Living Our Dream

Summerdale to New Orleans

New Orleans, LA - Events of April 27 to Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Over the weekend, we went to Walmart to restock groceries, we did a few chores, we went to church and we relaxed. On Monday, we started making preparations for our departure on Tuesday. We put a few things away, Paul organized one of the storage bays and he checked the tire pressures while Margery caught up on laundry. In the afternoon, we ran some errands and stopped by LA Barbecue for lupper on the way back to the motor home. LA Barbecue was the last on our list of favorites we wanted to hit during this stop in Summerdale.

LA Barbecue

LA Barbecue has chopped pork, chicken, brisket and ribs. Sandwiches are $5 to about $7. Combos with two sides are available for $1.25 to $1.50 more. Lunch plates are $6 to $8, and dinner plates are $9 to $13. We always got a chopped pork lunch plate in the past, and this time was no different. The lunch and dinner plates include two sides. We had potato salad and slaw.

Paul and his chopped pork lunch plate

The barbecue was as good as we remembered - tender and moist. They have half a dozen different sauces you can try. Margery likes Southern Sweet, and Paul likes Texas Tangy with a splash of Carolina (vinegar).

In the morning, we headed out to New Orleans. It was about a 3½-hour drive including a fuel stop.

The morning started out sunny, but the farther we drove, the cloudier it got. It started to sprinkle rain about the time we finished crossing the I-10 bridge over Lake Ponchartrain. As we drove into the city, it started raining harder. By the time we exited the interstate and started crossing the bridge over the Mississippi River, it was really raining hard. We pulled into Bayou Segnette State Park in the pouring rain about 1:30.

The rain continued to be moderate to hard for most of the rest of the afternoon. This is the second arrival in a row where we have had to unhook the car and set up in the rain. Boy, are we glad we bought new raincoats! They worked exceptionally well and kept us nice and dry. And the best part is they breathe so they don't get all clammy inside.

Bayou Segnette State Park is just to the southwest of New Orleans and across the Mississippi River. The cost is $26 per night for out-of-state guests.

The roads, pads and patios are paved, and some of the sites, ours included, have both a paved patio and a wooden deck. The grassy sites are generously sized.

There are water and 30/50-amp electric hookups (no sewer), and free Wi-Fi. We don't know how the Wi-Fi reception is throughout the campground, but ours was excellent because the transmitter for our loop was right behind our site. The speed wasn't bad. The area has Verizon 4G service, but our Verizon data usage for the month was running high, so we used the free Wi-Fi as much as we could. Unfortunately, the Wi-Fi system has restrictions and won't allow access to things like chat rooms, discussion forums and it won't allow file downloads or streaming video.

We usually wait for sun before taking photos of the campground, but there is a 70 to 80% chance of rain predicted for the next several days so Paul went ahead and took pictures in the rain shortly after we arrived.

Our site at Bayou Segnette State Park

View down the road at Bayou Segnette

Because we arrived during the storm, we didn't have our weather station up so we don't know exactly how much rain we got. However, judging by the size and number of puddles, it must have been a lot. The 'small lake' behind our site in the next photo was one of many. Fortunately, all the pads and patios are raised enough they were above the standing water.

Lots of standing water from all the rain

We have several things planned we want to see and do in and around New Orleans. Fortunately, at least one of them is indoors since the weather forecast is calling for so much rain. We'll tell you all about it in our next post.

Berlin, OH to Vidalia, LA

Vidalia, LA - Events of Tuesday, May 29 to Friday, June 1, 2012

On Tuesday morning, we said our good-byes to Lora and J. Michael and pulled out of Scenic Hills RV Park around 9:20 AM and headed south. Lora and J. Michael, who had a fairly short drive back to Pittsburgh, left a bit later than we did.

Our original travel plan before our detour to Pittsburgh and Ohio was to leave Summerdale, AL, then spend about a week in New Orleans. From New Orleans, we planned to drive north to Vidalia, LA where we had reservations for a front-row site along the Mississippi River for three weeks. In order to fit in the detour to Pittsburgh, we eliminated the stop in New Orleans and shortened our stay in Vidalia.

