Well, New Year's has come and gone, (and so did Thanksgiving and Christmas for that matter, I know, I'm THAT far behind!) and after cleaning, vacuuming, having coffee, lunch, going for a hike and raking leaves, I'm running out of things to procrastinate writing this blog any longer!
So let's get to it already! There's still so much to talk about!
After settling in at Bayou Segnette, like I mentioned, we spent a whole week driving around Lake Pontchartrain to find us our perfect 'permanent' campground for the winter.
First up was the area to the south of New Orleans. We drove to Houma, looked at a few campgrounds along the way, marked one or two contenders and continued on to Thibodaux and Donaldsonville.
This area is called the 'Sugar Belt' and the roads were quite busy with trucks carrying cut sugar cane to the processing plants.
October
and early November are the months to harvest sugar cane and due to heavy
rainfall this fall, the harvesting process had been slow and crop yields were reduced.
Louisiana produces 1.4 million tons of raw sugar. All of the raw sugar
produced by Louisiana's 11 sugar mills would fill up half of the
Louisiana Superdome!
Actually, Louisiana is the northernmost climate where sugarcane is grown.
Sugar plant in Raceland
As I said, Louisiana is the land of massive continuous steel truss bridges.
The local geography where the land is very close to sea level, combined with ocean going ships traveling the Mississippi River, forces the bridges to rise up over 150 feet in the air, then cross the wide river navigation channel.
For decades, the only solution to this problem was building these big metal monster bridges.
Looking down from the bridges you actually have the best, and only, view of the river, since you don't see much of it driving along the river road, due to the high levees that block your view.
We drove up to Port Vincent to see a particular campground I'd liked the look of online.
Although nice and on a little river, the area itself was congested with traffic which could be a problem if James has to commute to work, so we decided to rule it out.
The next day we 'did' the north-east side of New Orleans.
We drove to a couple of campgrounds in Slidell, one of which I liked and another one James thought had potential, and drove westward to look at two other ones around Covington.
I'd really liked to have stayed at either the State Park in Mandeville or the one in Madisonville, both with lake view sites, but you can only stay for 2 weeks at a time in each of them and they don't have a monthly fee.
At the end of the day we took the famous toll-bridge over Lake Pontchartrain back to New Orleans and back home.
Now this is some (scary) bridge!
Called the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway, sometimes only 'the Causeway', it is composed of two parallel bridges crossing Lake Pontchartrain. The longer of the two bridges is 23.83 miles (38.35 km) long!!
The southern terminus of the Causeway is in Metairie, Louisiana, a suburb of New Orleans and the northern terminus is at Mandeville, Louisiana, where we got on.
Since 1969, it was listed by Guinness World Records as the longest bridge over water in the world but in 2011 in response to the opening of an allegedly longer one in China, Guinness created two categories for bridges over water: continuous and aggregate lengths over water and Lake Pontchartrain Causeway then became the longest bridge over water (continuous).
Ekes!
Nice, unobstructed view of the sunset though!
He's such a good egg. Never bent out of shape by all the traveling, right at home wherever we land ...
Quite the explorer too. He just had to check out this boardwalk that led to the bathrooms. It made me a little nervous ... this IS alligator country!
We took a little break the next morning from all the 'house hunting' we'd been doing and went ... golfing, you guessed it!
The Bayou Barrier golf course in Belle Chasse, just south-east of New Orleans, has three different 9-hole courses that are each played as 18-holes from different tees.
The beautiful club house looks like one of the old plantation homes around here ...
Although even here in the south the grass is dormant at this time of the year, the courses are still very playable. This one had a lot of water hazards and guess who was in a lot of them
This weird creature suddenly popped up in one of the ponds:
It is a large, herbivorous, semi-aquatic rodent and the only member of the family Myocastoridae.
Originally native to subtropical and temperate South America, it has since been introduced to North America, Europe, Asia, and Africa, primarily by fur ranchers. Although it is still valued for its fur in some regions, its destructive feeding and burrowing behaviors make this invasive species a 'pest'.
Largely nocturnal you're lucky to see one!
From the course you can see another of 'them those' bridges. This one, as you can see when you look closely, actually goes up (and down) in the middle section to let boats pass.
After the round we decide to drive south to explore one of the long peninsulas that jut out into the Gulf of Mexico.
Route 23 runs beside the west bank of the Mississippi river and all
along the way big oil-tankers can be seen just over the levee gliding
along beside the road.
The further down the river we traveled towards
The Delta the more refineries, pumping stations, resource management
sites, midstream energy companies, and gas and oil wells we saw.
After a rather boring drive we first came upon the tiny town of Cypress Cove;
... and it's busy marina ...
From there the, only, road leads you through some beautiful Cypress swamps ..
Lots of birds, mainly Cormorants and brown Pelicans, were starting to get to their favorite branch to roost fir the night ..
Eighty three miles south of NOLA, it touts itself as the End of the World and it is, see ?
