Less in Tents

Tripometer –  15,612 mi

Gas Gauge –  1239.387 gal

Location – Tomoka State Park, Ormond Beach, FL

Lodging – $25

Cans of OFF – 4

We’ve been by the shore for two days now and neither of us have seen the ocean, so for lunch today we drove into Daytona Beach to find some food at a restaurant right on the beach. Throughout this trip we’ve been using a cell phone app called ‘Bring Fido’ to find restaurants, hotels, attractions, etc. that allow dogs. Today that app led us to Sloppy Joe’s right at the heart of Daytona’s Boardwalk. It was relatively cold, right at our limit to sit outside in fleeces and still enjoy our lunch, but we persevered because we really didn’t want to leave Ranger in the car in the heart of Daytona Beach. We weren’t expecting much from the food as our number one priority was to sit along the beach for our meal but we were both blown away by our meal. Kelly’s lunch was a noteworthy chicken sandwich but Paul’s BLT was insane. Paul has long been a huge fan of BLTs with extra tomato and this afternoon’s meal was the object of his desire. The BLT was served with a pound of bacon. I repeat, a POUND of bacon. Needless to say both Paul and Ranger enjoyed his lunch.
After Kelly finished work in the afternoon we went in search of a swimming opportunity for Ranger. As we’ve learned on this trip, his favorite activity is playing fetch at the water’s edge and the poor guy hasn’t been swimming since we camped at Grand Isle State Park at the southern tip of Louisiana some two weeks ago. The waitress at lunch suggested we try Lighthouse Point Park a few miles south of Daytona Beach.

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As we pulled up to the entry gate at the park, the attendant, seeing Ranger in the back seat of the car, exclaimed “you must be here for the dog park!’. We knew we were in the right place. We searched high and low in the park for any place to take the dog swimming but there were ‘No Pets’ signs everywhere! All of the beaches were wildlife sanctuaries and even the rock jetty was off limits. The lifeguard on duty directed us to the bay side of the island where there were more signs to keep your pets on a leash (while swimming???!?) than there were to pick up poop. And there were a ton of those too… Back home, ‘Keep your pet on a leash’ is not a dog park, that’s called a ‘park’. We left $10 poorer and disgusted with Daytona Beach’s idea of a dog park. (We did grab a couple of nice pictures of the lighthouse though.)

As we headed home we stopped to run a few errands including looking for a place to grab our fishing licenses. We plan on being in Florida long enough to warrant an annual license for both of us. We weren’t successful in that either.

We’re headed south tomorrow in our continuing quest for warm weather and a water view. We don’t have any real tourism plans for Florida beyond warm weather, water for Ranger and good fishing. Tomorrow is Friday so we were ecstatic to find open reservations at Sebastian Inlet State Park on a barrier island near Vero Beach about an hour south of Cape Canaveral. We’re hoping to be able to find a park nearby for the following week with a good cell signal because there is to be a SpaceX launch to the International Space Station on Tuesday. We were hoping to catch a rocket launch while we were in Florida but being able to see a SpaceX launch would be beyond cool. Keep your fingers crossed, we’ll see if Sebastian Inlet has cell signal (the cell signal app is rather ambiguous about the strength of Sebastian Inlet’s signal).

Tripometer –  15,560 mi

Gas Gauge –  1239.387 gal

Location – Tomoka State Park, Ormond Beach, FL

Lodging – $25

Cans of OFF – 4

We woke this morning no warmer today than we have been for the past few weeks, highs today are to be in the mid 50s. There’s only so much further south that we can travel! On the other side of things, we’ve arrived in a sandy place with palm trees everywhere. We must be getting closer!

Today was a boring day as Kelly caught up on the work she’s missed having poor cell signal the past two days. Paul put some work in on catching up with the LessInTents blog. Being a tourist in a fantastic place like New Orleans has put him tremendously behind. The truck and trailer also got a thorough cleaning despite the persistent queasiness.

