Mouth of the Mississippi
Today's aim was to get as close to the mouth of the Mississippi River as we possibly could, so we can know we've seen both ends. We waded across the source, but wading across the mouth is not practical.
We got on the road straight away. It wasn't very pretty for quite a while, with nothing but seedy bars, Family Dollar stores and other places catering for the same market. We stopped for our first McDonalds of the holiday. I chose Powerade for my drink. I think it may have contained artificial colouring.
The road eventually got prettier as we made our way down the coast. iTrip worked rather nicely for the duration. We paused to look at Fort Jackson. I'll let the plaques explain:
Yes. Fort Jackson is a place where you are not allowed to slide down the hill.
As we reached the end of the road, the scenery began to polarise. Parts where extremely industrialised, since the area is so convenient for shipping. Other parts were glorious unspoiled marshland, with the road surface only inches higher than the water level. We saw many heron.
To make our return journey more interesting, we took a ferry to the next stretch of land. Passing us up the river was a ship from Panama.
Our next appointment was with the Pontchartrain causeway over Lake Pontchartrain, North of New Orleans. How could we resist a 24 mile long bridge? Astonishingly to me, the Lonely Planet guide doesn't list this as an attraction, and even suggests an alternative route so you avoid it. I don't really understand. This is a bridge which stretches way over the horizon. It's incredible.
At the North end of the bridge, I had to do some trespassing to get a photo.
Having done that, we were at something of a loss to know where to go next. All we'd thought about was our need to cross the cool bridge, not where it would take us. Instead of thinking about it, we decided it was time to find a room for the night.
The Super 8 motel we settled on was close to a Walmart, and it was near enough home time to buy another suitcase for our tat. While we were there I stumbled on a radio control Crazy Taxi!
I passed on it. I also reluctantly passed on an RC boat, and an RC hovercraft -- partly because they would be bulky to pack, and partly because I didn't trust them to perform as well as I hoped, and returns would be impractical. We did buy an electric card shuffler. It was only $6, and turned out to be worth not even that.
We parked back at the Super 8, and went out on foot, crossing four lanes of traffic with no pedestrian crossings (but with the help of lights) to get to the Outback Steakhouse, where we ate absolutely lovely steak, and had our first wine in over a week. We waddled home happy.
As I write, Debbie is compressing dirty laundry into those bags you can squeeze all the air from. We think we can fit everything into two suitcases. Only time will tell if we're right.