FIFTY STATES AWAYDay 35
Waking this morning we found that our shoes still hadn’t dried out, despite the storm still raging on we had to head out in our summer shoes, needless to say people stared more than usual at us! We headed south into Louisiana but it was exceptionally hard to drive you couldn’t see the road or the other cars unless they had their hazard lights on, it was really bad. Unfortunately there are not many pictures as we simply can’t see anything.
As we were going along all the radio stations were being interrupted with emergency flood warnings and updates on road closures. We were urged to stay in, with the puddles blocking off main roads, zero visibility and the ditches at the sides of the roads basically turning into swimming pools.
The further we drove the more we heard about Louisiana’s severe weather, evacuations had started taking place and the national guard had been deployed to help rescue people who were stranded. We decided at this point to head out of the state, continuing our battle we steadily made our way in the testing conditions and slowly drove east where we stopped just outside Jackson in a town called Vicksburg and calling it a day
Day 36
Today it seemed that the storms were following us as we woke to the same torrential rain we had come back to Mississippi to avoid. Accepting that mother nature was going to bucket down regardless of our plans and deciding that we would rather not jeopardise our deadline we decided to head back to Louisiana towards New Orleans. After the deverstaing hurricane that New Orleans suffered in 2005 we are told they had the best flood equipment going and were feeling a little more confident in the decision. Ben booked a hotel for us and wanted it to be a surprise so we got the journey underway.
The drive to New Orleans was stunning, a lot of people live in the bayou which is just swamp land. It’s hard to imagine the way of life, isolated from shops and needing a boat to make it to solid ground. The weather had dissipated a fair bit, somewhat of a relief for us. The city was quite a bit bigger than I expected as we crept through the majestic tree lined streets and arrived at out hotel.
Ben had picked out a place called Storyville, close to the French Quarter. The hotel was a bright blue colour and we had a luxurious room! The lady who met us was ever so helpful Ben asked about places he’d been before and she even called the bus company to find out when they’d be at our nearest stop. Everyone here seems to go the extra mile to help us, it’s really refreshing. Although it looked overcast the humidity here puts Florida to shame! You can stand still and break out into a sweat! It’s incredible!
We were both boiling and headed off towards the French Quarter (no rest for us!). We made our way and grabbed a really nice meal at a place called ‘Port of Call’ before strolling on down to the extremely lively Bourbon Street. A fairly quiet and serene town suddenly bursts into life with bars, music, endless shops and neon lights! Beads and voodoo dolls seem to be top of the shopping list. Ben has fully experienced this place on his previous trip and I am currently feeling quite unwell and have been on medication for several days and thus unable to drink. So after a short wander around we headed back to our hotel. In retrospect this was the worst I had felt but I am glad we kept busy.
Day 37
Today we wanted a short day so we drove through Baton Rouge and stopped at Lafayette. Ben decided that I should get some rest today, the poor guy has done a stella job of everything over the past couple of days! We are both excited to head towards Texas tomorrow watch this space!
