Back to Louisiana and Home

We traveled out of Houston and back into Louisiana on our way to New Orleans. The highways in Houston were just as confusing on the way out as on the way in. The highway adds and subtracts lanes and suddenly you're not where you thought you were. It's pretty traumatic.

Abi's camera didn't charge correctly the last night in Houston and she wanted a doodad so that she could charge it in the car, and had Maggie, the GPS to find us a WalMart. We found one in Sulphur, LA. Now, I commend Wal Mart for hiring people with disabilities. I truly think it is anoutstanding thing that Wal Mart does, and there was a disabled woman at the door. Terrific. And then we started shopping and looking for the thingy we needed - and noticed that there were a high percentage of disabled people at the Wal Mart in Sulphur. I wondered if maybe it was the thalidomide capitol or something. It was very, very strange, but everyone seemed healthy, just often missing limbs. Just odd.

Also, you know how there are girl scouts or whomever selling stuff outside or collecting money for this cause or that outside of Wal Mart? As we went into this one, someone was asking if we wanted to give blood. No Bloodmobile or anything. It was a bit worrisome.

Later, we stopped at Rayne, LA, the "Frog Capital of the World".  They had a frog statue welcoming us and everything. Louisiana is an odd place. We kept going and the land got swampier and the bridges were more abundant and longer and longer.

We finally got to New Orleans and our hotel was located in the French Quarter on Bourbon Street. Again, Hotwire was very nice to us and we got a very nice hotel at a very nice price. Since Bourbon Street is not accessible by car at night, we had quite a time getting to the hotel and finding parking, but we did. It was quite a relief. Particularly after seeing the activities of Bourbon Street from the relative safety of the car. We even saw one gentleman um...urinating...behind a dumpster. Oh my.

Lobby at the Royal Sonesta

We had to park 3 levels down and dragged our luggage up a flight of stairs before we could get to the elevator, but we got there and checked in. The lobby was gorgeous with chandeliers and fresh flowers. Truly beautiful.



St. Louis Cemetery Number 1



We got up the next morning and went on our first tour of the city. It was a walking tour through Haunted History Tours. We met in front of Rev. Zombie's House of Voodoo. We learned some of the history of the city and we took a stroll through St. Louis Cemetery Number 1. It's interesting how they reuse their burial space in New Orleans. Since land is scarce, they place the body in a wall vault or tomb for a year and a day (at least). By law it has to stay there that long, and the body decomposes. After the year is up, the remains are swept out and placed in a bag and there's room for the next body. You can even rent space in a wall vault if it's needed.

After our cemetery tour, we had a nice lunch and then stopped by the New Orleans Pharmacy Museum, which I enjoyed more than Abi, but they did have quite a lot of just neat looking stuff -- including old cash registers, an old soda fountain, and quite a lot more.

Our evening tour was a ghost tour. Abi liked that quite a bit. The tour guide told some pretty gory stories including some about Delphine LaLarue who was one sick chick. She treated her slaves horribly. And that's an understatement.

By the time our tour was done, it was dark, so we had dinner and went back to the hotel.

We checked out of the hotel the next day and we crossed Lake Pontchartrain. It was quite a lake and quite a bridge. And if you want to gamble or go to an adult shop, Louisiana seems to be the place to go based on the multitude of billboards. Lots and lots of billboards.

Maggie again, decided periodically that we needed to turn left while on a major highway or that we needed to go West when in actuality we needed to go East, but all in all, we did okay as long as we shut her off every time we stopped and just ignored her when she wanted us to turn left or do a U turn on the highway.

Oh Maggie.

Montgomery

We made it to the hotel in Montgomery. It was quite a let down considering the strange odor in the elevator, hallway and room. Oh well, you can't have everything.

The next day, we went to the Montgomery Zoo. It was okay, but not great, and we left earlier than we thought we might and headed back towards home.

It's always good to get home.