Days 33-34, October 11-12, 2021

We traveled 429 miles from Kady, Texas (western suburb of Houston) to Louisiana and then on into Mississippi on Tuesday and checked into the Buccaneer State Park Campground on the Gulf of Mexico. We originally had reservations at the KOA in New Orleans, but they canceled our reservation because the campground is still being used by clean-up crews working throughout the city in the aftermath of August’s Category 4 Hurricane Ida.

After checking into the campground, we immediately got back on the road and drove back west to New Orleans. It took 90 minutes, but only because we took the scenic route. We saw a lot of debris on the sides of roads, small boats washed up along the sides of roads and many structures with blue tarps on their roofs, but not much serious damage (even though it had been extensive). The French Quarter and much of the downtown area were in good shape.

We ate dinner at Mother’s, the iconic New Orleans restaurant that has been in operation since 1938. There’s nothing fancy about it, but the food was great. Its walls are lined with pictures of celebrities who have eaten there. Carol had a Shrimp Po’ Boy sandwich and I had the special Debris (roast beef)-Ham sandwich, au ju.

After dinner we walked down Bourbon Street — a lot of loud music, but very small crowds. Not much happening on a week night in October.

By the time we got back to the campground, we were too tired to post a blog!

We traveled back into New Orleans on Wednesday (took only an hour this time) and quicky found Cafe Du Monde, where we both had three of its famous beignets — hot and covered in powdered sugar.

On the sidewalk next to the cafe, a group of five men were holding a non-stop jazz jam with both music and singing. No questioning that this was New Orleans. A women across the street, dressed in full Mardi Gras garb was grooving to every note.

From the cafe, it was a short walk to the Cathedral-Basicila of St. Louis King of France (St. Louis Cathedral). It’s the longest continuously operating cathedral in the United States, originally constructed in 1718 and rebuilt in 1789 and dedicated to King Louis IX.

The statue outside the cathedral is of Andrew Jackson, the seventh president of the United States and hero of the Battle of New Orleans in the War of 1812. Jackson served in both the Revolutionary and 1812 wars.

After the cathedral, we wanted to walk up to the Garden District part of the city to see the large mansions. Our map showed it was about a mile away, but after a little while, we both were exausted. It was in the low 90s with high humidity. That’s when we discovered the St. Charles trolley could take us there for the senior rate of 40 cents.

We spent some time walking the side streets looking at the mansions and the amazing architecture.

We took the trolley back to the center of town and walked down Canal Street.

We eventually went back to Bourbon Street and had an early dinner at Bourbon Street Seafood. It was one of the few nicer restaurants that opened before 4 p.m. Carol had striped bass with red potatoes (a little spicy with the creole rub) and I had fried jumbo gulf shrimp with hand-cut fries (not spicy).

Before heading back to the campground, we sat by the Mississippi River and watched a paddle boat and blue heron.

When we were leaving Texas, we san in almost standstill traffic for an hour because an 18-wheel tractor-trailer jackknifed, closing all seven lanes of I-10, the main east-west route across Texas. It also required a haz-mat team for the clean-up. Bad way to start our long trip to Mississippi. Along the way, we we went over 7,000 miles since leaving Maine.

One final note on our campground — the land on which the campground now is located was first recorded in history in the late 1700s when Jean Lafitte and his followers were active in smuggling and pirating along the coast.

Tomorrow we’re heading to the panhandle of Flordia to visit with my cousin and her husband, Kathy and Charlie, who just returned from their summer cabin in Norway, Maine.