New Orleans and into Texas

Even though I have 3 bars where I’m parked tonight (on a dead-end road parallel to I-10 near a gate to what must be a very large ranch in Texas), I have no internet. Verizon apparently doesn’t play well with others, so the non-Verizon towers I’ve been hitting must be giving me very low priority. I lost my GPS navigation that I was using with my cell phone to try to avoid Interstate Freeway driving. I don’t have a Texas map and I’ve been driving on the margins of 4 different pages of maps in my road atlas, mostly on roads that aren’t showing up on any of them. I think I may have done a large circle in the last hour of driving ‘off the grid’, even though for each new secondary highway I encountered, I continued to take the west direction. Oh well, tomorrow I’ll hop on the interstate freeway briefly and exit onto a road I see on my map to send me toward my ultimate destination – Big Bend National Park, on the TX/MX border along the Rio Grande.

As for driving here, Texans are apparently in a hurry. Even the secondary highways have speed limits of 75 and I-10 is 80mph. I don’t like driving that fast, and dealing with traffic lights on 65mph roads is not at all fun.

Today (1/19) was a day of endless driving (9 hours) across central Texas. I don’t like to spend all day driving, but I’ve grown tired of flatlands and high humidity. The Florida beaches were nice, and paddling the swamps of Georgia and Florida was great fun. Swamps are such a new habitat for me; I was enchanted by the draping Spanish Moss and the large cypress trees. Day before yesterday I camped at a campground in Louisiana that had a canoe trail but it was only about 2 hours of paddling; not enough to entice me to deploy my inflatable kayak since it didn’t look near as magical as the swamps of FL and GA.  If it had still been inflated and was still on my roof, I’d definitely have done the paddle but I’d dried it out and put it away awhile back.

The pond near my campsite, with canals leaving from there. But too far from my campsite to carry my kayak if I'd inflated it.

Maybe I should have sought out a Louisiana Bayou and deployed my kayak to see if it differed from those in FL and GA, but my hiking boots and hiking poles (i.e., essential paraphernalia when I hike in terrain) are whimpering for attention. As I check back in the brief notes I’ve been keeping of daily activities, I see that the last time I had need of them was on 11/27! EEK! Just as I discovered when I was touring the Midwest, alas, I am not meant to be a flatlander. As John Muir once said “The mountains are calling and I go.” Hence the mega-drive day.

Just west of Austin it was evident I’d driven out of the widespread heavy rains that plagued a wide swath of TX yesterday and today (with floods in Houston), and I’d escaped the high humidity. At 8pm it’s 74 and 54% humidity – MUCH better than the 80-95% humidity I’ve been dealing with for the last 6+ weeks. 

Tomorrow may be another mega-drive day, but that would get me to Big Bend late on a Friday night (P.S. Wrong! I arrived at 4pm). I might be smarter to drive a half day and explore along the Rio Grande, getting to Big Bend on Sunday afternoon instead, hoping some folks will be leaving after the weekend. About half the campsites are available to reserve ahead and the availability was spotty (a day or 2 here and there for any single site) when I checked last night. The others are first come first served. I am hoping to land for at least a week in the campground (Chisos Basin) that lets you access the mountain hiking, and will probably spend 2 weeks exploring the big park. Time will tell whether that exploration begins early in the weekend or late. As always, I’ll play it by ear (PIBE it) and figure it out as I go tomorrow. (P.S. I went for it and lucked out, getting a site exactly where I wanted to be.)

But I’m getting ahead of myself. My last post ended with my meeting with a fellow full-timer who has a van like mine. From there I made my way toward New Orleans along the gulf coast. After leaving FL, it didn’t take long to pass through the tiny sections of Alabama and Mississippi. I spent a night in a parking lot across from a casino in Biloxi, MS and got to the RV park along a canal on the outskirts of New Orleans just after noon on Friday of the Martin Luther King 3-day weekend.

It’s the most I’ve paid to park my rig, but the location was handy and secure and they offered multiple shuttles a day to/from the French Quarter (18 minutes away) for $6RT. 

Not a whole lot of space between sites, but I wasn't there for the view. My rig is in the middle of the photo.

It was an RV park and Marina, with pool, hot tub and restaurant/bar with live music.