For dinner this evening we sought out a restaurant with a good salad selection. For some reason finding a proper salad without something fried or a thick French sauce is almost impossible in New Orleans. On the trip from the campground to dinner we passed through a neighborhood in Ormond Beach with some huge and beautiful homes on the water. Ormond Beach is only a 15 minute drive to Daytona Beach. We suspect that some of the wealthy business owners and celebrities from Daytona Beach must have come to Ormond to put some distance between themselves and their work. After a green dinner and a couple of drinks we headed back to the trailer for a quiet evening.

Special Note: As we’ve gotten closer to the declared end of our trip, several of our friends and family have suggested that we might as well stay where it’s warm until spring. As tempting as that sounds, we’re both getting weary of the road. As Paul likes to say recently “All we want right now is a couch large enough to stretch out on.” We both think it would be a blast to celebrate Christmas on the beach so we’re currently thinking we’ll be returning home somewhere between Christmas and New Years.

Tripometer –  15,534 mi

Gas Gauge –  1239.387 gal

Location – Tomoka State Park, Ormond Beach, FL

Lodging – $25

Cans of OFF – 4

We woke this morning to the dulcet sounds of the Caterpillar back hoe driving to and fro mere feet from our trailer assumedly clearing debris from the hurricane. What a way to wake up. Kelly took her computer, work materials and a big poofy jacket to the communal BBQ pit area in the RV park where there was just enough cell signal for her to do her work. She worked just long enough to get all of the really important items complete before her fingers started to get numb from the cold. Good God, we need to find warm weather.

Paul had the rig packed up by the time Kelly was done her work and we were on the road by 11am this morning. Roughly a mile from our campsite we saw the tower above. Neither of us are sure of this, but we’re guessing that this was the elusive cellular tower that should have been providing cell signal to our RV park and the surrounds. It looks as though it may have lost its top in the hurricane. There was a fair bit of debris and several dismantled electrical boxes at the base of the tower. We guess we shouldn’t expect all of our fancy cell signal apps to predict hurricane damaged cell towers.

The damage from the hurricane was very evident in the sunlight. There were work crews every mile or so along the highway through this stretch of Florida clearing debris. Kelly commented that we should have felt safer sleeping last night as the wind had knocked down any dangerous trees well before we arrived.

Continuing a trend from the last couple of weeks, the advertisements for lawyers were well over 50% of the ads on the radio today. Most were hawking for hurricane-related lawsuits. We found it sad that in lower income areas the radio is so crowded with people trying to make a buck off of other people’s misfortune.

Finding a campsite along Florida’s eastern coast has proven more difficult than we had hoped. It is the middle of the week so we were able to find a campsite but the weekends are going to be a real pain in the butt. We will likely have to stay in a beautiful state or local park during the week and then move to a much more expensive and much less appealing site on the weekends. After last night’s experience with our cell phone signal we chose a state park to drive towards but we didn’t make firm reservations until we arrived and saw the signal strength for ourselves. Tomoka State Park was one of the parks that Paul’s family stayed in during a trip to Florida in 1986. It is just as pretty as he had remembered. We settled into our sandy campsite this evening knowing that though it’s still cold tonight the weekend was going to be much warmer.

Tonight as we fell asleep enjoying the quiet campground. We could hear the distant sound of waves on the shore.

Tripometer –  15,232 mi

Gas Gauge –  1199.325 gal

Location – Triple C’s RV Park and Campground, Chattahoochee, FL

Lodging – $35

Cans of OFF – 4

This morning was cold. Kelly woke at a relatively early hour to get work done so that we could get on the road as quickly as possible. Paul was very nauseous again this morning and fought with his stomach the whole time we were packing up. Whatever this illness is, it has got to be one of the most aggravating bugs we’ve ever had. It doesn’t make you outright ill, it just makes you feel gross for days on end. Not sick enough to cancel plans but not well enough to fully enjoy anything.

We are travelling East today with no real destination in mind. It is at least a two day drive (once you factor in Kelly’s work and the slow pace of our rig) to reach the ocean, so tonight we are planning on stopping wherever we can find a cell signal and a parking spot once we get sleepy.

