, Missouri, and tomorrow we’ll see the prairies of Kansas State.

Lovely day, weather-wise, after the heavy rain of yesterday afternoon. A bit cooler than we’ve been used to, and Spring is just starting to show here, with many trees still bare of leaves.

We drove over the Mississippi River at St Louis – narrower than it is at New Orleans, but still a very impressive river. We stopped to have a look at the Gateway Arch, which is the tallest man-made monument in the United States, the tallest stainless steel monument in the world, and a very impressive, imposing monument. There’s more information about it, plus some photos here

Gateway Arch

Adelaide Avenue in St Louis

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