Day5-3 Jan 08-New Orleans to Lafayette

Odometer: 122,892 Weather: Sunny and very cool

It's been a great day! We woke up in our nice, warm bed, ate waffles and fruit and walked over to the parking lot to see if Luc & Nels were still there and had not become human popsicles! They were still there and certainly cold but I guess those guys are hardy. We walked down Canal St and then back down Bourbon St and for the first couple of hours pretty much had the place to ourselves. God, I love this place! The history of some of the buildings is amazing and the iron work on the balconies is unbelievable! There is a constant hum of renovating going on and I imagine it's necessary because of the age of some of the buildings. Last night when we were there eating there were so many police...turns out the winners of the Snow Bowl (?) football were partying in the French Quarter and had State bodyguards.

We went in to a small shop to look at souvenirs and I fell in love with the hundreds of variations of Harlequin dolls. Harlequins seem to be the official symbol of the Marti Gras and they are everywhere...dolls, statues, posters, etc., each one more eloraborate and colourful than the next. Had we been on the final part of the trip, I'd have bought a dozen (not knowing where the hell I'd put them when I got home), but did hold back and got one small one. It's a beauty.

It was so cold but we were lucky to have our Ottawa winter clothes and the chill didn't damper our enthusiasm. We tried to stay in the sun as it felt nice and warm and just made us feel better.

We needed a pit stop so went in to Harrah's big Casino for coffee and warm-up. Again, Harlequins and Jazz memorabilia everywhere and so beautiful. Nels and I found two $1 chips and rather than feed it in to a machine, pocketed them to keep for a souvenir.

We wanted to leave the city by 2 pm to miss the heavy traffic and after saying goodbye and exchanging e-mail addresses with Luc and Nels, we headed west towards Baton Rouge and points beyond. Where we stopped for the night would depend on how tired we became and it turned out to be in Lafayette, which is very close to the Texas border.

Two things absolutely amazed me on the drive here.....(1) the Bayou is everything I thought it would be; moss hanging from the trees, small canals, and lots of gooey, ucky-looking water and (2) miles and miles of causeway that is Interstate 10 that has been built through the Bayou. What a building feat that must have been as I believe the last leg of the trip in to Lafayette was a minimum of 30 miles of causeway.

We passed over the Mississippi and while I'm sure it wasn't the busiest or attractive part of the river, it was the 'Mighty Mississippi' none-the-less and I've seen it!

No camping yet...it's just too cool for us yet and besides, with coupons we are getting hotels for not much more than a decent campsite. According to the weather reports, this cold front should end within another 24 hours (supposed to be 78 in New Orleans on the weekend) so I expect we will do some grocery shopping tomorrow and depending on the temperature in Texas, will start living in the LuvMasheen. If not living in it, at least doing some healthy eating vice subs and french fries...we've both pretty well had it with grease after 5 days.