Nawlins'

SUNDAY- MAY 1, 2011
We left Houston at 7:15 with a projected arrival time of 1:30 into New Orleans. As soon as we left Texas and hit Louisiana, Matt's comment of "Louisiana roads still suck" was very true. The roads were so bumpy and bad that it felt like we drove with a flat tire for over 200 miles. We are now noticing an issue with the truck shaking as we turn that we are going to have looked at on Tuesday that we believe to have been caused by these awful roads.

We arrived just after 2 and by 2:30, we were all setup and ready for a short rest before venturing into New Orleans. We are staying at the French Quarter RV Park that is within about 3 blocks of the French Quarter and a short little walk.

We set out for the French Quarter and had a good dinner on Bourbon Street. We sat on the second story balcony and watched the parades of thousands of people stroll up on down the street. We were amazed at the number of "gentlemens" clubs that line Bourbon street as neither of us remember seeing that many in our prior trip to Nawlins...

We visited one of the street vendors for our purchase of hurricanes and proceeded to walk up and down Bourbon street to watch the crowds change as it got later into the evening.

MONDAY - MAY 2, 2011
As many of you know, I am a huge civil war buff and my favorite book is Gone with the Wind. Given that, I am in heaven around all these southern plantations. We took today to backtrack from New Orleans towards Baton Rouge to visit the River Road plantations. There are 6 along the road that offer tours, but we would only have time for 3 today.

We stopped first at the San Francisco Plantation. We were quite surprised as we were driving along the river road towards it at the huge oil processing plants and tanks everywhere. We found the gorgeous home nestled on a small but beautiful lot surrounded by huge oil tanks. The home was very nicely restored and the tour guide painted a great picture of what life was like during the plantations most prominent times. We also found out that the land was purchased by Marathon OIl and that the oil company had preserved the home and its small acreage right around it. I would highly recommend a visit to this plantation.

Our second plantation was a Creole plantation named "Laura". Of course, I had to check out my sister's namesake!! I don't know about you, but I had no idea of the difference between a Creole plantation and an American (southern) plantation. As it turns out, the Creole's took a very different view of the plantation. The Creole's view of the main plantation home was an an office while their residences were normally in New Orleans town. As such, the home was much smaller and more focused on business meetings than lavish entertaining. As a matter of fact, the American Southern Gentlemen were scandalized when they viewed the Elizabeth's (the owner and president) bed while meeting with her for business purposes. This particular plantation had its last family owner write her memoirs in a book that I purchased. A great plantation to challenge your thoughts of how all plantations worked.

Our last plantation was Oak Alley. If you can think of a quintessential southern antebellum plantation, this should be it. The alley leading to the front door of the "big house" was lined with 28 300 year old live oak trees. Picture Twelve Oaks from Gone with the Wind and double it!!! Amazing setting and much more of what you expect of a southern mansion with beautiful marble and wide open central hallways. All three plantations offered a little different view into the life of the pre-civil war era in Louisiana's sugar cane plantations.

Back to New Orleans for dinner in the French Quarter and some more strolls down Bourbon Street.

We have been a bit worried as the Mississippi River is flooding all over the South. Our next stop was to be Natchez and our RV park was directly on the Mississippi. Well, we got a call today that since the river is flooding now and not expected to crest until 3rd week of May, the town is shutting down the power to the RV park so they can not accommodate us. We are going to try to find another park there in Natchez to continue our southern home tour.

The truck goes in for service tomorrow and we will spend the day exploring the French Quarter in daylight and then heading over to the St Charles street car for some exploring over there.

I will post some photos later in the week when I get my computer out.


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