Sooth Seekers

It's hard to believe that we have been here in New Orleans for three days. As they say, time passes quickly when you are having fun, and having fun is what our life is all about. It seems like Christmas Eve every night when we go to bed as we get excited about the treasures we will discover the next morning.

The ride over here on I-10 gave us an indication of what these poor people must have experienced during hurricane Katrina. There is a huge bridge which is a few miles long on the East side of town. It crosses a section of the Gulf of Mexico. There are portions of the bridge which had been washed away. Huge sections of the guard rail are missing and Jersey Walls have been erected to fill the void from the missing rails. Portions of the deck of the bridge have been lined with massive sections of steel plates, probably to replace missing sections which had been washed away. The truck and RV weigh around 10 tons, so the ride across this thing was scary to say the least. They are replacing this bridge with a new one which seems to be about half complete. It is amazing that so much construction could have been done in such a short period of time.

There are sections of town where new apartment buildings have evolved from the rubble of the hurricane. There are also patches of wooded areas where all of the trees are laying on their sides in a wind swept fashion in stark testimony to the intensity of the storm. The people here have done a wonderful job of cleaning up. We passed by the dome where thousands of people lived for so long in deplorable conditions. It once again looks like a normal stadium.

It is also hard to believe that so many people have left New Orleans to reestablish themselves elsewhere. Considering the intensity of the rush hours we have experienced since we have arrived, their absence might be considered to be a good thing. We have not yet seen any FEMA trailers or any other obvious signs of the devastation. The recovery process is nearly complete and we have really been enjoying ourselves here in Bayou Signette State Park.

The Mardi Gras parade is scheduled for the 24th of this month. We thought about hanging around, but common sense took hold, so we will be packing up next Wednesday and heading off to Sam Houston State Park which is located in the South West corner of the State. We won't stay more than a week there before heading across the state line to Texas.

Thus far we have driven through downtown, visited the Riverwalk, and have taken a side trip to Harrah's Casino where we made a small donation. The French Quarter is on our list for today if all goes well. There is a fish market a short distance away from the entrance to this park where dozens of hucksters compete with one another to sell their goods. It resembles a farmers market, but all they offer is fresh shrimp, crayfish, and crabs. Everything they sell comes au natural. The shrimp sell for $2.50 to $4.00 per pound. The picture above shows the 5 pounds of large shrimp we purchased after we decapitated, skinned, and deveigned them. The kitchen sort of resembled a slaughter house during the process, but the end result was well worth the effort. We wound up freezing four bags and making shrimp scampi for dinner last night with the remainder. Yum. We will definitely have to hit them up for another five pounds before we leave.