10/23 – 10/29/2014 – New Orleans – Arrived early afternoon to Pontchartrain Landing Campground and Marina on Lake Pontchartrain in New Orleans for a seven day stay.  Took a quick tour of the area after we got set up to get a lay of the land and visited the “Pitbulls and Parolees” warehouse from the TV series, which was a very sad sight to see with so many homeless dogs. 

 

Friday we did a walking tour of the Garden District viewing the beautiful homes and the historic Lafayette Cemetery in the 65 block section of New Orleans. 

Saturday we took the shuttle into the French Quarter and roamed the streets and shops nonstop enjoying crisp beignets for breakfast and shrimp Po-boys for lunch, enjoying the friendly banter of the many Green Bay Packer and New Orleans Saints fans warming up for the Sunday night game at the Superdome.   It seems that the Packers have a very large travel contingent as we see green and yellow everywhere in town as well as the campground.  Bourbon Street was in full mania by 4pm on Saturday with the bars already near capacity and people walking the streets with huge fishbowl cocktails in hand, can’t imagine what it will be like by midnight, but really don’t want to experience it either. 

 

Sunday was a  day of rest, just lounging around the campground and watching football.     

Monday morning was off to Baton Rouge for the day about 85 miles north of New Orleans.  Spent the day visiting the new and old capital buildings, riverboat casinos, walking the downtown area, and the LSU rural life museum which had quite a collection of memorabilia.  Really a beautiful city along the banks of the Mississippi, and what a view from the observation deck at the top of the capital building.  Too bad there were several museums closed on Mondays but there was still plenty to see. 

Old Capital

New Capital

St Joseph Cathedral

Riverboat Casino

Acadian Home

10/20 – 10/22/2014 – Out of Florida – Time to hit the road and leave home base of Bonita Springs.  First stop was Torreya State Park along the Apalachicola River and right on the Eastern/Central Time line.  Picked up an hour of travel time as soon as we left the campground.  Chippy decided not to get out of the RV after the ranger told us to watch out for copperheads and rattlesnakes as we were very deep into the woods.  Crossed the Florida, Alabama and Mississippi borders on the way to Bay St Louis near the Louisiana border were we spent the next two nights at a very nice campground at the Hollywood Casino.  We were amazed at all of the waterfront property along Biloxi, Gulfport and Bay St Louis that are still for sale long after Katrina wiped out everything on the coast.  I would imagine that the homes that have been rebuilt, wisely on high pilings, have some hefty homeowner’s insurance premiums but they look like they can afford it.  The white sand beaches along the coast are really nice and have been fully restored to their pre-Katrina beauty.