The Big Easy

 11/19/10

Westward

With reluctance we leave the sunshine of Naples on  Florida’s West Coast where we stayed for three nights, and head in a Northwesterly direction through towns long familiar by name only but now real places as we drive through chalking them up like so many bowling pins: Cape Coral, Sarasota, Tampa,  Ocean Springs (where we stayed for one night), Tallahassee, Pensacola, Mobile, Biloxi, Gulfport, and last night and tonight its New Orleans.

In Naples the beach of choice was Siesta Keys, rated #1 USA beach of 2009.  The sand is so talcum powder fine and so white its reflectance of the sun keeps it cool underfoot.

The owners of the Naples RV Park have been steadily upgrading the facility for the last 4 years and it really shows.  The bathrooms and laundry were brand new and tiled completely and tastefully. We even lucked out with our timing as they held a free dinner the evening we arrived for all the travelers with a formal layout and catered by an in house chef.

After leaving naples we finally headed westward along NW Florida.  Driving the continuous beach coast from Biloxi to Gulfport we were dismayed by the miles of completely deserted stretches of beaches while crews in green neon vests continued to rake the sands for BP’s spilled oil.  It all felt lifeless.  I have never seen as much oceanfront real estate for sale.  Overgrown tracts of land with real estate signs falling over dotted almost every block from Biloxi to Gulfport.

In Ocean Springs we stayed one night at a State Park called Bayou Davis  the following two nights for our New Orleans stay found us here in New Orleans’ Bayou Segnette where adjacent the Army Corp of Engineers were working on a higher levy system.

Many of the places we stayed in the South were in all African American neighborhoods as was Bayou Segnette.  To me this meant real PoBoy sandwiches and fresh Seafood alleys. We found such a fish and shrimp alley where jumbo shrimps were going for $3.00/pound!

To get to New Orleans Jo and I drove the car to the ferry terminal on the South side of the Mississippi and parked it the famous   Algiers  Parish and took the free 5 minute ferry ride into the heart of the city’s Riverwalk and from there a couple of blocks to the French Quarter.  First stop- Cafe Du Monde, open on three sides, for fresh coffee and beignet pastries buried in a cloud of powdered sugar.  It was packed and the powdered sugar on the floor looked like a  snow fall.  On the walk a black duet played a cornet and tuba.  We wandered and poked about.  The streets were already crowded and a dozen mule drawn carts carted tourists with the mules pungent smell of droppings thrown into the chaotic mix and dodge of people.  Ducking into a cigar shop where five latinos were rolling and trimming cigars as well as smoking them.  It was a heady place and I ended up buying a couple smokes for the sit later on the Banks of the Mississippi. Impossibly large tankers and containers bob  slip and slide through the channel no doubt with a local pilot aboard  steering around the sand bars.

After slumming the waterfront we headed deeper in to the French Quarter and headed down Bourbon Street.  The further into town we followed Bourbon Street the louder and more raucous it became.  Bands were playing at full volume at every second or third bar until we were walking in the red light area with hucksters trying to steer us in and half clad ladies in doorways plying something. People stumbled about carrying their drinks along the sidewalks where it was apparently legal to do so.  Consequently  the sidewalks were sticky with spilled sweet drinks.

We decided to get back to one of the more civilized streets and make our way to Mothers  cafe in the hotel district for some uptown PoBoys.

Then it was goodbye New Orleans and back to Bayou Segnette.