Well, 4110 miles in the book and tomorrow we tackle the last 2204 miles. It’ll take 8 days to cover it, but we’ll see some more roads new to us. We’ve had a good time here in New Orleans, and a great time with new friends on the trip, but it’s time to get home.

Saturday was spent touring two plantations, Laura Plantation and the Oak Alley Plantation. They were notably different; one Creole, the other more English/southern. They also were different in how they presented their pasts regarding slavery, Laura seemed more transparent. Both made their money growing sugar cane, a difficult, labor-intensive task, and both misused people both during slavery and after. It was certainly interesting to see how both groups of people lived, and how did they did or didn’t prosper.

Sunday was transportation day. We spent the morning on a float plane flight over the Mississippi Delta. It was a beautiful day for that trip, and we saw a lot of really interesting countryside. There have been attempts to tame a powerful river for 200 years or so, and those attempts continue today. The current job is to replace land that has been lost in the delta in order to protect New Orleans from future hurricanes; they are diverting fresh water into bayous so sediments may be deposited.

The afternoon was spent taking a ride on a boat in the bayou. The vegetation was lush and we saw a great number of alligators. We certainly got a fresh feeling for how easily someone could get lost out there…

Monday was spent in the city. The group took a walking tour of the French Quarter. We learned a lot and enjoyed the jaunt. In the late morning we went to the New Orleans School of Cooking; we saw a demonstration of cooking crab and corn bisque, crawfish etouffee, bananas Foster, and pralines, then got to eat what the chef had cooked. It was all tasty, and it amazed me how easily she cooked for 50 people (with enough left over for seconds). We stayed in the city rather than take the bus back, went to a couple of bars to listen to music and then went out for dinner. Good times!

Well, farewell dinner tonight on a sternwheeler, then we hit the road tomorrow. A short note about this campground: we are on the edge of a very industrial area. A canal runs immediately behind us, with both pleasure boats and cargo barges. Beyond that is the main east-west railroad line (an Amtrak train headed east by us this morning), and above is the final approach for an executive airport…we have a fairly steady stream of business jets going overhead. Well, more tomorrow.