I was keen to go to New Orleans via Baton Rouge today, but the lack of wifi last night meant I couldn’t research the destination well enough. We drove through Baton Rouge anyway and down by the riverbank in the Louisiana State University area, but could not find anything tourist worthy, so travelled on to New Orleans. We stopped in the suburb of Kenner on the way in to walk over the levy bank to see the Mississippi River up close, and then headed downtown.
The detours were costly. By the time we arrived in New Orleans and found a visitors centre, we had just missed the departure of both paddle steamer cruises we had considered going on. Ross was not keen to stay there overnight because we have a big drive to Florida to do, but we were disappointed to miss the river cruises. It was also disappointing to find it would be impossible to take the RV into the French Quarter. We drove down to the Warehouse/Convention Centre district, and walked back up to the French Quarter.
Our walk up from where we parked the RV took us along the Riverwalk. Loud claps of thunder accompanied our steps, so while the intention had been to seek out some lunch (it was by now after 2.30pm), we thought we should explore the French Quarter first and then seek shelter and lunch when the storm hit. The IMAX theatre was showing a movie called “Hurricane on the Bayou” which looked interesting, but our parking was only for two hours, so we thought we would consider that on the way back if there was time.
We explored Jackson Square and some streets in the FQ, and stopped to listen to some buskers play. The music was great. We noticed one group with a big audience as we walked past took a break, and when they returned to play again the entire audience had moved on. Jarrod at that point commented “if that was me busking there, Snowy would tell me to toughen up and not take a break if it means the audience leaves!!” 😉
The storm never arrived, and by 4pm we hadn’t had lunch (as Jarrod and Zac kept reminding us). We didn’t think we had time to sit in a restaurant by that stage, as our parking was due to expire, so went in search of something to go, only to find food court cafes had closed for the day! We finally found a cafe at Canal Place shops still open, so ordered a shrimp platter and gumbo just to try it! We then returned to the IMAX to find the movie was only on twice a day at 1pm and 4pm, so we had missed that too! I was regretting my lack of research in all the time wasting and missing activities we had been planning to do.
My view of New Orleans is that it is probably another city to explore as adults and in a smaller group than 8. We had some strange people and some beggars approach us, and felt we should keep the kids close!
We decided to leave the city by taking another detour, as Ross had discovered in his research at home an exit from New Orleans that took you over the longest continuous bridge in the world (26 miles long) over Lake Pontchartrain. It was an interesting detour. From there we travelled as far as Ross was willing to drive. He was hoping to get as far as Mobile, Alabama, but we stopped in Moss Point, Mississippi. Being back in Mississippi, we opted for a motel again rather than an RV park, so I price shopped and scored with a Quality Inn motel that offered free popcorn and icecream, and was next door to a Ruby Tuesday restaurant. It is so hot here that we opted for a swim in the pool before a (very) late dinner at the restaurant next door. Unfortunately, eating after 9pm meant we couldn’t fit in icecream or popcorn as we had planned!!
It is now after 12am, everyone has crashed for the night and I will too once my laundry load finishes 🙂 Our goal now is Miami, which is a long drive from here so we will have a full day on the road tomorrow.