Thursday May 9th
Today was to be spent in New Orleans. First though, we wanted to do another
run on the Tammany Trace from a different location. After breakfast we drove to
Mandeville, a short drive east of the campground, which is a sleepy little
hamlet along the shore of Lac Pontchartrain. We parked at the center of town at
their trailhead and set off in an easterly direction. We ran as far as Fontaine
Blue State Park and back – almost 9 km. It was a bit less shaded than the
previous day’s run and by 8.5 km, I decided that was enough and walked it in.
Very sweaty!
After showering and gathering what we needed for the day, we drove off for
New Orleans. Our first interesting discovery was how long the bridge is across
Lake Pontchartrain – 38 km! It’s the longest uninterrupted bridge in the world!
Quite impressive first time across – I’m sure it would get tedious if you had
to drive it every day.
Once in New Orleans, we went directly to the large central park to check out
the botanical and sculpture gardens. They were both really nice, but it was so
hot that we were really just dragging our butts around. New Orleans set a heat
record for May 9th at 34 C and 100 percent humidity!
After the park we decided to check out the French Quarter. The drive there
was interesting with all the cool architecture, wrought iron railings and
balconies. We were able to park without much trouble and then set off on foot
to check out the area. My first impression of the French Quarter? One work
comes to mind…scuzzy! Lots of very sketchy looking characters and not much old
New Orleans charm like we were expecting. Since Hurricane Katrina back in 2005,
New Orleans has never really recovered. Approximately 400,000 people left the
region after the hurricane and never came back, which explains a lot about what
we saw down there.
We did stop at a café for a bite to eat and we did listen to some music. We
took a quick walk through the French Market, which is a place that sells mostly
trinkets. Lots of Alligator jaws for sale, all sizes…weird.
After our stroll, we made our way back to the car and headed out of town and
back across the bridge to the relative sanity of our pleasant and peaceful
campsite.
Finally, after all the heat of the day, it rained overnight which helped cool
things down a few degrees.
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| Botanical garden |
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| Botanical garden |
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| Botanical garden |
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| Botanical garden |
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| Botanical garden |
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| Miniature train setup |
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| Miniature train setup |
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| Sculpture garden |
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| Sculpture garden |
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| Sculpture garden |
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| French Market New Orleans |
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| French Quarter |
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