Day 23 Wednesday 10th September, Shreveport/ Bossier City, to New Orleans, Louisiana

Today we left the Horseshoe Casino behind, taking $40 of their money with us....yay!  One interesting sight at the casino is their $ US 1,000,000 wall made up of $1000 bills.  It is real, mounted as wall paper behind bullet proof glass and has 24/7 security. 

On the road today the elevation went from one extreme to the other as we spent nearly all of it below 200 feet above sea level and a lot of it below 50 feet, even getting down to 9 feet at one stage as we reached New Orleans.  One thing made clear to us early on was that the ciy's name is pronouced "Nawlins" as one word and if you don't say it correctly you are immediately noted as an outsider.....not hard as our accents give us away, anyway.  We have been identified as "English, Scottish and even German!! "

The weather is still very hot and uncomfortably humid but we are expecting it to get worse as we reach New Orleans.

We suspect - cotton fields on the road south

The further south we go water collects and fills most of the sides of the elevated highway
- it is monsoon season at the moment.

We followed US secondary highways most of the day, staying off the Interstate (which makes for a boring drive.  These roads are interesting but a bit rough at times and the countryside was mainly undulating - and very green. The vegetation obviously loves the environment with a number of power poles disappearing in ivy like foliage and even a couple of older houses, obviously abandoned.  The trees on the road verge were so thick even though only a few feet deep, you couldn’t tell if there was farmland or houses or anything else beyond them. We travelled through fields of cotton, sugar cane and various other crops, obviously water is plentiful and almost anything grows.

Spanish Moss hangs from the majority of trees (and buildings, cars or anything else that stays still for to long).  It is not a problem plant as it does not kill the trees.  It does however look quite spooky.

Got a better picture at last - the birds of prey are everywhere but hard to photograph
- especially from a moving car.

As we approached New Orleans the road took us over several very long causeways and a couple of huge bridges.

One of the many bridges and causeways as we approach New Orleans

Abandonned buildings are everywhere.

We are staying in a hotel on Bourbon Street in the French Quarter. After checking in and getting the many stray bags out of the car (we are giving it back early tomorrow). 

We decided to walk along Bourbon Street to find something to eat. The sights along this particular street are many and varied. Apart from the tourists there is a wide variety of eating and drinking establishments (mainly drinking....) as well as a lot of street musicians and artisians. A very entertaining couple of dancers kept the crowd enthralled whilst the sight of a woman wearing nothing but her undies and silver paint was at the other extreme - Dale did notice but waited until they had passed by some distance before asking me....did you see the nude woman covered in silver paint.....- like I would noted or care!! but he was (um)...impressed is probably not the right word....astounded probably covers it better.

We found somewhere for dinner ...eventually as the street theatre and night life is just electric and buzzing.  Had to get an explanation of what a shrimp POBOY is (as a food item),  like a submarine sandwich but the roll is hollowed out and filled a mixture of seafood and then stuffed full of shrimp.  Dale had the catfish which he was wrapped about and I had steak - which was also great.  Food is a bit more expensive in New Orleans - but then it is alot more touristy.

You can hve almost anything read - Sister Eve a woman of many talents!