Located near the southeastern tip of Louisiana, just where the Mississippi River flows into the Gulf of Mexico, Venice is the jumping-off point for some of the finest fishing adventures you could imagine.
The many charter boat and guide services available in and around Venice offer a wild variety of offshore trips that will take you to the most productive waters for red-fish to record-setting tarpon, sailfish and tuna.
We
drove to the Marina where, it being the end of the day, most boats were
returning from a long day on the water around that time.
Most of the fish brought in that day was Yellow Fin Tuna:
Lots of brown pelicans patrol the harbor's waters in the hope of catching some of the fish entrails and waist that are dumped back in the water.
By the way, the brown pelican is just one of eight species of pelicans and it is the State Bird of Louisiana.
Venice, Louisiana was wiped out twice, by two hurricanes and an oil disaster .
It was almost completely destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Since then, significant rebuilding, reopening, and reoccupation has taken place.
One of these rebuild businesses, the marina restaurant, also known as the Crawgator Bar & Grill, and rebuild on high stilts, is the best spot to see all the activity in the harbor without being in the way (and out of the gore and blood splatters).
Even better if you have something to eat and drink:
How about some fresh (it was practically still alive!) seafood gumbo and, our first, stuffed alligator bites or 'Gator Kickers'!
Standing on the deck of the Marina and looking back to the west…all you can see is more water, Cyprus trees, swamp and some oil related structures on the horizon.
At this point, the actual land area is no more than 200 or 300 yards across...
Quite the sunset!
After the sun had set the temperature quickly plummeted and we started our (long) drive back home while it was slowly getting dark.
Although we saw a few campgrounds that day, we quickly ruled out the possibilities of staying there, due to the long commute to civilization and the, most likely, lack of work for James.
The same went for the area towards and onto the more eastern peninsula south of NOLA, towards Shell Beach, where one of our next excursions took us.
Again, a long road in, alongside many Gulf inlets, not much in the way of civilization but vacation cabins and fishing boats.
This entire area was totally destroyed by Katrina and all along the road, now 10 years after that disaster, we still saw the silent witnesses in the way of sunken boats and abandoned houses.
Everyone lost everything ....
Arriving at Shell Beach, we drove to the very end and came upon this shrine.
The Katrina
Memorial Cross, designed by Arabi welder and fabricator Vincent LaBruzzo
Sr., stands a few feet off shore.
Most people build their houses on very high stilts these days but even those might be swept away by the next one. Hurricanes are monsters and personally, I'd move to somewhere else!
After a week of driving around we figured that a visit to New Orleans was just what we needed for some R & R!
We're not much of 'city people' but for this 'Grande Dame' of the south, N'Awlins, N'Orleans, Crescent City, NOLA or 'the Big Easy', we made an exception.
We'd been looking forward to visit this beautiful city for a long time and boy, did she deliver!
There's so much to see in this city that we mainly concentrated on visiting the famous French Quarter this day and left the rest for one of our future visits.
Ten years after Hurricane Katrina, the Category 3 hurricane that slammed the Gulf Coast and arguably the nation's worst natural disaster, killing 1,800 people and destroying
more than 600,000 homes, the city looks like it's back on it's feet again.
First order of the day was finding some coffee! We'd planned to visit the famous Cafe du Monde, French for "Café of the World", a coffee shop on Decatur Street in the French Quarter.
It is best known for its café au lait and its French-style beignets. The New Orleans-style coffee is blended with chicory which adds a chocolate-like flavor.
Unfortunately, it was a Sunday, and there was this huge line in front of the Cafe ...
So we decided to go to the competition instead, the Cafe Beignet, just a block away, where the line was only half of that.
Oh my, those beignets! What's not to like about warm crispy dough and loads of powdered sugar!
They were so good that I bought a box of ready-make mix in one of the stores, so I can try to make them myself.
It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed our coffee at the monument in front of the St Louis Cathedral, from where you have a great view of the The Crescent City Connection (CCC), formerly the Greater New Orleans Bridge, over the Mississippi ...
And in front of it, the SS. Natchez, a stern-wheel steamboat, built in 1975.
She is operated by the New Orleans Steamboat Company and docks at the Toulouse Street Wharf.
Day trips include harbor and dinner cruises along the Mississippi River.
After the Sunday mass ended, we visited the Cathedral-Basilica of Saint Louis, King of France, also called St. Louis Cathedral.
It is the seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans and among the oldest cathedrals in the United States.
The cathedral is located next to Jackson Square, a historic park in the French Quarter.
It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1960 and in 2012 the American Planning Association designated Jackson Square as one of America’s Great Public Spaces.
It is a very lively place with a wide variety of street entertainment.
Every one of the small streets around the square lead you further into the French Quarter.
The neighborhood, also known as Vieux Carré,
is the heart and soul of this city, and it's also a National Historic
Landmark.
As the site of the original New Orleans colony (established by
the French in 1718), the French Quarter has held on to its heritage,
complete with street names that are still listed in French.
The buildings and architecture of New Orleans are reflective of the its history and multicultural heritage.
