Houston to New Orleans, Feb. 12 - 19

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THE BASICS
We stayed in Houston for a few days, and drove down to Galveston to get an idea of the immensity of the oil operations. Then after nearly 900 miles, we finallly "finished" Texas and entered Louisiana. Went through seemingly-endless rice country, Cajun turf, until we reached New Iberia, where we toured the town in general and sites cited in James Lee Burke's literary mysteries in particular. Then on to New Orleans and the French Quarter RV Resort, which is just two blocks above the French Quarter. We have strolled through the Quarter several times, and we visited Mardi Gras World, a factory where many of the floats are constructed.

THE FLUFF
It is nearly 8:00 A.M. on Saturday. John has dropped me off at the FQRV Resort, and I forgot to get the key to the RV, so here I am in the office typing until he returns from a Rite-Aid run. (As often, we can't get an internet connectin in our RV anyway.) We just finished cafe au lait and beignets at Cafe du Monde - so delicious. It is a foggy morning, which lent a mystical aura to the artwork which was already displayed by the street artists around Louisburg Square. Soon, though, the fog will subside and we will be left with another sunny day in the low 70's, with a mild breeze, like yesterday which was about as perfect as weather ever gets.

Houston. En route, we stopped for a midmorning sweet in Brenham. I had a serving of 4" tall, dense bread pudding with bourbon sauce on top. The best thing I have ever eaten. Next time you are in Brenham, stop at Must Be Heaven. I had dreaded Houston, and was pleasantly surprised when we drove through at midday with no delays, and in fact not all that much traffic on I-10. We did get to see the skyline of the fourth largest city in the country, and then settled into an RV park several miles east. We did not go back into the city, so we missed 1000 Places to See Before You Die's Houston museum, but c'est la vie. Instead we opted to drive southward to Galveston Island.

There were thousands of drilling rigs, and many refineries, en route. It was truly awesome. Galveston appealed to my fancy, though. It was devastated by Ike in Sept. '08, but much of the city has been recaptured. Still, there are plenty of abandoned buildings. The history is uneven and fascinating, e.g. a colony was established there by Jean Lafitte, "pirate/patriot", but he was driven out some years later and burned the city as a bittersweet farewell. Later, it became a hotbed for gambling and drinking, but then a huge police raid in 1957 closed down that claim to fame. We enjoyed a picnic on the beach, our first sight of the Gulf of Mexico on this trip, then visited the Ocean Star Offshore Drilling Rig and Museum. The size of the drilling "tools" is awesome - and that is a small, early rig. The amount of technical know-how the oil engineers have developed is amazing. Now we know a bit more about how big a part of our economy oil inhabits. We spotted a small sign directing people to Ron Paul's Congressional office.

Driving back toward Houston, we stopped in Kemah, which is like a small Ocean City MD, walked on the boardwalk, and then had a beer and a plate of crab nachos at The Original (is it really?) Joe's Crab Shack.

We drove through Beaumont the next day; did not stop to visit Spindletop, the site of the first oil gusher, in 1901. The biggest thing that happened for us there was that John got to drool over a shiny red MG in a tourist info center. On into Louisiana, where a sign at their tourist center said "No Solitation" and another said to "keep your pet's on a leash." Those goofs made me sad about the success of their education ventures... And, by the way, all over Texas there are big billboards: "Do you want to teach? When can you start?"

We got off the interstate and drove through rice country - some of the fields are under water, some just have water in troughs between rows, but the fields are perfectly flat and seemingly endless. The roads are in terrible condition, and the RV got its full share of shaking, rattling and rolling. We arrived at an RV park in New Iberia, set up, then drove into town to scope it out. Part of the main street really is gorgeous, lined with massive oaks dripping with Spanish moss in front of huge old mansions. We drove around using a map to locate the spots where the character Dave Robicheaux hangs out, in James Lee Burke's novels. Burke is from there, and sometimes it seemed a bit unclear which was Dave and which was James. Anyway, most things were as I had imagined them thanks to Burke's extraordinary powers of evoking settings except that I had pictured Bayou Teche as narrow and overhung with oaks and instead it is quite wide and the banks are clear.

