moving on! since last we spake, our route has taken us considerably further south. we drove straight through mississippi and alabama, and the former shall take the trophy for most irritable (read: least helpful) road signs, not even a "welcome to mississippi" sign as we crossed the border from alabama. sometimes our "free campgrounds" (which really means sometimes free, mostly $16, $12 or thereabouts) book takes us so many miles and wrong turns off of our route that we end up paying anyway in the gas, but hey we have a nicely deserted and wooded area in which to spend the night, with perhaps even a body of water thrown in to liven things up a bit! we've been taking advantage of the isolation of national forests, which allows us a worry-free night, secure in the knowledge that the cops aren't going to roll on in and question us, but balanced out by hunters and their gun shots, pointedly reminding us that we are in their territory.
ah, and then came our longest stay thus far, in the much-touted, musical, hopeful city of new orleans! thanks to the generosity of fellow omegan carl moeller, andy and i had an apartment for a week, where we came and went as we pleased. wary was our arrival, for andy had regaled to me the stomach woes he'd endured on his previous two visits here, but he ended up feeling prefectly normal, and all i ended up with was headaches and and nausea after eating. um, yippee? new orleans was also where, consequently, we ate out more than ever before (burritos! nachos! delicious pizza!), and were treated to a night on frenchman street, where there's too much music and live entertainment going on to keep track of it all (the eccentric characters we encountered, a "dr. love" among them, were quite amusing as well ;). we also visited the new orleans museum of art, the waterfronts of both the mississippi river and lake pontchartrain (from which the flooding came and devastated so much), the french quarter, and took a free ferry ride across the river to the town of algiers.
now, i was hoping to like new orleans more. when i first heard news of hurricane katrina, isolated in a tiny german town two and a half years ago, i immediately regretted not visiting the city while it was still in its glory. and experiencing it now only reinforced that desire-- i caught glimpses of what it used to be, saw the prettiness in the tree-lined streets and architecture, but more than anything i saw the crumbling sidewalks and construction happening all around us-- the water lines from the flooding are still visible on the buildings that haven't been repainted or resided. overall, and in much of the city, i felt a sense of staleness, wishing, wishing, wishing, that'd i'd been here before. i do appreciate the spirit of new orleans, its music and history, the mardi gras celebratory parade we went to the night before we left truly was one of the most crazy, raucous scenes i've ever witnessed. and i'd glad we navigated the crowded maze of tiny tables under a tent that is cafe du monde and treated ourselves to coffee and beignets (amazing french-style-powdered-sugar-blobby-doughnuts) on the day of our departure, taking part in a crazy dining experience that you don't see much on this continent. oh, new orleans. good luck, with everything you're trying to do, good luck to all the people who've been displaced, good luck to the victims of the inevitable next big disaster, that they won't find themselves as floudering and lost.
i might add that it seems this leg of our trip as been the junk food leg- in january alone, i've gotten cravings for french fries and shakes, and andy as acquiesced-- sampling burger king, sonic, wendy's, checkers (his favorite fries have been burger king's). and yesterday- such a highlight!, we just happened upon the grand opening of a winn dixie supermarket and were treated to a box of six apple fritters. free, free, free, how we on the road love that word! i'm sure andy thought i looked a bit too much like a crazed six-year-old at the ice cream truck as the woman at the bakery handed over our delectable delights, but what can i say? i love me some sugary dessert!
from new orleans, i insisted we go across the Longest Bridge Ever (actually a causeway, across lake pontchartrain, 24 miles long), causing me to think back on other superlatives of our trip. in pennsylvania, we saw the biggest pile of logs ever (sadly, no picture), the roadsides of mississippi gave us, horrifyingly, the most dead dogs ever, the biggest gorilla ever was in front of an amusement park on the coast of south carolina , loudest kid award goes to a little girl selling kumquats in front of her house near houma, louisiana, and our scariest night was in new orleans, as carl, andy and i lay awake, listening to the sounds of violent, angry men and things banging, and wondering is someone being beaten up, or killed? fortunately, we heard no news the next morning and as there were no body parts or blood in the vicinity, we decided the worst had been avoided. for andy, the area most changed since last visited award goes to the biloxi-gulfport region of mississippi, also completely wrecked by katrina. however, in biloxi, we did get up to close to the largest guitar ever, outside the hard rock cafe and casino.
museums! the new orleans museum of art, we both felt was a bit lacking. it was also a bit dark and dingy in areas, and the sculpture garden outside failed to impress. it was also $8 each admission. however, thanks to our sometimes-helpful let's go roadtripping usa book, we discovered the *FREE* national museum of naval aviation, outside of pensacola, florida. this is where we learned about and saw more planes and helicopters than we'd ever dreamed imaginable, not to mention sitting inside several helicopters, seeing a moonrock, going on a tour outside with a guide pushing marine propoganda, and a general sense of looking everywhere and marveling at the scale and volume of all the large museum's exhibits. of course, every impressive museum must be followed by what can only be referred to as a damp squib. the t.t. wentworth museum, in pensacola, was free and had a collection of "oddities", as well as some historical exhibits that reminded us of something put together for a grade school science fair. and the most weird things we saw were a dessicated cat, and a room full of match-less gloves, courtesy of "the glove lady". why andy didn't take a picture of this, i haven't the faintest. needless to say, we left this particular free attraction let down and eager to get further into florida.
daily life for us consists of wondering where we might have our next bowel movement (only using our own toilet for such things when nothing else is available), and whether or not we want to sneak into the nearest state park in order to sneak a shower. so far, florida state parks have succeeded in keeping us away due to their unusually high fees (hmph). no sooner had we cut my hair, showered, and filled up our water tanks when the nice man with the clipboard came along and asked what we were doing. oh, to be driven to coming up with some flim flam story of merely investigating and moving right along, have a nice day sir! (andy likes to think of it as improv, so good he believed it himself...whichever)at this juncture, i would like to sincerely thank you if you're still reading, and offer you a virtual hug, even, if you leave a comment (or donation, andy pipes in). florida has next in store for us perhaps another national forest, hopefully a cheaper thrift store than goodwill so that i might procure some more paperbacks, the atlantic coast, probably witnessing a shuttle launch at cape canaveral, and eventually, the everglades, waaay, waaay south.
and dammit, still haven't seen any alligators, but we are seeing other things of note-- armadillos on the side of the road, a plaque on the side of a radio shack building that read "praise god", "vote republican" signs...oh, and yesterday at a park with nice people fishing and us playing frisbee: a disturbing domestic violence scene between a mother and her boy of about five, curses, cries, threats and all. yikes. (to quote ani difranco: it's the little things you do, it's the little things you say, it's the love that you give along the way...)
hope everyone is well, much love to all of our friends and family, across this country and across the pond!
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