I got settled into my site, grabbed a shower, and took the 4pm shuttle to the French Quarter. The drop off site was 3 blocks from Bourbon Street and a block from Jackson square, which was filled with street musicians, street performers, artists, and palm and tarot-card readers.  It was a little overwhelming at first, but I quickly settled into people watching and attempting to capture the ‘essence’ of New Orleans with my iPhone camera. I’m not sure I’ve done it justice, but it was fun trying.

There were some really great musicians and street performers (and some so-so performers) spread throughout the French Quarter. 

These guys were great! Exactly the kind of music I expected to hear in New Orleans.

I wound up buying some CDs from this musician; him solo and with his band.

There was also an impressive assortment of fascinating characters, not all of them young, earning their living by performing on the street. 

I saw a number of parades of sorts. There was a “secondary parade”, with a police escort and (of course) a band. I’m not sure what the occasion was for that one. 

There was a wedding party – no police escort, but led by a band as they paraded in the street and later down the halls of a posh hotel where I assume the reception was held. 

The bride and groom are just behind the band, with umbrellas.

Then there was the unofficial ‘parade’ for “Pardi Gras”. No band to lead it, but plenty of partying tourists, of all ages, to join in.

 I took a ghost tour my first evening, and a hop-on/hop-off bus tour around town the next day, getting off in the Garden District where the finest, historic homes are. 

Thar be ghosts here.

My tour guide. He lives in the French Quarter; theater is his passion and the French Quarter his stage.

This house, in the Garden District, belongs to Sandra Bullock.

I visited the Audobon Aquarium and surround-sound/view theater (where I watched an interesting documentary about Hurricane Katrina and the effects of the continuing loss of wetlands). 

Amazing architecture in the French Quarter.

I walked along Bourbon Street both evenings I was there, and during the day as well. That’s definitely a wild street, primarily aimed at attracting tourists that are there to party. 

The music I head in the bars along Bourbon street was more along the lines of pop music; not the traditional jazz or blues I’d expected. I’m told that the locals go to Frenchman Street and go into clubs for a fine dinner and quality entertainment. It was far enough away from where my shuttle pick up was (at 8pm) that I didn’t take in the more tasteful entertainment. Except for that omission, in the 20 hours of wandering I did around New Orleans on 3 different days, I got a fairly good sampling of the happenings.

I headed West out of New Orleans and went for a tour of a plantation (Laura’s) where the slave existence was also well represented. It was interesting to learn that the plantation had been primarily run by 2 generations of women – a wife took the lead when her husband passed and when her sons died, the plantation was run by the surviving daughter (Laura) before it was sold and became a share-cropping site when the slaves were "freed". 

The many phases of Laura's life -- the daughter who inherited the plantation.

The pantry of the main house.

This plantation had a huge number of slaves. This is a small sampling of the 'worth' of some of their "property".

Slave houses.

Many people lived in tiny spaces.

The last share cropping ended in 1977. Shocking to learn that it carried on for so long. The folks that did the share cropping received very little compensation for the crops they sold to the land owner; they were allowed to keep just enough of their crops to survive and had to buy all their goods (at exorbitant prices) from the folks they sold their crops to. The young woman who gave the tour was passionate about the subject and gave the best tour I’ve had the pleasure of experiencing. If all their guides are as enthusiastic and well informed as she was, it’s no wonder it was named the number 1 Louisiana tourist experience.

That catches me up again. If I get a chance to post this and some photos before I head to Big Bend, I will. It’s hard to say how much if any cell coverage I’ll have in Big Bend. It’s a long way from any city. The only folks driving down the long road to the park are those that are there to explore the park, so maybe there won’t be anything but payphones and land lines there. But the park looks worthy of exploring, with plenty of hiking opportunities that will actually include elevation gain and summit views! :0)

I am posting this from Big Bend. Although I have no cell coverage from where I’m camped (Chisos Basin, for at least 5 nights), a 0.4 mile hike up the hill to a lodge gives me access to wireless so I treated myself to dinner and will get this posted.  I am a very happy camper to be back in the land of mountain hiking. I hiked 11 miles to Emory Peak – the highest point in the park. But more about that later…