Vieux Carre

Didn’t wake up to just before 9.00am, so we decided to miss breakfast & concentrate on some planning matters. Firstly we had identified an Airboat Tour nearby, but when we rang them they were fully booked. After a lot of googling Jackie found an Airboat Tour, on a small boat, near New Orleans, which she booked. Jackie then amazed me by finding a hotel in the middle of the French Quarter of New Orleans than was satisfactory for her & within my budget, just!

I had also received an email from Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in response to a snotty email I had sent them on the afternoon of the Rodeo enquiring about our vetting & why we hadn’t heard from them. It said nothing, but blamed everyone but themselves. Waste of time.

It was nearly 11.00am, when we got on the road & this time we joined our old favourite, Interstate 10 towards Baton Rouge. We passed through Breaux Bridge, then Henderson before stopping on the outskirts of Baton Rouge for brunch at McDonald’s. I had the sausage burritos, but won’t be having them again. Jackie had a regular chicken burger. Again we were felt very self conscious, everyone else was either black or was a vest & baseball cap wearing Cracker. It didn’t help when the girl behind the counter very loudly asked “I love your accent. Where are y’all from?”

Before travelling on, we stopped at a fuel station to put some air in our tyres. Outrageously it cost us $1.50, but every tyre needed air. Having successfully pumped our tyres up to the correct pressure, I reversed back, Unfortunately I turned the steering wheel at the same time & we heard a scrapping sound over our Spotify tunes. Jackie got out, but couldn’t see any damage, so I continued to reverse back & managed to get the front bumper grounded on a stupid little kerb. I reversed back with a horrible screech.

We then went on one of my detours, firstly over the Huey P. Long Bridge into Baton Rouge, which is French for ‘Red Stick’. Afterwards we headed to North Foster Drive & passed the Triple S Food Market, where Alton Sterling was killed by Police in 2016.

This Police killing incident led to well publicised race riots across the Southern States of America & probably inspired Gavin Eugene Long to go on a gun spree in which he shot six Baton Rouge Police Officers, three of whom were killed.

The area felt very poor, which made us probably more conspicuous, so we didn’t hang around, but got back to the road that ran parallel to the Mississippi. We stopped at the Hollywood Casino, which was a rusting old paddle-steamer moored on the banks of the Mississippi. It was in this car park that we noticed that the undercarriage of Doodle was hanging down at the front. The car park wasn’t the place to show any vulnerabilities, so we drove on, via Gate 13, the alleged most haunted house in the USA & the Governor’s Mansion.

Taking stock, we drove south down Highway 1, turning left & through Bayou Goula, turning north up River Road until we reached Chapel of The Madonna, - ‘The Smallest Church in the World’. I knelt down on my knees, not to pray, but to try & repair the damage to our front bumper & undercarriage . I managed to push the undercarriage back up, but the skirting holding it up is very scratched & pieces of it have broken off.

This skirting & undercarriage are very flimsy plastic & way too low to cope with any deep dips or gullies; or to clear normal height kerbs. The return of Doodle could be interesting (or more likely expensive) especially as we didn’t take out their insurance.

Anyway at the smallest church in the world, Jackie found the door key & unlocked it. She left a message in the visitors book, then said her prayers. It was a cute little church that had been well taken care of.

We continued south, past Nottoway Plantation & headed for the National Hansen’s Disease Museum. We stopped for a thirst quenching drink to combat the ‘oppressive’ humidity as forecast on the TV weather channel. While Jackie was getting the drinks, I regrettably decided there was no point in visiting the Disease Museum, because we were due to arrive just 30 minutes before closing time.

Instead we continued to the True Detective Murder Site, which turned out to be a field, then along the 3127, Interstate 310 & Highway 61 to a railway crossing, the locality of the church in True Detective, which is no longer standing!

My very circuitous route took us up across Manchac Swamp Bridge to Hammond, then east before turning south onto Lake Pontchartrain Causeway. We paid our $5 toll fee & cruised across the 28.83 mile causeway, which in 1969 was listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the longest bridge over water in the world.

Upon completion, our SatNav directed us through New Orleans & into the French Quarter. We located our hotel, Hotel Royal New Orleans. We dropped our rucksacks off & discovered that the car park was several blocks away, but more importantly it cost $25 + tax a night. Outrageous!

We returned to our hotel showered & went out to experience the delights of Bourbon Street & the rest of the French Quarter. Within minutes of us getting to Bourbon Street, Jackie announced that it was no different to Patpong in Bangkok & she didn’t like it.

Fantastic. That very quickly put an end to the night. We had one overpriced pint in a loud bar, then shared a giro & called it a night! Glad we are staying for two nights!

Song of the Day - When The Saints Go Marching In by Louis Armstrong.

Bonus Song of the Day :-

New Orleans by The Blues Brothers, Louisiana Gator BoysRead more