Shortly after we left New Orleans we stopped at a pizza joint for a late lunch. The lunch was relatively unremarkable except for the news cast on TV. One of the local TV stations was reporting the news and the headline that caught our attention was “NOPD: Man shot in face”. While New Orleans was a fantastic stop on our trip and we will likely find ourselves there again in the future, it’s nice to be away from the crime and violence of the city. We both hope to be in a much more relaxed location in two days not concerning ourselves with the affairs of a big city. Paul made a show of putting the bulk of his credit cards and IDs back in his wallet this evening. He had decided days ago that carrying all of his credit cards and other wallet items was a silly proposition in a city known for its muggings.

During our drive today we were bombarded by two seemingly incompatible news stories. On one hand the Mars InSight lander had reached Mars and is preparing to collect data on its planetary composition. On the other hand, President Trump was telling the world how he doesn’t believe the climate change report. How he can look at the ultimate success of a Mars landing yet not believe the best minds in our country when it comes to our own climate is abhorrent. Much of our day was spent grumbling to each other while listening to the news channel. We’ve got to stop doing that to ourselves.

Today’s drive was uneventful. We pulled off the road after dusk into a small trailer park near Chattahoochee, FL. We had not noticed any hurricane damage on our trip so far today, however this little RV park was fairly ripped up from Hurricane Michael in October. Our site for the evening was immediately next to a large Caterpillar back hoe which we assume they were using to remediate some of the hurricane damage that was readily obvious around the RV park. We didn’t bother to disconnect the trailer.

To our horror the cell signal in the RV park was almost non-existent. As we’ve mentioned in the past, we are using a wide array of cell phone apps to determine the cellular signal strength at RV parks before we arrive. All of our research showed that this little RV park had an excellent signal. After checking and rechecking our cell signal apps this evening we came to the conclusion that the hurricane must have taken out a local cell tower. This place was supposed to have an excellent signal! We’ll have to get up and moving very early tomorrow so that Kelly can work.

Falling asleep tonight we both remarked at how quiet the campground seemed, no traffic, no ambulances, and best of all no gunfire.

Technical Note: We went through almost an entire propane tank while sick in New Orleans. Several nights we decided that if we were feeling ill we might as well be warm. We stopped at a gas station today and filled up the propane for the fourth and hopefully the last time of the trip. (Please, please, please let us find warm weather in Florida…)

Tripometer –  14,879 mi

Gas Gauge –  1170.297 gal

Location – French Quarter RV Park, New Orleans, LA

Lodging – $105

Cans of OFF – 4

At some point in the middle of last night someone open fire with a hand gun no more than a few hundred feet from our trailer firing some 6 or 8 shots. At no point afterward did we hear any police response. If we weren’t done with this city before that, we’re done now.

Waking up this morning still feeling ill, we set off in search of simple food to break our fast. The weather is beautiful! We’ve finally found temperatures above 70 degrees, we’re dressed in shorts and t-shirts and the world seems like a new place. We found a little bagel place North of the Garden District with excellent coffee and better bagels than we’ve had since we left home. Our bellies were duly pleased with that offering quelling any queasiness that was threatening to dampen the day.

We spotted this billboard  as we drove towards St. Louis #3 graveyard near City Park. We have seen more lawyer advertising in the New Orleans area than anywhere else in the country. We about fell out of our chairs when we saw this billboard. Neither of us have ever seen a lawyer advertise with such local colloquialism. Hey, whatever it takes to reach your audience, right?

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St. Louis #3 is located along the border of the City Park that we visited a couple of days ago. After ensuring there were no pet prohibitions, the three of us ventured in to wander the graveyard on a dreary rainy day. What better weather to tour a graveyard? We found that the vast majority of the graveyard was similar to Lafayette #1 that we visited a few days ago. The crypts are relatively unadorned and they resemble each other making for row upon row of two shelf crypts like the one Kelly and Ranger are standing in front of, above. Towards the front edge of the cemetery, though, there were a few dozen very ornate and frankly huge crypts. In this section of the cemetery there were several dozen beautiful old statues in various states of repair that made for amazing pictures, our favorite being the weeping angel. One of the crypts in this area stood out amongst the rest. The Skelly crypt was fairly new and as ostentatious as they get. When we peered through a window in the Skelly crypt we were delighted to find that the only thing visible inside the crypt were a couple of plastic air fresheners. That seems appropriate.

