Houston to New Orleans

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Yesterday, we travelled from Houston to New Orleans along the I10 highway. We got an early start but were held up for an hour near Lake Charles by highway construction. We tried to get a swamp boat ride at Hendeson, La. but they were not operating because of the lack of tourists and bad weather. It was raining off and on and very windy. Not a problem for hardy tourists.

We got to our hotel with no problems thanks to our GPS but Ron discovered that he had two sweaters missing from his bag - used them to make a pillow and left them behind. The hotel is beatiful and is right in the middle of the action on Bourbon Street - a kind of oasis in the madness. Ramada Plaza Inn on Boubon Street.

We ate on a restaurant balcony overlooking Boubon St. and watched a couple of parades going by and all the buzzed out people. We had a rum drink called "The Hurricane" and ate an alligator. There was a big downpour and all the storm grates were gushing water for a while. Who designed that system and why don't they fix it?

After that we roamed the street and stopped at a bar with a Zydeco band. All the ladies except Susan were showing their tits for strings of beads. Susan had to kiss the guy instead. Its hard to describe how noisy and crazy the whole thing is and this was a quiet day. Later this week it will be Mardi Gras and Superbowl combined and you don't want be here, unless you are really crazy.

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Photos

Jackson Square, French Quarter
Statue of Andrew Jackson raising his hat. Baroness Pontalba was incensed that he failed to remove his hat so had this statue built to spite him.

Parade on Bourbon St.
Marching band with police escort. Susan gets her first "throw" necklace.

Swamp boat place at Henderson
They weren't open for business.

La Bayou restaurant balcony.
We drank "Hurricanes" and ate alligator. It rained but then cleared up.

Parade 2.
The view was great.

Cajun band.
The washboard player was cheeky with
Susan.

View of church from Bourbon St.
The shadow of Jesus seems to be raising his arms to heaven to smite the sinners below.

Comments

[Kathleen]

happy birthday!
happy birthday mom! i'm sure New Orleans will be a good place for celebrating. all is well here, the snow didn't stick downtown and now it's back to raining.