We had to travel four days in a row after leaving Scenic Hills so we could make it to Vidalia in time for our modified reservation. Some of those were longer travel days than we usually like.

Our first day was a drive of about 6 hours. On top of the scheduled 6-hour drive, we had a 20 or 30-minute delay north of Louisville getting past an overturned semi in the median. The accident was probably due to heavy storms that passed through the Louisville area earlier. Fortunately, the storm missed us. We didn't pull into Grandma's RV Camping in Shepherdsville, KY until almost 3:30.

We stopped at Grandma's last year when we visited Louisville, and we stopped there about two weeks prior on our way north. Grandma's has a combination of pull-throughs and back-ins. The roads are paved, and the sites are all gravel. There are small, paved patios that are not well placed, so they aren't very useful. The sites are all gravel - there is no grass. There are full hookups with 30/50-amp electric and free Wi-Fi. The sites are fairly close together, especially the pull-throughs. There is a good bit of traffic noise from the interstate, and there are also trains.

We got the same site at Grandma's heading south as we had going north.

A view down the row behind us at Grandma's

Our second day of travel was a bit shorter at only 4 hours. Not only that, but we gained an hour going into the Central Time Zone. We pulled into our second night's stop at Parkers Crossroads RV Park in Yuma, TN around 1:00 PM CDST.

Parkers Crossroads RV has mostly pull-through sites. The sites are all full-hookup. We're not sure about the sites in other parts of the campground, but all the sites in the area we were in had 30/50-amp electric. There is also free cable and free Wi-Fi. The Wi-Fi seemed a little slower than our Verizon 3G, but it was usable.

Parkers Crossroads also has a nice swimming pool and a fishing lake.

The roads and most of the pads at Parkers Crossroads RV are gravel, but there are 6 extra-long pull-throughs in the back section of the campground where we were that have concrete pads. Some of the gravel sites didn't look too level, so we're glad we got one of the paved sites.

Three of the paved sites have a good bit of space between them, and the other three don't. The sites are angled which helps create some privacy. However, the angle is so severe that the three sites that are close together have their neighbor's driveway passing right through their living space. We had one of the more closely-spaced sites, and there was no room for our picnic table on the door side of our motor home - it was located on the opposite side of our site. That wasn't a problem for us because we rarely eat outside anyway, especially since the weather was very hot.

Sites at Parkers Crossroads RV Park with paved pads

Our site at Parkers Crossroads RV

The other minor problem was the height of our concrete pad. The others were a little high, but the surrounding ground sloped up to meet the level of the concrete. Our concrete sat about 4" above the ground on the door side. Our steps hung over the edge of the concrete making the last step about 10" high. Fortunately, either the campground or a previous long-term guest left a nice wooden platform to ease the transition from the last step to the ground.

The campground itself was quiet, but there was a fair amount of traffic noise from the 4-lane road that runs past the campground. Fortunately, the traffic diminished at night.

The price at Parkers Crossroads RV of $28 a night isn't bad for full hookups, free cable and free Wi-Fi. We recommend requesting one of the longer, paved, pull-through sites especially if you have a big rig.

We hit the road again the next morning for the third leg of our trek to Vidalia, LA. It was another 4-hour drive to the North Abutment Corps of Engineers Campground in Grenada, MS. We usually don't stay at Corps of Engineers campgrounds on travel days because very few of them have pull-through sites, but this one does.

According to the reservation web site, many of the pull-through sites are non-reservable. That meant there was a good chance we could get a pull-through in the middle of the week without making reservations so we could save the reservation fee. Half-price camping of $9 with our America the Beautiful Pass made it even better.

North Abutment COE is a beautiful campground located on Grenada Lake. There are several camping loops, and all the loops have a mixture of back-in and pull-through sites. Many sites are shaded, but some are open. The roads and pads are all paved, and the sites are gravel. The campground is either fairly new or it has recently been redone because all the pads looked like new concrete, and all the sites have 30/50-amp electric. There are also water hookups.