We had a conversation about these crypts with our tour guide Victor at the Lafayette #1 cemetery early last week. He explained that the top shelf in these two shelf crypts was the only shelf used for newly dead occupants. On Day 366 (one year and one day) after the original burial, newly buried people are removed from the crypt, bundled in a shroud and moved to the back of the lower shelf in the crypt with a ‘10 foot pole’ (he insisted this was the origin of the term though we can find no such reference on Google.) This system of reduction and clearance allows these small two-shelf crypts to hold up to 100 or more bodies.

While doing errands at a nearby Walmart, we received a call from the RV park where we’re staying asking us why we hadn’t moved our trailer. Apparently we were scheduled to check out today. They were happy to extend our stay by one day but then we had to deal with the buyer’s remorse of being done with New Orleans but screwing ourselves into another day at over $100 per night. GAH!

We had planned to take Ranger on a walk around Audubon Park this afternoon and wound him up like a clock teasing him on our way South to Audubon. The rain had other plans. As we were pulling into the park the rain was just starting and a quick look at the radar told us we were in for a fairly big storm, but Ranger would have nothing to do with driving on. We were going to walk whether we wanted to or not. Paul grabbed Ranger as the rain started and ran him under the branches of the largest old oak we have ever seen. The tree, in the Audubon park, is called the ‘Tree of Life’ and is believed to have been planted in the late 1600 to early 1700s. Ranger and Paul walked around and under the tree for about 10 minutes before the rain got too hard and they ran back to the car. Apparently that was enough to quell Ranger’s need for walkies.

Returning to the RV park, we spent the rest of the evening preparing to move the party down the road tomorrow. Good night New Orleans.

Tripometer –  14,841 mi

Gas Gauge –  1152.255 gal

Location – French Quarter RV Park, New Orleans, LA

Lodging – $150

Cans of OFF – 4

We took off this morning to the Natchez for our steam wheel tour of the New Orleans Mississippi river front. We arrived at the docks well before the boarding time and found ourselves a nice seat to drink some coffee and watch crowds of international tourists bungle about the waterside. Some 15 minutes before boarding the calliope aboard the Natchez roared to life with old timey tunes screeching across the water
with an almost unpleasant tone. We noted with delight that the calliope was grossly out of tune when the organist(?) started playing but by the second or third song (and assumedly after the pipe organ had warmed up completely) was well in tune and somewhat beautiful in a steam powered kind of way. It’s no wonder that these instruments were used to attract patrons to these ships back in the day. They are tremendously loud. The sound carrying across the water at the time in history where they were used calliopes must have sounded almost unworldly.

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The Natchez was built in 1975 using historic manufacturing techniques and repurposing several key components from decommissioned steam wheelers at the time, including the steam engines and steering system. We had a lovely lunch on board and proceeded to the aft deck for a wonderful view of the shores of the Mississippi as we listened to the captain (or narrator) describe the various sights along the way. Towards the end of the cruise we paid a visit to the engine room to see the steam engines under load propelling the ship down the river. It was fascinating to watch the old equipment (the steam engines were built in 1923) perform its functions without the benefit of more modern tooling. Perhaps the most fascinating of all were the oiling systems used to keep the various moving parts moving freely. In modern equipment we have grease fittings and seals to keep everything slippery. However in this era the oiling was often done by simply bathing equipment in oil or dispersing it across surfaces by relatively rudimentary means such as metallic arms dipping into a tray of oil and dragging across the surface of something that needs to be lubricated. The boat traveled about 10 miles downstream from the heart of New Orleans before turning around and heading back to Riverwalk and the docks, passing scores of other ships on the river from tug / barge combinations to full sized tankers and container ships. This is a tremendously busy shipping route.

Special Note: We left the Natchez without receiving a complimentary book of Natchez Matches. How could they not provide Natchez Matches? Someone in their PR department needs to be… fired.

