March 19, 2008 - Day Trip to New Orleans

March 18, 2008 – Day Trip to New Orleans


I did not write anything about Tue the 17th because I did not think any of you would be interested in how I cleaned the RV. Let’s just say that cleaning here and doing laundry are the same boring tasks that they are in a regular house.

Let’s move on to Wed, March 18th. We decided to drive to New Orleans LA. It is 143 miles from where we are staying. It was raining when we left Mobile, but we knew the weather was coming this way from the west and figured that we would run out of the rain long before we reached New Orleans. We took Hwy 90 instead of the Interstate so that we would see more of the countryside. Our drive took us to Biloxi, MS, and Gulf Shores. Our first stop was in Ocean Springs.

Ocean Springs is a small ocean front town just East of Biloxi. The purpose of our stop was to visit a quilt shop. Actually, I should say that the purpose was for me to visit a quilt shop. Mike was just along as my driver. Ocean Springs was a very pleasant surprise. It is a haven for artist and little cutsie shops. I wish we had more time to spend there to walk around. It is definitely a place we will come back to and visit. The quilt shop was nice too. I was very tempted to buy some fabric, but it was really expensive here – about a dollar a yard more than I pay in NC. I decided that I could do without the fabric. I did pick up a pattern – like I need one more pattern. Oh well, I had to get something – right???

After this stop, we got back on Hwy 90 and drove on through Biloxi along the coastline. We soon started to see the signs of the destruction from Hurricane Katrina. There are lots of places where the pine trees look like they snapped in the middle. We also started to see houses boarded up or abandoned with windows gone. The farther we went, the more damage we saw. Road crews were working on the road and it is evident that the road is new meaning it was washed out in the storm. The sight of large foundations with steps shows that once there were large homes sitting along the coast. The pleasant thing though is that the cleanup is well underway and many homes are already rebuilt. It appears that some people have decided not to rebuild because there are a lot of “For Sale” signs all along the coastline. It is sad to see a foundation here and there with a small travel trailer sitting in the yard. I wonder how many of these poor people will never have the money to rebuild.

THEN IT HAPPENED – We were driving through Gulf Shores and we heard a funny noise. Actually, we had heard a loud thump a few days earlier on our drive to Dolphin Island. We did not know what it was then and it went away, so we just assumed it was something in the road – BUT NOT NOW. The sound persisted and it was soon evident that we had a problem with the wheel on the truck. Thankfully, we had Marge with us. We take Marge with us a lot and she is normally a big help. Marge???? I know, you have no idea who Marge is unless you have traveled with us. Marge is our GPS system. I gave her a name because the voice is a woman’s voice. Why Marge???? Who knows. It just came to me. Anyway, Marge came in very handy. She directed us to a Goodyear store only three miles away from our current location. Thankfully, they were not busy and were able to get us right in. As it turned out, there was something wrong with a bearing and they had to replace the entire part. It took them about 2 ½ hours to get us back on the road. During the wait, I took the dogs on a short walk to do their business and they came into the store with us. I did some agility training with them around the stacks of tires in the storeroom floor. I had to do something – there was no place to go. Besides, the dogs needed the exercise.

After the Goodyear adventure, we got back on the road. We considered not going on to New Orleans and had even gotten into the right lane to turn back toward Mobile and at the last second, we changed our minds and headed to New Orleans. We got to New Orleans just as people were getting off from work. Needless to say, we got into traffic. This was actually a good thing because we got stopped up high on a bridge and got some neat pictures of downtown New Orleans and had time to ask Marge how to get to Tulane University. My friend, Marie, from work told me to go to this area. She went to Tuland and said the area was very pretty. Boy, did she lie – it was not very pretty, it was beautiful with a capital B. The homes are absolutely beautiful and the landscaping is fabulous. I have pictures and will post them, but I know they won’t do the area justice. We saw Emeril’s restaurant and the entrance to Loyola University, but no Tulane. I checked Marge and she said Tulane was right there with Loyola. I had a hard time believing this, but sure enough, it was right there. Those kids going to these universities have no idea how lucky they are to be in such a lovely area.

Then it was on to the French Quarter. Marge directed us to Bourbon Street and in just a few minutes we were driving on Bourbon Street. It was so exciting. The streets are narrow and one way (thankfully). It was so neat to see all the buildings that I have seen on TV or in magazines. This area pulsates life. There is jazz coming out of open doorways as you move along. People are everywhere and there are some really crazy and suggestive signs all along the way. I’m just so sorry we did not have time to stop. Mike and I both said that we are going to come back here and spend several days just sightseeing.
We left New Orleans around 6pm with a two hour drive ahead of us. I guess we could have stayed in town a bit longer, but it had been a long day and we needed to stop for a bite to eat since we had skipped lunch. So, back to Mobile we headed. What a great