Houston - New Orleans - 28/1/13

On the road by 9.30, destination New Orleans (pron. New OR-lins). The landscape was much different to what we were used to - now mostly swampland - but we soon got used to it again. There wasn't the sense of such a vast landscape as there has been up until now because the freeway/interstates have thick trees either side, opposed to nothing until the horizon as has been hitherto true. Occasionally there was a break in the tree line and *then* you could see water, trees leading into swamp for miles.

Nearing New Or-lins, there was a bridge built into swampland. We were on this bridge for what must have been 3/4 hour, probably nigh-on 60 miles. Then another, of similar length which led onto the southern edge of Lake Pontchatrain. Across the water, could see another bridge that is apparently the lowest in the world - can't be much more than a few feet above the surface of the lake.

Finding our accommodation in NO was more or less straight forward - we were staying in Treme, the oldest Black neighbourhood in the US - but what was pretty hard was the whole network of one way systems around there - we could see the road that we needed, but couldn't get to it.

The house was beautiful. It was owned by an older gay couple who had owned the place for 15 years, and filled it with artwork and sculptures. What we originally thought was a room, turned out to be pretty much the ground floor (bedroom, bathroom, big kitchen and living room) - they had got into the habit of living on the top floor, leaving the ground floor for guests. Great value.

David (one half of the couple) was a great host, gave us a map of the centre, and lots of numbers/ideas of places to visit/eat etc. He said Mardi Gras had started the previous week, but was currently on hold for the Superbowl. Mardi Gras would restart on Monday - how annoying!

We were both pretty tired, so decided not to do a great deal, get some sleep in readiness to explore the city tomorrow.

5 1/2 hours - 347 miles.


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