After our cruise we finished what shopping we had not done in the French Quarter and went back to the trailer for the evening. At this point neither of us are feeling truly well since Kelly first got ill on Tuesday. We’re not sure if our nausea is a result of some phantom illness or if we’re causing some of the difficulties with the extremely rich foods we’ve been eating. We have looked for salads and other less rich food but it has been a real struggle for us to find. On top of the food issue, we’re tired of constantly running from one attraction to another and need a few days to recoup. The cost of this RV park has put us both in the mind to see and do as much as possible in this area to make the cost of our lodging seem worthwhile. Physically and mentally exhausted, we went to sleep tonight looking forward to leaving New Orleans for a more relaxing destination.

And quieter! We need to go some place quieter! The constant noise at night from the traffic on the interstate to the hooligans carrying on just on the other side of the RV park wall is slowly driving us insane. Others in the RV park, in their big hard-walled RVs surely don’t have the same problem with the noise that we do with a thin piece of canvas between our sleeping heads and all of the commotion outside.

Tripometer –  14,841 mi

Gas Gauge –  1152.255 gal

Location – French Quarter RV Park, New Orleans, LA

Lodging – $150

Cans of OFF – 4

Feeling better when we woke this morning we decided to drive into the French quarter to both grab a bite to eat and visit a few more shops. It took us less than 15 minutes to realize that shopping ANYWHERE on Black Friday was a huge error in judgement on our part. We immediately turned the car in the opposite direction and drove away from the shopping areas.

Sam and Z had both recommended a restaurant north of the tourist district but still within the city of New Orleans, Willie Mae’s Soul Food Restaurant. We had not run across any mention of this restaurant in any of our research, but the online reviews and award history of this little place warranted a visit (They received the prestigious James Beard Award for ‘America’s Classic Restaurant for the Southern Region’ in 2005, bringing this little home town restaurant to national attention). Arriving in a rather bad part of town we stood in line for almost an hour to get a table in what appears to be an old home. Sam’s instructions were clear. We were to order fried chicken with sides of our choice. Holy… Cow… We both consider ourselves to be fans of fried chicken (who isn’t?) and this is by far the best fried chicken we’ve ever had, hands down. If you ever happen to be in the New Orleans area, we highly suggest this restaurant.

With full bellies (and feeling a bit queasy as is usual these days) we went North a bit to give Ranger a nice walk in the New Orleans City Park. Having visited a couple of the big city parks in Baltimore we were both a bit surprised with how beautifully maintained the city park in New Orleans was. The park was decked out in Christmas attire with lighted Christmas displays hanging from trees and floating in the waterways surrounding the park. There was a beautiful playground, a 24 hour concession stand, the city’s art museum and a child’s amusement park all within the bounds of the park. There must have been a few thousand people here on a Friday afternoon enjoying the park with their families. Baltimore could learn a thing or two about running city parks from New Orleans – We’re looking at you Druid Hill.

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After beating some of the energy out of Ranger on a walk, we took him back to the trailer and set him up for an evening in the trailer alone. He doesn’t object to being left alone in the trailer these days. He recognizes it as his de facto home in lieu of the real thing and as long as the temperature is lower than about 70 degrees in the trailer, he’s happy to spend an evening resting up for more. We realized a few days ago that the hassle of finding a parking spot combined with the cost to park a vehicle made the $14 round trip Uber fair to and from the RV park a high-value proposition. One quick Uber ride later we were standing on Frenchman Street listening to a wide range of different music styles coming from a dozen different restaurants and bars up and down the street. Throughout the evening we stopped in several different places to hear several different bands, dined on gourmet hot dogs, bought our first and only souvenir from New Orleans and generally had a good time

We had to pay a premium rate for our RV site on Friday and Saturday this week. The Bayou Classic, an annual football game between Grambling State University and Southern University played at Tulane Stadium in New Orleans attracts spectators, football players, and marching bands from the areas all around NOLA this weekend every year. We highly suspect that some of the marching band members found their way to Frenchman Street this evening to play on the street corner. The Frenchman Street jazz area is a mere 3 blocks long and this very enthusiastic and rhythmic brass band was dominating the crowd and had all but frozen traffic on this relatively busy section of road. We watched the band play for a while before we went to Dat Dog, a nearby hot dog restaurant for a late night snack. A server in Dat Dog explained that the marching band competition was earlier in the day and the football game is tomorrow. That would explain why the energy level of this group of musicians was so darned high! They were still playing the crowd on Frenchman as we climbed into the Uber for our trip back to the RV park.