The campground is set up for self-registration, at least that's the way it was when we were there in the middle of the week. We found a nice pull-through site that was out in the open so we would be able to use our rooftop satellite dish for TV and not have to fuss with the tripod. Another plus was the fact the site had a nice view of a small, secondary lake.

Our site at North Abutment COE

View down the road at North Abutment COE

North Abutment COE was nice break in our rather hectic travel schedule. It was nice to be back in nature at a quiet Corps of Engineers campground with widely-spaced sites rather than at a private campground close to our neighbors and close to the interstate.

Speaking of being back in nature, we had a persistent visitor while we were at North Abutment. There was a bluebird who kept returning to our mirrors all afternoon, all evening, and the following morning to try to chase away what he must have thought was another bluebird that was invading his territory.

Bluebird trying to chase away the other bluebird in the mirror

We were on the road again the following morning for the final leg of our journey to Vidalia. It ended up taking us about 5 hours including a stop for fuel. We pulled into Riverview RV Park around 2:00.

Riverview has mostly pull-through sites, full hookups with 30/50-amp electric, and free Wi-Fi. The Wi-Fi was faster most of the time than our Verizon 3G; but the Wi-Fi dumped us offline frequently, especailly in the evening. There is also a swimming pool and hot tub that are open year round. The roads are gravel, and most of the pads are paved. The sites have grass between them, and they are fairly widely spaced.

Our site at Riverview RV Park

View up the road at Riverview RV

The campground is located on the earthen levee on the Vidalia, LA (western) side of the Mississippi River directly across from Natchez, MS. The levee is slightly higher than most of the sites, which means you can barely see the far bank of the river from your RV. You have to walk to the top of the levee to watch the riverboats and barges pass by. However, the levee is a little lower at the south end of the campground, so if you have one of the last 6 or 7 sites, you can not only see the river from inside your RV, but you can see it from sitting under your awning outside your RV. We had the 5th site from the end in the front row, so we had a great view.

The view across from our site at Riverview RV

As we mentioned, Vidalia is located right across the river from Natchez, MS. Established by French colonists in 1716, Natchez is one of the oldest settlements on the lower Mississippi River. It has a rich history as a ceremonial and trade center for Native Americans and as a center of commerce for European colonists and American settlers. Natchez remained largely undamaged during the Civil War, so many historic homes and buildings remain today. Natchez was the main reason we decided to stop in this area, but there are things to see and do on both sides of the river, so stay tuned.

Berwick, LA to Shreveport, LA

Shreveport, LA

After an enjoyable stay in Cajun Country, we headed north toward our next destination of Shreveport, LA. We could have pushed to drive all the way from Berwick to Shreveport in one shot; but it would have been a 5½ hour drive, and we usually like to limit our drives to 4 hours.

Margery found a nice campground along the Red River in the little town of Colfax, LA on RV Park Reviews part way between Berwick and Shreveport. Colfax is off the beaten path, and it's a little difficult to find information about the campground, which seems to be a joint effort between the Corps of Engineers and the Red River Waterway Authority.

The Red River Waterway Authority is an agency of the state of Louisiana that appears to control the locks and ports along the Red River. They have a number of recreation sites along the river including the Colfax Recreation Area.

The campground is relatively new. It has 25 widely-spaced, back-in sites, and it has paved roads, pads and patios. There are full hookups with 30/50-amp electric and free Wi-fi. The Colfax RV Park accepts America the Beautiful Passes for half-price camping, which makes it a real bargain at $12 a night. The photo below shows our site at Colfax Recreation Area.

Although we heard a few distant trains, the campground was generally nice and quiet. Other than the campground hosts, there was only one other RV besides us in the entire campground.

The Colfax Recreation Area is located next to a lock on the Red River. In the photo below, the lock is to the left, and the boat launch is to the rear of where we were standing.

There are several rivers named Red River, two of which are larger and fairly well known. The northern Red River forms the border between North Dakota and Minnesota, and it's the one we that we always hear about that floods in Fargo.