Next morning, we had a coffee and biscuits at Victor's Cafeteria, a definite "Dave hangout." Then we toured "Shadows on the Teche", a lovely mansion which had been inhabited by four generations of the Weeks family since 1834 until it was turned over in 1961 to become one of only 29 (did I remember that number correctly?) National Trust Historic Sites. The house was neat, only two rooms deep, but wide and elegant. The verandas are where the family spent much time, although they could get a cross-breeze inside. The grounds had numerous huge old live oaks going right down to the Bayou. When John learned that "teche" means snake, he got less enthusiastic about getting closer to the river. And! And! We saw our first flowering shrubs of the trip - camellias! Seemed like a rare treat. Our guide for the Shadows home was a most enthusiastic and knowledgeable young woman, and she delighted in showing us some of the 17,000 papers left behind by the family, including an accounting of furniture a widow's husband had bought for her in Connecticut and had shipped to New Iberia, and on the same document his burial expenses.

We skipped a rice plant and a tabasco factory and headed on to New Orleans. This RV park has brick sites as well as a fitness room, pool and spa, and the most elegant individual bathrooms I have seen in a very long while (certainly more stylish than ours at home). And it is fully booked now, just a couple of weeks before Mardi Gras. We have learned that the Mardi Gras season begins long before now, on January 6, Epiphany. The homes in the French Quarter and beyond are garbed in green (for health), gold (for wealth), and purple (for power) decorations - garlands, wreaths, masks, fleur de lis, etc. People are already wearing lots of beads. Music pours out along many streets. The buskers are very active. Tonight there is a parade by the Krewe (club) of Vieux, and this particular Krewe is billed as being very raunchy. We shall see.

Our only stop on Thursday during our ramblings through the French Quarter was for a late afternoon beer at a wrought iron table on a patio next to statues of Al Hirt, The Big Bopper, etc.

Friday we arrived at Cafe du Monde so late in the morning that the line was at least 100 deep. (I wondered why people on bus tours, who had only limited time in this city, would spend so much time standing in line...) We went into the Cathedral of St. Louis, which is replete with paintings and gold. Then we bought street car day passes and headed to Mardi Gras World, which is a gigantic factory and warehouse where floats are designed - and redesigned according to this year's theme, constructed (the latest material is blown-in styrofoam), and painted, assembled, etc. It was really fun to see them up close, and to see some as works in progess.

Years ago we took the street car out St. Charles Avenue through the Garden District and thoroughly enjoyed it, so our next adventure was to do that. Unfortunately, we were not the only folks with that idea, and we had to stand for at least a third of the way outward. (At least, I figured, we did not look our age and frail, as absolutely no one offered to yield their seat.) Oh, well, at last we were seated, enjoyed the sun and warm breezes, and gawking at the lovely old houses. It appeared that most of the buildings in the areas we have visited have recovered from Katrina's ravages. (We have been advised that folks in the 9th Ward and other devastated areas do not appreciate tourists driving through and gawking, so we have not done that.) We did see a sign about funding for Road Reclamation, repaving the damaged roads. By now, it was midafternoon, so we stopped at a small French bakery far out St. Charles and we each had quiches. And we did have seats for the entire ride back.

We rested in the hottest of the late afternoon, then ventured out for dinner. A tourist info lady had recommended Deanie's, and we joined the hordes of folks there. Not too long a wait, though. John had crawfish etouffee and I had a shrimp poboy, so we have had some prototypical N.O. food. Afterward, we walked around the Quarter, which by then was becoming quite noisy and ebullient. My clothes seem so dreadfully plain here! I need some sparkly things!

I need to publish this before we head toward Mississippi. See you later, gators, Linda and John

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