Day 93 - A Lot of Katrina And A Little Bit Of Fay
Trip Start
May 19, 2008
1
95
161
Trip End
Nov 08, 2008
Braithwaite,
Louisiana,
United States
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
After leaving the site we headed east to the town of Slidell stopping off at several auto spares shops along the way in an attempt to get a clevis pin and a new spare clutch cable. Not surprisingly no-one had them. As we headed for the bridge to take us back across the lake we witnessed more of Katrina's devastation. On the side of a canal which ran into the lake were the remains of waterfront houses and the trailers that the owners were now forced to live in on the sites of their former homes
Our Wake Up Call
. We took the Highway 11 bridge back over the lake, this one being only about 7 miles long. It runs parallel with the I-10 bridge and we could see the cranes and construction traffic on it, as it is still being re-constructed after it was ripped out by Katrina. The I-10 traffic currently crosses the lake on a temporary low-level bridge. Just as we exited the bridge the bad weather being generated on the back of tropical storm Fay moved in on us and the rain poured down and the wind gusted. It provided an apt backdrop to the wreckage of homes and businesses that we witnessed as we passed through the eastern side of NOLA. There is a lot of construction going on, but equally there is still a lot of abandoned derelict property. As we exited the freeway we suddenly found ourselves right back in that "not so good" area the driver mentioned the other day. As we followed the signs for the road we needed, we found ourselves deeper into that area. It was quite clear that it had been hard hit by the hurricane and that probably hadn't helped in it gaining it's bad reputation. A lot of looting went on in the days following the storm and even now there were still signs in some of the windows and writing spray-painted on the walls saying things like "occupied, keep out" and "gas off".
We soon passed through that area and continued to head east towards our camp site
Typical Louisiana Road
. The roads were quite flooded in places and the rain just kept getting heavier. All these things helped to build that image in our minds of what those poor people saw 3 years ago. The rain eventually stopped and we were able to see more clearly some of the Katrina- wrecked homes. The strange thing was, there would be a completely wrecked shell right next door to an immaculate mansion. Suddenly we came across barriers and the road in front of us was closed, and we hadn't seen any signs for the state park. So we turned around and asked a lady in her garden for directions. We were only a couple of miles away and had already passed the turning we needed. She said the signs probably hadn't been put back since Katrina.
We found the park within five minutes and once we had registered we turned around and went back up to the town to the small hardware store where Neil managed to get a hardened steel clevis pin to replace his temporary fix. That sorted, we got back to the site and got settled in. Now the rain had passed over, the sun was out again and it was hot and humid. As it was only mid-afternoon, Mel decided to do some blogging while Neil fitted the new pin. As it was so hot and there was so little air, Neil suggested that Mel try out the upper bunk in the bus so that she would get more of the air coming through the fly screens
A Different Bridge
. And so Mel discovered the delights of her new "upstairs office"! It's spacious, comfortable and well-ventilated despite the fact that the mattress cushions have been hashed together by the muppets at San Diego Classic Volkswagen. We're now completely convinced that they do the curtains and upholstery themselves. If not they're idiots if they pay someone for that standard of work. Yet another thing to add to the list of things we'll have to rectify at some point in the future. On a more positive note, there's even a wi-fi signal in the park, so Mel's even more giddy about her "office"!
Miles travelled: 74
Total miles travelled: 8928
Days on road: 73
States visited: 15
National Parks visited: 11
