Hi Mom, we're home!!

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Wednasday, we caught the free shuttle bus into town from the campground. Man can the guy talk, he just waffles and in amongst it there is some really interesting stuff. He dropped us off right in the center of the 'French Quarter' by the river. So we walked down to ' Bourbon street' which is famous for its partying nature. Pretty quiet at 10.30am!! We looked around at the little nic nak shops all over the place with their touristy stuff for sale. Some, as usual is really nice, other stuff is just tacky. After lunch we caught our city bus tour. A 2 hour history tour of the area. Quite interesting , The port started in 1718 as a French-Canadian outpost. The mass importation of African slaves came by 1720. The Spanish were next, then the Creole. Creole refers to the people of all the countries that came to live here before the Louisana purchase in 1801, when the 'American ' people came to live and settle here. The anglo americans didn't get on very well with the Creoles but for economic survival had to get on. They built in the area now known as the CBD.The first area was the French quarter with its great architecture and the amazing wrought iron everywhere. Between the the old city and the new is what is called "The neutral ground" the name is still used today referring to the median strip between main roads in New Orleans. (said N'awlins!! ). They were taxed by the width of their house , so alot of them are long and skinny. Called single barrell or double barrelled houses, these were houses that were split in half with two front doors on one skinny house. Huge live oak trees are everywhere covered with their spanish moss they really do look spooky. We went to one of the many cemeteries here. They are built above ground as the water table is so high as the city is built below the Mississippi river!! Dah. Anyway, they said its a spanish way of burying people. A family will have a big tomb usually marble or concrete, when someone dies their body is laid to rest in there and the door is put back on. One year and one day later they open up the door again and push your remains to the rear of the tomb and all your bones fall down the back of it ready for the next relative. If a relative dies during that one year and one day, they get put in a holding tomb. Which is a huge line of shelves basically . Four shelves high and as long as the cemetery long. The city is divided by railway lines and levies, waterways around the place moving the water to pumping stations that pump it into the river or Lake Pontchartrain. When hurricane Katrina hit , it wasnt the water that came over from the Mississippi river it was the levies that breached from Lake Pontchartrain that did all the damage. Theres still schools, parks, golf course, buildings everywhere that haven't been repaired since the hurricane in 2005. With a very high black population and a huge gap between the wealthy and the poor. We've been warned by a couple of people about pick pockets and muggings that go on around the place. We've found it very safe in the French quarter but driving around the outer areas its a bit different. The shuttle leaves the campground at 9am and we got back about 6.30pm, so its quite along day.
Thursday, we got the chatty shuttle bus back into town as we had booked to go on the paddle steamer today. We walked down to the 2nd oldest flea market in America, had lunch at a street side restaurant. Kylie had a 'Crabby paddy with salad', later she tried the 'Jumbalaya' like a seafood fried rice. Yes we heard all about it again how bloody boring her family are when it comes to trying new foods!!! We caught the paddle steamer at 2.30pm and went down river for about an hour. The wharf here is huge, one of the largest in the world. It just keeps going and going for miles. We passed alot of huge ships that are parked up in the river waiting to be loaded or unloaded. The river is continually dredged 5 days a week to keep the silt from farmlands further up river from blocking it up. Went for walk around before getting picked up again , Josh, Tori and I all bought some local art on the side of the street. Some of those guys are amazing what they can do.
Friday we drove up river to the sugar plantation area. This is the area known for its 'White gold ' in the late 1700's , early 1800's. Large plantations with very impressive homesteads. We went and took a tour through the 'Laura' plantation, a creole family plantation for over 200 years. The creole way of handing down the family business to the family was to pick the smartest child not the oldest as was the American way. Josh asked who would we pick between him and Tori. I said lucky for you Josh we won't have anything to hand down to you as you might have missed out with the amount of dumb questions he asks!!!!. The house was built by the many slaves on the property, It was milled by hand elsewhere and erected on site in 11 days. Alot of its design is around getting cool air to blow through during the very hot summer months. The kitchen was built away from the mansion due to the danger of fire , The kitchen burnt down once in the history of the place. The kitchen used to feed about 200 people working on the plantation.They built about 70 slave houses that stretched for 3 miles back from the house to accomodate the slaves. The food bell would ring and the younger of the family would bring up a bucket to collect the meal for the family. They had a list of all the slaves they had and how much they were worth, each was worth different due to the skills they possessed if any. The average