Returning to the trailer this evening we fell asleep remarking across the length of the trailer that there sure seem to be a lot of ambulances in this city. A quick google search showed that the Tulane Medical Center was located just on the other side of the I-10 from our RV park. This explains the large number of ambulances but doesn’t really explain why they seem to run non-stop all night long yet are fairly infrequent during the day.

Tripometer –  14,827 mi

Gas Gauge –  1152.255 gal

Location – French Quarter RV Park, New Orleans, LA

Lodging – $105

Cans of OFF – 4

Happy Thanksgiving!

No one was feeling well this morning, coffee didn’t taste good and spirits were low. At first blush we considered cancelling our reservations for dinner this evening but decided to take the day as it comes and see if we felt better towards evening.

With tender stomachs we went to find a view of the Mississippi via the Riverwalk in the French Quarter. This area is very akin to Harbor Place in Baltimore, to include a tremendous modern mall and a world class aquarium. We had hoped for more of a pastoral walk along the Ole’ Miss but neither of us was up to the task of being a tour guide today… this would have to do. Happily this walk put us in a perfect place and time to sample beignets and chicory coffee at Café Du Monde. Better still, our stomachs didn’t immediately object to the idea. After standing in line for the better part of 30 minutes we retired to a park bench along the river to nibble New Orleans’ most famous treat. We were not too impressed, to be honest. In Paul’s words ‘Chicory coffee was first introduced in New Orleans because there was a shortage of real coffee and they extended the quantity of usable coffee on hand by combining it with chicory. Why in hell would you want to drink the coffee substitute when the real deal has been readily available since the end of naval blockades during the CIVIL WAR!??!’ The Beignets tasted exactly (well, not quite as good as the best we’ve had) like carnival funnel cake. We joked that the Navajo Bread we had sampled while travelling through a reservation in Eastern Arizona was much more tasty and interesting. Not to blast a New Orleans tradition, but in a city so flooded with EXCELLENT food and absolute world class chefs, you’d think they could do better.

Our walk this morning took us by the Natchez steam wheeler docked alongside the river in the French Quarter. After seeing an advertisement for a 3 hour lunch cruise including a calliope concert and a tour of the steam engine room, we decided that needed to be on the to-do list. We sat down immediately and booked a trip for Saturday morning.

We walked a bit through the French Quarter with Ranger stopping at a few shops in areas we hadn’t covered yet. This town seems to have no end of shopping to do. The tremendous variety and sheer number of shops in town is astonishing. We still have not visited a good chunk of the shopping in the French Quarter. Our plan is to revisit the area later in the week when we can systematically canvas the main shopping streets of the quarter.

At this point in the day we were both still feeling ill. We decided to cancel our reservations for Thanksgiving dinner. Who wants to eat a fancy expensive meal when they’re slightly nauseous? Knowing the quality and quantity of excellent eating opportunities in New Orleans, we did not stock the trailer with much food for this portion of the trip. Knowing that we were headed back to an essentially empty trailer, we decided to grab a meal before we retired to the RV park for the evening.

We ate lunch at Pierre Maspero’s Cajun Restaurant, one of the oldest buildings in New Orleans and a suggestion from a local Uber driver a couple of nights ago. It was erected in 1788 and originally known as The Original Pierre Maspero’s Slave Exchange, a coffee house. Historically speaking this building was most noted for being the meeting place for discussions between Andrew Jackson (the soon to be 7th president of the U.S.) and Jean & Pierre Lafitte, notorious Gulf pirates, regarding the defense of New Orleans against the British during the last days of the Revolutionary War. We were not disappointed. It’s always fun to grab a bite to eat in a place that has so much ambiance to investigate with your eyes while you eat. (The food was excellent too!)

Thanksgiving dinner this year was Raman Noodles from a plastic wrapper. Yep, the good old fashioned $0.33 noodles that most of us haven’t seen since our college years. We have kept these in the pantry since the beginning of the trip as a light, cheap emergency meal. It was cheap, quick, delicious, and easy on the stomach. No regrets.

