I'd rather skip retelling what happened in the morning: Petr went to replace yet another tire while I worked at Starbucks, then he broke off a bracket from the side of the RV as he was backing out...
Oh well, late in the morning we leave Lafayette towards New Orleans, driving through Baton Rouge, the capital city. Baton Rouge reminds us of Freeport, TX, and we don't give it a second look. We are at the beginning of the southern Louisiana swamps, it's 'gator country here. The vegetation is lush, the air is humid and the sky is overcast.
This is also where some of the most interesting plantations are, many open to the public for touring. One in particular - Laura Plantation in Vacherie - tells how life really was here, not just for the master, but also for the slaves. We did not visit it this time. We get to New Orleans in pouring rain, to us unused to such sheer violent rain, it almost feels like a hurricane. Locals know better. Our campground is at the outskirts of town, in an area that does not look very safe to us. But we have no choice. The only 3 campgrounds are within a few blocks from each other. Ever since Katrina hit, campgrounds have been fully booked here, not because of tourists but because some local folks left with nothing ended up living in trailers here. After 1 year and 3 months since the hurricane, reconstruction is going on at a very slow pace: many houses are still without roof, many people live in trailers parked in front of their properties as they fix them up. Other decrepit houses are abandoned but they were never torn down: they are just about to collapse but they are still standing, as witnesses to the fury that hit the city. Many of them defy the law of gravity. Dirt, garbage, debris, scrap metal, rusty car bodies, doors, windows with no panes are to be found along every street. And at every street corner, beggars and street hustlers.
What we have seen so far does not appeal to us. The squalor is beyond belief. Although I understand that there are some good reasons why this is how it is.
Swamps with alligators lurking.
Another view.
Baton Rouge from the I-10 bridge.
Doesn't it look like Freeport, TX?