Down on the Bayou

Day 1 - Drive to New Orleans: Back on the road again, left Orlando mid morning as we had a 2-day drive to get to New Orleans. The drive up through Florida was a long interstate drive and didn't really stop anywhere except at a rest stop for lunch. Drove past the capital of Florida Tallahassee and then spent all afternoon on the 10 interstate.

After 7 hrs of driving we decided to stop for the night in a state park a little bit off the interstate called ‘Blackwater River’ state park. A lovely state park with excellent facilities. When we arrived it was getting dark, but had just enough light before sunset to make some dinner. That night we played a few hands of Uno with the help of a couple of book lights before we called it a night.  

Day 2 - Drive to New Orleans: Amazingly quiet in the state park last night we had a great sleep. After some breakfast we went for a walk to check out the river, that had a sand beach and river bed (really weird). Not a very deep river but super clean. A lovely spot to dip our toes in and play in the clean quartz sand.

After enjoying the state park in the morning we were back on the interstate heading to our next destination; Mobile, Alabama, about an hour away. We stopped in at the visitor center and got some info about the military museum with a real battleship and submarine and a nice place to stop for lunch.

The ‘Original Oyster House’ where we stopped for lunch on the way to the museum, was an awesome find. The restaurant had been rebuilt after hurricane Ivan in 2004 took out the original. Not only great value but the food was amazing. We were right on the bayou and the restaurant had loads of character with photos and memorabilia all over the walls. We shared a plate of delicious oysters, fried alligator, and a key lime pie for desert mmm.

The museum was really cool; we saw military aircraft, a submarine and the USS Alabama battleship. Marc loved the guns and I really enjoyed seeing how they lived when out at sea.



Before leaving Mobile we stopped in at another Harley Davidson for a pin and poker chip, then continued along the coast towards New Orleans. On the way passing through Biloxi and Gulfport, the damage to this area from the hurricanes was crazy. Basically there was hardly any beachfront property except for the remnants of what once was with overgrown swimming pools and brick slabs where houses once stood. Some people had rebuilt but others were trying to sell the land. The palm trees were all cut in half but sprouting new tops it was crazy to see.

 

That night for dinner we were stopping at another DDD place for Marc called the ‘Blow Fly Inn’ in Gulf Port. Good but not awesome, we shared the green fried tomatoes, gumbo and seafood pasta.

That night in Gulf Port we found a little campground in the dark ‘Magic River Park’ and setup for the night.

Day 3 - New Orleans: This morning the manager of the park greeted us to arrange payment for the nights stay as we had arrived late. The manager had a crazy accent, Marc said he was probably the closest to a hillbilly we were going to get, I could have listened to him all day. Also an added bonus he only charged us $10 for the nights stay!

That morning we took Hank in to get a service, it had been a while since his last oil change. We found a really awesome place that did an amazing job of tuning him up and all at a discounted price! After the service we stopped off at another Harley Davidson before heading into New Orleans.  


New Orleans was a little sad to drive into as you could still see a lot of areas damaged by hurricane Katrina. We were staying in the 'India House' hostel while we were in New Orleans. Located in the mid-city area just off Canal Street. The hostel was really cool, for the first night we had a rad little private room out the back. Apart from a really nice lounge area, big kitchen and there was a pool. It was a really cool hostel.
 
The rest of the day and night was very chilled, we just hung out with all the other travellers, had a swim in the pool and relaxed.

Day 4 - New Orleans: All recharged we caught a trolley down Canal Street to the French Quarter. The trolley was extremely slow but everything in New Orleans was very chilled so you just had to go with it. To start we walked down the famous Bourbon Street, which was very smelly and seedy so didn’t spend too much time there during the day. For lunch we stopped for a famous muffaletta sandwich, really yummy but it was huge. Marc and I shared a full sandwich, which was way too much and probably could have shared a half! 

