Blogs from Louisiana, United States, North America - page 10

Let's start with the plan. With both our jobs taking a full week this time of year has become just not worth it. Dave just makes his straight salary for vacation - no commision on jobs. His best jobs are Monday and Tuesday. At my work it's "peak" season and 5 or more days is just too behind to catch up. So Wednesday to Saturday it is. Now where to go? We have wanted to visit Coushatta for a while but I didn't want to spend all my time there on property. Got to looking around and there is tons to do in the area. So here is the original plan: Coushatta Trip 3 nights at Coushatta Casino - Wednesday Feb 15th to Saturday Feb 18th Wednesday drive down taking 287 / 69 rt - 6 ... read more

Geo: 30.7608, -91.3954The American Queen's journey is shadowed by four AQ-branded tour coaches. These do hop-on, hop-off shuttle duties at the various stops. 'Docking' is where we tie up at a wharf. 'Landing' is where we pull into the bank and launch the gang plank.After the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the US was keen to encourage settlers to the new (ex-French) lands west of the Mississippi. In the next few decades paddle steamers reigned supreme for the carriage of goods and passengers up and down the river. The first railway crossing of the Mississippi was in the early 1850's, and railways slowly gained ascendancy as the preferred means of transport. Today the river is deep enough to carry ocean going ships and tankers as far upstream as Baton Rouge (mile 229). The Upper Mississippi starts at ... read more

On my way to New Orleans I had a stopover in Shreveport as New Orleans was too far to travel in one day. New Orleans was an amazing time and I may need to re-visit it some day. Probably not during Mardi Gras but December was a really nice time to visit. I took a drive along the great river road and visited two plantations. The first was Laura Plantation which was a Creole plantation and which was my favorite. It isn't real fancy but it shows what it was like back in the early 1800s when it was built. There are 12 historic buildings, gardens, banana grove, and the slave quarters where the African folk tales of Brier Rabbit was recorded. The second plantation was Oak Alley Plantation completed in 1839 after three years of ... read more

Geo: 29.9498, -90.0769Morning flight to New Orleans.Tucked in below Lake Pontchartrain with the Mississippi delta to the east and south, New Orleans (nicknamed "The Big Easy" or NOLA) has little land suitable for building. What is available is very low lying, with an average elevation below sea level. In earlier times NOLA was one of the most important US cities but it has been in decline (relative to other US cities) since the 1860s, and in absolute decline since 1960. Apparently the population has almost returned to its 2005 pre-Katrina level of 400,000 (1.2M in the wider metro area).New Orleans was French from 1718 until 1763, when it was ceded to Spain. Napoleon took it back in 1800 but then sold it to the US as part of the 'Louisiana Purchase' in 1803. He used the ... read more

Day 13 New Orleans A busy hectic day lay head !!! Early rise'ish a final pack and checked out by 11 o'clock, jumped back in the gangster ford for the last time and headed to the airport, about a 30 minute blip down the interstate to Louis Armstrong airport ! Checked in and waited around for the first of our two flights today ! First was a hour ride from New Orleans to Atlanta where we pick up our larger aircraft ! After touchdown in Atlanta and a couple of hours wait we boarded our flight home ! An exhausting flight, train ride, bus journey and eventual drive back home !! We both agree we had great trip, nice seeing the different states, all of them quite different in their own way, lovely people, a great ... read more