slave was worth $25,000. We drove down the road to 'Oak alley' another plantation with 300 year old live oak trees planted in two rows at the front of the house. What a sight they were !! Out the back was the younger trees, they were only 160 years old. Like a lot of the properties in the area, their socialite owners lived well above their means. The properties went into receivership a couple of times. Between 1912 -1917 this mansion sat empty,as catlle roamed through it and farm workers rode horses through the house. The new owners who were cotton farmers from further north bought the land and buildings for $50,000 and spent another $60,000 repairing the house to its former glory. We went out to a diner for tea then drove into town to a place called rock'n'bowl. But they were fully booked for the night. Its a ten pin bowling center that has a live band that plays in there. So we parked near the French quarter and went for a walk around. Bourbon street was humming, with the live bands blarring out their music down the street, A couple of hookers standing in the doorways opened Josh's eyes a bit. Oopps.
Saturday we packed up in the rain and drove over the longest bridge in America. Its 24 miles long and goes right across Lake Pontchartrain, not very high above the water but it has a couple of humps for boats to pass underneath. It was still drizzling when we got to Pennsicola so we kept on trucking. We stopped as it was getting dark ,just outside Tampa, Florida
Sunday, Kylie and Josh went over to the restaurant in the camp office and had a cooked breakfast while Tori and I packed up. We had to clean off all the oak acorns that fell on our trailer all night, one by one we could hear them drop on the roof and roll down. We stopped at a town called 'Perry' to get some gas and buy a lotto ticket.I thought 40 million would be good to spend in Vegas with Perry and Lisa. As we headed south towards Inverness , it got blacker and blacker. Sure enough it started pouring down , thunder and lightning as we arrived here. So we just parked up and ran inside. Its been 155 days since we left here, 24,000 miles and we used 2300 gallons of gas is not bad. Spent the night just catching up with Mum and Dad and started showing them some of our thousands of photos. We're still in the trailer as mum is looking after helen, Leanna's mum. So the kids got to sleep in a normal sized bed for a change.
Monday, we just potted around here catching up. I bought two more series of Veronica Mars dvd's and series one of the Dukes of Hazzard.So the kids and I have watched a couple of them. The lake here has definately come up alot since we were here last, still haven't seen any gators.
Tuesday I washed the trailer, a job i was definetely not looking forward too but it does look better with all the bugs off the front of it. Kylie has been busy cleaning out the inside. Today was Jurls birthday so we rang her and all had a yak. Tori and i went to Walmart and got some photos printed out for her book.
Wednesday, we woke up to find the West Palm Beach Claridges had arrived during the night. About 2am in the rain by the sounds of it. Theyv'e bought all their bikes with them and went for a ride today as the boys have to do a 100 mile bike ride for scouts in february. We went down to Walmart and got a portrait photo done with Gran and Poppie. Its pretty busy down there as everyone is getting ready for Thanksgiving day tomorrow. Kylie and I packed our bags and checked in online ready for our flight to Vegas tomorrow. Today is one of the busiest days in air travel in America, hopefully tomorrow will be one of the quietest. I called Perry and he was walking down the strip. They went and saw David Copperfield the other night and said it was awesome. Gran and Tori have been quietly making me a birthday cake today. Mum and Dad gave me an album with photos and letters from my past. Also three readers digest from 1969, 1979, 1989 so that will be some good reading on the plane.

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Photos

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Bourbon Street.

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Wrought iron in the french quarter.

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Southern style creole houses .

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New Orleans.

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French quarter.

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The long line of holding tombs.

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Some of the tombs in the cemetery.

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A tomb with a stain glass window in the back

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Lunch in New Orleans.

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Tori jumping for joy in front of the paddle boat.

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Slaves houses at Laura plantation.

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Laura mansion.

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Oak alley.

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Oak alley mansion.

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Sugar being harvested beside the road.

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Perry, Florida.

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Tori out by the lake.

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The lake has risen abit since last time.

Comments

[David Owen]

Awesome
Paul and Family , great reading will see you Paul when you get back ? Have a few things to tell you. Cheers Dave