Daily Narrative    Today began with a "nearly-flat" and a trip up the road to a tire repair shop.  An hour and a half later, with the tire (mostly) repaired, we headed into New Orleans to do the tourist thing through the French Quarter.  In what is becoming sort of a trademark for us, we took a wrong turn and immediately drove back into Mississippi.  This, however, turned into a very interesting drive into New Orleans the "other way", which was very poor and rural and educational for us.  We came back across I-90 into Louisiana and saw what looked a lot like a little abject poverty.  We eventually reached New Orleans and worked our way up Canal Street to some parking just outside of the French Quarter.  The French Quarter is the home of the large New Orleans Mardi Gras celebration, and is also plenty touristy.  This is the first place we have been, outside of New York City, that holds the trifecta of the Hard Rock Cafe, House of Blues, and Tower Records all within a few blocks.  You could almost hear the money being sucked out of pockets.  We began passing out our share at the hip New Orleans House of Blues for a little lunch.  After nourishment, we walked around the historic French Quarter.  We spent much of the stroll marveling at architecture, and more specifically confused by the complete lack of structural support for the majority of decks that people crowd onto during Mardi Gras to throw beads and bare body parts.  We eventually made it to Bourbon street, where it does appear that you can buy just about anything you are after.  While we were both entertained by the French Quarter, neither of us being big partiers or connoisseurs of fine food, we were a little underwhelmed and headed back for our little kabin oasis.  We got a bite of authentic chain restaurant cajun cooking and called it an early evening, in preparation for a early morning assault on Texas.

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Daily Pictures

Morning outside of our air conditioned Kozy Kamping Kabin	The "nearly-flat" that occupied the first part of our day
A rusty old drawbridge on the wrong way into New Orleans	These floating shanties looked like a tough housing option
More river front real estate, we suspect minus the real estate	While we have seen a number of "swamp tours", we figure this one should make you a little nervous
A new bridge type for us, the middle of this one twists to let boats through	The drive down Canal Street to the French Quarter
A piece of the historic French Quarter	And another piece, we have lots of snapshots of the French Quarter, but they all look kind of the same...
Some ornate, and supported, decking from which to bare your soul during Mardi Gras	More supported decking.  A large number of the decks in the French Quarter are like the section in the foreground, minus the supports to the sidewalk and minus the connectors to the section above
A courtyard in which New Orleans was founded, Brian really liked the big bushy palm thing	Given his choice, Brian would take the shorter one
The back alley entrance to the New Orleans House of Blues	The bar inside is dedicated to John Belushi
Theresa conducting a little business...	...in the Voodoo Lounge
These big colorful fish were everywhere, we'd like one for our home.  If we had a home...	We thought we'd capture this for our western spectators.  On the eastern half of the country parking is such a hot commodity they stack cars in garages.
Tourist trinkets New Orleans style.  Each voodoo god had it's own specialty.  I believe the one on the right was to get "your woman off the couch"	Brian striking what seems in retrospect like a misguided pose on Bourbon Street
We imagine a little less drinking and the author would know which "buy" to use...	This was one of the most family oriented signs on Bourbon Street

On the way out of town we took a spin around the graveyard made famous in Easy Rider.  In this area folks have to be interred above ground, in mausoleums or crypts, due to water levels.

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