Day 25: New Orleans, LA


Tuesday 9/26
On our way to New Orleans we stopped by Brookhaven. Jackson Street has some very nice, very large plantation homes we just liked to see. And on the road again we drive south on 61 to New Orleans. Further south we missed the junction to hit the 10 and then cross Lake Pontchartrain, using the large bridge across the lake. But that was actually fortunate. We continued the 61 which is build on concrete posts and guide is to some of the swamp land. This was a very nice ride. In the afternoon we arrive at New Orleans. From I-10 we still see the devastation from Hurricane Katharina 1 year ago. Some areas look like the hurricane was yesterday while other areas are pretty much rebuilt. We missed an exit and drove through one of the poorest areas. People sit on the street and talk or wait for better times. Nobody is busy cleaning up the dirt. We enter Bourbon Street, which welcomes us with a sweet smell of trash. Now we realize that this town is not devastated by Katharina but by their own laziness. Locals tell us “well this is why Louisiana is called “the big easy” – it was always that way”. French Quarter is like a giant trash can. There is more garbage on the street than in the dirtiest streets of old Hong Kong. We walk up and down Bourbon Street at night which is different – it very much reminds us on St.Pauli in Hamburg Germany.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 7: Buffalo, WY - Keystone, SD

Image
Friday 9/8 We get up early and leave for our next target: Mount Rushmore near Rapid City, SD. We continue I-90. The land get’s flatter, yet more green. We called I-90 rabbit death road. If we would have counted it would probably be 100 dead rabbits on the road. That was depressing. The rolling hills went on and on and we saw more and more farms right and left of the Interstate. We arrived in Keystone and Mount Rushmore at lunch time. Even so the picture is so well known – it is impressive to see it in reality. Since every hotel offers Internet access we decided to stay here in Keystone in the Mount Rushmore President’s View resort. A relaxing lunch break allowed us to watch tourists leaving and entering their respective busses from New York, Chicago and California. We used this afternoon for updating the blog, uploading photos, do some laundry and relax. It’s our first week now on the road. 1,809 miles so far, about 600 pictures taken and the second time we have Internet. We saw so muc...
Read more

Home

What a tour. We feel so lucky to be able to do such a once in a lifetime experience. Our Grand American Tour was so much more than an exploratory vacation. We learned so much about the country, the people, the history and the culture of this amazing country. While so many people outsides and even inside the US feel there is a lack of culture – we realized that this is such a culture rich country with such an outstanding diversity that we are truly overwhelmed with impressions and thoughts. We returned with a very different understanding of the US’s economic development, it’s geopolitical diversity, it’s racial issues, it’s richness and its strategic challenges from a global perspective, being only 5% of the world population. How ever this is still the land of opportunities – and the most beautiful in the world.
Read more

Awesomness

Image
This is what we ended up with - pretty much what we hopped to do: Starting in the Bay Area, driving up north to Winnemucca, NV Further north to Idaho - Twin Falls Highway 88 to Idaho Falls and then to Wyoming - Jackson Relaxing at Yellow Stone Park Crossing Wyoming towards Sheridan From Wyoming to South Dakota - Rapid City Relaxing at Mount Rushmore Continue through South Dakota to Sioux Falls Through Minnesota to Minneapolis and St. Paul Madison - Milwaukee to Chicago Enjoying Chicago, dining and night life From Chicago through Indiana and Ohio to Cleveland Crossing Pennsylvania seeing "Falling Water" Moving on to Washington D.C. Stay a few days in wonderful Annapolis Exploring Washington Along the Chesapeake Bay to Norfolk Relaxing in outer banks Crossing North Carolina westward to Knoxville Tennessee Crossing Tennessee to Nashville Memphis Tennessee Straight south through Mississippi to New Orleans Spending a day in New Orleans Further westwards through Louisiana to Housto...
Read more