The Big Easy

It's been a few excellent days since our last post and we're now in Vicksburg, Mississippi.

We've been in New Orleans for the last three nights and those who've been there will know why there's been a lack of posting. The first guy we met sitting on a doorstep in the French Quarter drawled "y'like Bourbon street?" and when we said yes he came back with "w'chout boy, it'll kick yur ass." It was good advice.

Our RV park ("resort") was right in the French Quarter amazingly close to all the action, very plush, secured with razor wire, and a price to match. We spent almost all our time cruising the small streets of the French Quarter eating and drinking up a storm. So much so, that an actual storm arrived. Although short-lived, it was quite an experience with loads of thunder and lightening right over us (safely sheltered in Winston).

New Orleans was a great experience. We ate out for every meal, forcing ourselves to have three per day (and a meal each at every sitting!). The food is delicious. Beignet for breakfast at Cafe Du Monde (so good that they feature on the wikipedia page for Beignet), Po' Boys for lunch at Mothers (on the recommendation of a taxi driver) and Gumbo, Crawfish Ettouffee, Blackened Catfish, Jambalaya, etc for dinners. I'd recommend crawfish, despite the name, it's like a little lobster, but cheaper.

It was a very relaxing few days with lazy starts, siestas (very necessary in the 35ish heat), swims in the beautiful resort pool, and pre-dinner drinks at Cafe Pontalba on Jackson Square.

Bourbon Street and the surrounding area is a huge party every night of the week with hundreds of people competing with other pedestrians, cars and horses for space on the tiny streets. It's a great atmosphere with live music coming from bars, voodoo tour guides and their tour groups, buskers, and of course punters like us wandering about. On Sunday night we came across a group of musicians and dancers putting on a real show in the middle of a street.

Aside from the gorging ourselves silly we managed to get to the Gardens District (massive houses, and home of Sandra Bullock) and the Mardi Gras Museum. Mardi Gras sounds like a must-do. Although the main event is just one day, there are 32 (or more) individual parades in the weeks prior, each run privately by different "krewes." There's a huge amount of prestige in being part of these parades and float-riders fork out upwards of $1000 to be on a float. The Museum is actually a workshop for the parade floats and housed an amazing array of parade items.

There is a lot of talk of the oil spill here, but none has reached the shores nearest New Orleans. There are a lot of people out of work because the fishery is off limits, and there are strong feelings about (including from our Walmart checkout lady!). Louisiana is a truly beautiful corner of the world and does not deserve yet another disaster like this. Right-wing radio is giving Obama a thrashing, while the Left is after BP.

We were quite sad to leave New Orleans behind this morning. We ditched the mainroads this afternoon and drove to Vicksburg via the Natchez Trace Parkway. It's a stunning two-lane road along what was an important trade and transportation route for Natchez Indians. On the way we stopped at a Rosedown Plantation - an old cotton plantation home which has been restored and contains almost all the original 1830s furniture. The mansion and surrounds are beautiful, and it is too easy to forget that the people who built and farmed the 3500 acre plantation did so with the help of nearly 450 slaves.

Louisiana has been a real highlight and part of the US that we're both keen to come back to. We're heading on through Mississippi to Tennessee tomorrow.