Tripometer –  14,812 mi

Gas Gauge –  1152.255 gal

Location – French Quarter RV Park, New Orleans, LA

Lodging – $105

Cans of OFF – 4

Today was a better day! Kelly decided over coffee this morning that she was feeling queasy but acceptable. She continued to feel intermittently queasy and generally fatigued throughout the day, but this didn’t stop us from continuing the grand tour of New Orleans. It also didn’t stop us from making reservations at a nice restaurant for Thanksgiving in NOLA.

The Garden district was the focus of today’s touring. We started our day at Lafayette Cemetery #1, the oldest cemetery in the Garden District. We had stopped at St. Louis Cemetery #1, the oldest cemetery in the French Quarter on our first full day in New Orleans but found that the local catholic archdiocese operates the cemetery and was charging $20 per person to visit. Needless to say, we didn’t take them up on that offer. We did, on the other hand, accept an offer for a free (tips only) tour of the Lafayette #1 cemetery by a local pastor. Victor gave us a really nice tour of the most interesting, beautiful, and noteworthy crypts in the cemetery. This included the grave of John H. Ferguson of Plessy v. Ferguson fame, not the most popular person in this area and probably the most reviled occupant of this cemetery according to our tour guide. While the cemetery had tons of old gravesites, most were very plain in design. Before we left, our tour guide recommended that we visit St. Louis #3 Cemetery north of the French Quarter. He said St. Louis #3 has much more decorative graves and doesn’t charge an entry fee. We put that on the to-do list.

We spent the next several hours strolling amongst the gorgeous old mansions of the Garden District using a guide book, Wikipedia, and a handful of tourist pamphlets to tell us what we were looking at. At the turn of the 19th century the entire Garden District area was a plantation that was sold, broken into urban blocks and resold for housing. Most of the beautiful old homes we were interested in seeing were built between 1840 and 1870 in a menagerie of different architectural styles. One of the most striking things to us were the tremendously old trees and overflowing gardens that obliterate any chance of a clear photograph of the beautiful homes. The old homes and gardens in this area are truly spectacular and in many cases are also very well preserved. It is very easy to imagine exactly what this area looked like in the mid 19th century with horse drawn carriages in the streets and elegantly dressed townsfolk occupying the street corners. As far as urban hiking goes, this is by far our favorite to date.

After a light lunch at a restaurant on Magazine Street, Ranger decided that he would love a walk along the Mississippi levee. We drove to Riverbend Levee Park but were unable to find parking. There were plenty of people walking the riverfront trail, but we could find no parking lots or even roadside parking nearby. Clearly we were missing something. Frustrated we decided to take an exploratory drive through Frenchman Street. Frenchman is considered the live jazz home within NOLA. We knew this was on our short list of things to see here, but we had no idea what to expect so a drive thru was in order to get the lay of the land.

Driving along the Mississippi in a non-tourist area we got to see a good bit of the water management infrastructure required to keep New Orleans above water. The size and number of pumping stations and piping was astonishing. In one drive we saw somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 pumping stations with several very large diameter pipes (8-12 feet?) attached to each. It’s pretty astonishing to think that in periods of flooding and hurricane-strength rain these pumping facilities manage to pump out all of the rain that falls on Downtown New Orleans.

As we drove around the Mississippi looking for parking, Paul began to feel a bit queasy. We decided to call it an early night. Rest might help everyone feel better.

Tripometer –  14,801 mi

Gas Gauge –  1152.255 gal

Location – French Quarter RV Park, New Orleans, LA

Lodging – $105

Cans of OFF – 4

The day that wasn’t.

Kelly was violently ill from the moment she woke up this morning. According to Paul’s recollection Kelly probably spent, at most, 30 minutes today not in the bathroom or her bunk. At one point in the early afternoon Paul secured some pancakes in an attempt to get some food into Kelly but alas, it didn’t take.  Even water was defying gravity.

Paul spent the day as quietly as possible in the second bunk finishing one book and starting the next in the series. Hence, today is brought to you by Amazon Kindle.

Ranger had no problem spending the day asleep on various flat cushioned surfaces in the trailer. He knows his Mom isn’t feeling well and hasn’t whined at her once for anything.

Special Note: A travel trailer bathroom is not a good place to be ill. <end special note>