2005/03 Deep South trip - New Orleans |
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It was getting steadily more humid and wet, and the thunderstorms rolled in as we got back. The camper was covered in mud by the time we left the refuge’s mud roads and joined the interstate on its way through Baton Rouge and across the Mississippi into New Orleans. The freeway here sits above the Delta’s swampland, really just an elongated bridge over the wetlands. We thought we were making good time, but an accident up ahead brought us to a halt for over an hour.
By the time we made it into Rivertown and the KOA campground, the thunderstorms had caught up with us. The campground is about ten miles out of New Orleans and just across the road from the Mississippi River’s levee. It’s a lot more expensive than our usual spots, but for us the major attraction here is the shuttle bus into New Orleans’ French Quarter. Also, they have a free phone connection we can use to get at the Internet.
Tuesday March 8th
We had a clear fine day for the trip into the city, a little chilly in the wind, but good for pounding the 
pavement and sightseeing. Our bus driver was a mine of information, obviously an enthusiastic student of “N’orlens” history. He took us through a lot of the old neighborhoods along the levee, dropping us off on the waterfront in the French Quarter. We were about to walk into the town when we heard very loud music and turned around to see this tiny figure playing a steam calliope high on the top of the Natchez paddleboat. Sandie’s a big fan of calliopes so we listened to his whole show.
The streets have both French and Spanish names and they are just wide enough for cars, trucks, and the caleches (horse-drawn carriages) to make it through. Most of the buildings are old, with wooden upper floors over the brick ground floor, and almost all have wrought iron balconies. The shops are 
selling souvenirs, art, books, and music. There are many street performers, playing jazz, blues, zydeco, but also plenty of other “deserving cases” asking for handouts. We sampled the creole cuisine, catfish, crawfish (crayfish), beans, and hot sausage.
We found that if you go north of Rampart Street, you are suddenly into the “Projects”. These are decaying tenements, all broken windows and filth, definitely the nasty side of the city. Next door, though, was one of the city’s strange cemeteries. Because the water table was so high, the dead had 
to be buried above ground in tombs or wall vaults. The cemetery is crammed with family vaults, used many times over the last two hundred years. There are even some society vaults that hold thousands of remains. This particular cemetery was used in filming Easy Rider with Peter Fonda, back in the sixties. We spent a long time there reading some fascinating histories. It would be interesting to go back at midnight sometime, but probably too dangerous in that neighbourhood.
Bourbon Street, famous for is jazz history, was disappointing. The bars with live music were blasting it out into the street 
trying to overwhelm the others. Mostly, though, the street was full of strip joints and voodoo and porn stores. Perhaps it always was! This art store only sold paintings of the blue dog, nothing else.
The French Market was interesting, hundreds of stalls under canvas, selling art, carvings, and music from all over, butmainly with an African flavour. After eight hours of walking we were glad to crawl onto the bus.