Bourbon to Biloxi

Yesterday afternoon whilst sitting in a café in Bourbon Street, we spoke to Pia’s dad on the cell phone and were alarmed to hear that while we were here, in city that he has visited and loved, he had been rushed to hospital to have his gall bladder and golf ball size stones removed. I guess that rules out golf for him for a while. But, having talked to him since, he is definitely on the mend. Hoping you feel better soon TD.

We awoke in our tiny room in the Empress Hotel, in the French Quarter of New Orleans. We checked out early but the manager was kind enough to allow us to keep our car in their parking lot for the day.

We spent the rest of the day walking around downtown New Orleans. We had a good time but the sky began to threaten rain. Of particular interest we looked around one of the old graveyards. Because of the high water table they bury their dead above ground in Mausoleums here and the old ones are amazing.

In the mid afternoon we drove out of New Orleans on the I10. there are a lot of very long bridges over the bays and bayous and before long we were crossing the Mississippi border. We turned southward to follow the coast on US 90, and saw our first beach in since Santa Monica, 3500 miles ago.

The interstate highways are absolutely excellent and you do get to see the scenery go by, but the old US highways for tourism, because you can drive slower and see more and also they go through a lot of nice little towns (and bigger uglier ones) rather than bypass them.

The skies threat turned into drizzle and bluster as we cruised along the beach for about 70 miles. And the thunder and lightning began to intensify.

Even in the grey weather it is pretty coast and many of the houses that face the beach are huge mansions in the old deep south style. We stopped in a huge bookstore (about the size of a Kmart). You buy magazines from bookstores here, because there are no Newsagents. Such a business doesn’t exist here anymore. I’ve been trying for a while to get a trucking industry magazine, just to check it out, but I haven’t been able to find one anywhere. In this huge bookstore, when I ask their magazine expert, she said that she had never heard of such a thing and didn’t know that any had been published. Bummer.

As we continued east on US 90 the drizzle became a downpour and we gave up any hope of camping tonight, for fear of getting the van bogged.

We had dinner at a Sonic take-away. The sandwiches are very good. This is one of those places where you park next to a speaker box, order from your car and the waitress brings you your food on roller skates. Such a thing could never exist in Australia, because of work place health and safety laws.

We got a great deal on a motel room in the Mississippi town of Pascagoula. We checked in at 5pm and did some laundry, had an adult beverage and a luxurious evening in. It’s a fancy room at a really nice motel and we got it for a really cheap rate.

Funny Fact: Everywhere I look, I find myself surprised to discover evidence that Australia is much more Sue happy than the USA.

St Louis Cemetry No 1

St Louis Cemetry No 1

Court of Appeals, Magazine Street, New Orleans, LA

Mark loved this Kenworth W900 with 130 inch sleeper. The trailer is a 53 foot. The total length around 23 metres. It was a tight fit in the streets of New Orleans.