BILOXI AND NEW ORLEANS

We drove south through Mississippi all day Saturday, to the Gulf Coast, where we pulled in to a campground in Biloxi.  The campground is across the street from the Gulf and its beautiful white sandy beaches.  No signs of oil from the spill at all. The weather is an improvement, but only in the high 40's.  Better than where we came from, for sure!


We were only here one night, when I woke up.........no Tony anywhere...........Finally, he returns, only to admit that he left at 5 am to go to a casino for some Texas Hold 'Em.  I should have known!

Drove to New Orleans by car, to spend the day. There are so many depressed areas outside of town - dilapidated and abandoned houses, and piles of lumber from what were homes at one time, left to rot where they were.  It will take a long time and a lot of money for this city to recover.


The French Quarter continues to flourish, with plenty of tourists, and undamaged by the floods from Katrina, which mostly destroyed the Ninth Ward and other lower lying areas of the city.  We were told we could drive to the area of the "old" and "new" levees, and we searched for an hour, but when we found the bridge near the sites, it was too far to see or photograph.  


Since Mardi Gras is only a few weeks away, the area is starting to rev up, especially Bourbon Street, with plenty of partying, and jazz blaring throughout the area.  People gather to hear local musicians jamming, see the horse drawn carriages, streetcars, caricature artists, street performers and other strange characters.


We had lunch at the recommended "Court of Two Sisters" Restaurant - which began in 1832 as a novelty shop owned by sisters of aristocratic and Creole lines.  The local area was home to the upper class, and the sisters supplied the local ladies with evening gowns, perfumes, and the like. The shop evolved into a restaurant, with its original gaslights, flowing fountains, stone floors and courtyard dining area. We both tried turtle soup, which was actually quite good.  


Here are some of the day's sights:

Click the arrow below  for a short video of an impromptu jazz performance on Bourbon Street:

This character was posed as seen, and the dog on the end of the leash was a stuffed animal!

The ubiquitous masks and beads of Mardi Gras

A mini bike rally

Rent a balcony for the parade

Tony forgot his reading glasses, so I gave him my funky pink polka dot ones...Very cute!

On our last day here, we took a walk on the beach with the metal detector.  Tony couldn't wait to try it out.  It works all right - we found buried bottle caps, crushed beer cans and a penny.......Won't quit the day job yet. 

When we came back from the beach, while in the motorhome, my phone rang - it was Tony - but he was in the motorhome!!  By the time I grabbed the phone, it became a missed call.  Tony thought he leaned on the send button, but - his phone was missing!  He now realizes he must have dropped the phone on the beach!  He flies out of the motorhome, and tears out of the campground en route back to the beach.  The phone rang again, and it's our friend, Mike, saying: "Maria! Someone just called me saying he found Tony's phone on the beach!"  I ask him to call Tony's other phone, while I ran after the car to stop Tony.....but I was left in the dust.  Short story, Mike reached Tony, and he arranged to meet up with the guy who found the phone.  Good ending. Imagine Tony without his beloved phone???  All is good.
Tomorrow we start heading west - it'll take us two driving days to get to Houston.