New Orleans
is world-famous for its variety of unique architectural styles, from
creole cottages to the grand mansions on St. Charles, and from the balconies
of the French Quarter to an Egyptian Revival.
You can very easily walk the Quarter, but you can also take one of the bicycle tours ...
... or you can do it in style and take a carriage ...
It's round-the-clock nightlife, vibrant live-music scene and spicy, singular cuisine, all reflect its history as a melting pot of French, African and American cultures.
As a result of the slave trade for instance, Voodoo, the Haitian folk religion, also known as New Orleans Voodoo, which involves the city’s oldest and most profound occult traditions, became synchronized with the Catholicism and Francophone culture of south Louisiana.
In St Ann Street, we stepped into Marie Laveau's (September 10, 1794 – June 15, 1881) shop, New Orleans’s most powerful voodoo queen - then or since.
Although current voodoo practice in New Orleans is a mere shadow of what it was in its heyday, only an estimated fifteen percent of the city’s population supposedly still practices voodoo, every self-respecting tourist shop sells voodoo dolls and all kinds of potions and funky amulets.
The Voodoo doll is a form of gris-gris, different tools throughout the history of the practice to solve a person's ailments, and an example of sympathetic magic. Contrary to popular belief, Voodoo dolls are usually used to bless and have no power to curse.
Embodying New Orleans' more festive spirit is Mardi Gras, the late-winter carnival famed for raucous costumed parades and public partying.
Celebrations are concentrated for about two weeks before and through Fat Tuesday (Mardi Gras in French), also known as Shrove Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday.
Since the Carnival season ( a variation of the traditional manner of preparing for the start of the Christian liturgical season of Lent) is only a month or so away (it starts after Twelfth Night, on Epiphany, January 6) the shops are already well stocked with masks and 'throws' (the beads, coins, cups and other trinkets that are thrown off the floats).
We're going to be here through these weeks of celebrations and are looking forward to see what people describe as ''utter chaos and craziness' .... right.
Of course New Orleans is also famous for it's music. Being called the birthplace of jazz there's a lot of that around, but also blues, zydeco, swamp pop and even classical music.
We walked over to the French Market, a (flea) market and series of commercial buildings spanning 6 blocks in the French Quarter.
Founded as a Native American trading post predating European colonization, the market is the oldest of its kind in the United States.
The vendors and little cafés and bars here offer New Orleans crawfish, oysters, and other seafood, Cajun food, Creole cooking, desserts, fruits, vegetables, and more.
The flea-market at the end is very busy in the weekends,
Undoubtedly, the French Quarter's main draw is Bourbon Street , New Orleans' infamous party hub. This street is full of street performers and fortune tellers as well as rowdy bars.
Cocktails to go! No 'open container' - laws here?!
At night the parties are pretty wild around here. Everything goes! 
Ehhh ... what happens in New Orleans, .. stays in New Orleans ...!
One reasons that we'd chosen that Sunday to go into the city, was to be able to visit the (yearly) Gumbo Festival that was being held in the Louis Armstrong Park.
Louis Armstrong Park, formerly known as Beauregard Square, is a
32-acre (130,000 m2) park located in the (infamous, and mostly black) Tremé neighborhood of New Orleans, just across Rampart Street from the French Quarter.
It was a fun and delicious event, with some nice gumbo tasting and good music to listen too.
OK, enough fun for a day, 'we'll be baaaack' New Orleans!!
The next morning, a Monday, we were back to business, or back in the truck I should say, to take a look at the area east of New Orleans, an area we had not explored yet.
We drove to La Place and looked at a whole bunch of campgrounds, none of which thrilled us much and after some lunch, we took the Pass Manchac Waterway towards the North side of the Lake, but this time we stayed more west.
This Highway, also completely build on stilts, provides stunning views of tranquil water, and the huge swamp that lays alongside this side of the Lake.
We passed the tiny town of Manchac, nestled between Lake Pontchartrain and Lake Maurepas.
After 35 miles we were back on 'land' again, and we drove into Ponchatoula, where we had lunch at the local cafe and eventually made it to Hammond where we checked out two more campgrounds.
We felt that both had potential and we liked the quieter, more rural feel of this area. Both towns had that 'quaint-ness' to them that we were looking for (and hadn't found yet).
Soooo ..., on the way back, we talked things over and that evening we decided to go for the Hidden Oaks Family Campground in Hammond.
Although a little further from town than the other one, it's a big and spacious campground, nestled among beautiful and humongous Life Oak trees, and very quiet at this time of the year.
The price was right too, at $500/month.
The office of Hidden Oaks
The next morning we packed up, disconnected and drove the 50 miles to Hammond, where we took some time walking the campground for the perfect spot and spent the rest of the day to set up everything the way we like it to be.
There's an honest-to-god real 'Bayou' behind us. Can you get it any more 'Southern"?!
I think we're gonna like it a lot over here!
Time to move over to a next post, in which more about the camp ground, the wildlife, and the areas around us.
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