In the afternoon we visited the hurricane Katrina exhibit at the Louisiana Museum. A fascinating exhibit that went into of the events before and after the hurricane, some personal experiences from survivors and the rescuers, and information on how the levees along the Mississippi failed. There was also a second exhibit we checked out that went into the history of Mardi Gras, the costumes were really cool. To finish we walked around the French quarter checking out the historic streets (loved all the old buildings), stopping for some beverages including some famous ‘Grenades’ a super sweet and very alcoholic drink. When I asked the bar tender what they tasted like the reply was ‘Grenade Flavour’ ha ha. Before heading back to the hostel to freshen up we bought some beads (turtles and cowboy theme for Michelle, chillies and pigs for Marc). We were now ready for Bourbon Street.

After dinner we rallied up a small group of people from the hostel to come out and party with us (3 where under 21 but it was easy to get them in to the bars). We caught the trolley back to the French Quarter and bar hopped for most of the night, drinking and dancing up a storm. Bourbon Street was extremely busy with drunken people everywhere. We had a really crazy fun night; I can only imagine what it’s like for Mardi Gras. The rest of the night was a little blurry but involved Marc and I at a piano bar and me dancing on the stage before heading back to the hostel by Taxi, good times.

Day 5 - New Orleans: Oh my poor head; yes woke up super hung-over. We did not do much at all today except hang out at the hostel. I went for a swim, nursed my sore head and stomach, and slept. Marc however decided the best way to chase away the hang over was to start drinking again and did that for most of the day and into the night. We were going to go out to a jazz club that night but Marc was in no state to go anywhere to listen to music so it was an official didn’t leave the hostel day.

Day 6 - New Orleans: I woke feeling refreshed and ready to see more of New Orleans. However, Marc was extremely hung-over. I forced him to get up and enjoy the day, which took a couple of tries but in the end he was up and ready to go.

Today we explored the Riverfront market a really nice mall next to the Mississippi, it was raining so a great place to spend a few hours undercover looking at all the different shops. Next we went to the French market to eat some food and check out the stalls. Before leaving the French quarter we visited the Voodoo museum, a small museum but cool to stop for a quick look at the small 2 rooms jam packed with voodoo statues, skulls and dolls.

Even though Marc was suffering we made our way over to the ‘Garden’ district to check out the big old homes, cemetery (that was unfortunately closed) and the 200 years old tree lines streets. The big old oak trees were amazing with the Spanish moss and massive roots uplifting the neighbourhood paths.

Our last evening was really quiet, we ate some food and crashed pretty early.

We really loved New Orleans and will be back again one day.
Day 7 - New Orleans: We packed up our stuff and checked out of the hostel. Before leaving New Orleans we went to District 6, the area that was completely flooded when the levee broke during hurricane Katrina. The number of houses that still had the markings on the doors, all boarded up, was really sad. However the community was rebuilding and in some of the areas new houses had been built and people were out and about so it was not all sad. It was actually a little awkward as I was taking a photo of an abandoned house and getting weird looks from the residents next door which made me feel really bad, as this was their reality and I was taking photos of it.








 We left New Orleans and made our way to check out the ‘Laura’ Plantation along the Mississippi. It was a really nice drive along the river however you could not see too much of the river as the view was blocked by the massive levee. There were so many big beautiful houses along the river, massive trees and super green grass. When we arrived at the plantation we were a bit early for the next tour so drove 5 mins down the road to see the famous ‘Oak Alley’ plantation and take some photos of the beautiful 200-year-old oak trees they were huge and really cool to see.

We returned to ‘Laura’ plantation and started the tour at the front of the old French Creole house. The house was raised as it was built before the levee was built, so when the Mississippi would flood the water went under the house. The house had a wonderful family history and we got to see how a working plantation home was back in the day, also got to see the kitchen garden and the slave houses. It was really interesting to learn that the business was owned and run by 3 generations of women (back in the 1800’s this was really impressive). The reason it was called ‘Laura’ plantation was because the grand daughter (Laura) documented her experiences growing up at the plantation and why she left when she learnt about the cruelty her family had shown towards the black slaves and did not want anything to do with it.