The other well-known Red River is the southern one that runs through the Colfax Recreation Area. The southern Red River is 1300 miles long. It starts in the panhandle of Texas and forms the border between Texas and Oklahoma and a short section of the border between Texas and Arkansas. In Arkansas, the Red River turns south and flows into Louisiana. Shreveport is located on the Red River.

The drive from Berwick to Colfax was a little over three hours, and the drive from Colfax to Shreveport was only about two hours. In Shreveport, we stayed at Tall Pines RV Park.

Tall Pines RV, a Good Sam park, has paved roads and patios. Some sites have paved pads, and some sites are gravel. The sites are mainly pull-throughs. There are full hookups with free Wi-fi and cable. Some sites have 30 amps only, and some have 30/50 amps. It was hot, so we got a 50-amp site.

We could tell by the distinctive A-frame shape of the office the campground used to be a KOA, which usually have very narrow sites. Surprisingly, the site width was not bad at all for a private campground.

The next photo shows a view down the main road of the campground where our site was located. It was early when we arrived, so there were quite a few empty sites. However, many of those empty sites were filled later in the day, and the campground was almost completely filled for the Memorial Day weekend.

There was a fair amount of traffic noise from I-20 to the north. We could also hear an occasional, distant train. However, as we said, it was hot when we were there so we ran the air most of the time, and that pretty much covered up any noise.

The weather forecast for our first full day in Shreveport was calling for mostly cloudy with a 40% chance of rain so we didn't plan on any sightseeing. Instead, Margery took the opportunity to get a haircut, after which we made a stop at Walmart to restock some groceries.

Shreveport isn't a big tourist town, but we did identify some sightseeing possibilities. Look for our next post, and we'll tell you what we found.

New Iberia, LA Part I: Conrad Rice Mill

Berwick, LA

Since we didn't have sewer hookup at Bayou Segnette State Park, we scheduled our departure for a Monday so we would miss any possible tieups at the dump station with weekenders departing on Sunday. As it turned out, there weren't many people at the campground during the week or during the weekend.

One possible reason the campground was fairly empty may be that people are avoiding New Orleans because they are uncertain about flooding. The opening of spillways north of New Orleans and north of Baton Rouge has actually reduced water levels in New Orleans. The level is expected to remain steady for the next few weeks until after the crest passes when the level will begin to drop.

Although the water level was high, everything in New Orleans is protected by levees to several feet higher than the the current water level. In New Orleans, it was business as usual, and as they say, "Laissez les bon temps rouler!" - let the good times roll!

Opening the gates north of New Orleans diverted water into Lake Pontchartrain, which will then drain into the Gulf of Mexico with few, if any, noticeable effects. The Morganza Spillway north of Baton Rouge, on the other hand, diverts water to the Atchafalaya (pronounced at-chaff-a-LYE-a) Basin, which lies to the west of the Mississippi. Our next destination was Berwick, LA. Berwick, along with the larger town of Morgan City a mile or so to the east, are at the southern end of the Atchafalaya Basin in the heart of Cajun Country.

We emailed the campground in Berwick when we first got to New Orleans, and we called them the day before we left. Both times they said they were well protected by levees and flood walls, and no flooding in the towns themselves or the immediate surrounding area was expected. The area to the west of Berwick, which is where we were planning most of our sightseeing, is not in the Atchafalaya Basin, so no flooding was expected farther to the west either.

As we crossed over the Atchafalaya River between Morgan City and Berwick, we could see the water level was high. If you look closely at the photo below, you can see a row of black posts running from the bottom right corner up toward the railroad bridge that crosses the river. Those posts mark what is supposed to be the edge of the river, and the water is a little beyond the posts. Behind the posts is the gray flood wall. The water is just barely up to the base of the flood wall in some locations.

The flood walls are at least 10 to 12 feet high. The water is expected to rise several more feet as the water from Morganza Spillway makes its way south, and it looks like that will be well down from the top of the flood wall. There will be some flooding of the river side of the flood walls, but as long as the flood walls hold, there should be no problem in town.

We reserved a week at Cypress Lake RV Resort in Berwick. Cypress Lake has full hookups and free Wi-fi. Roads and sites are gravel, and there is some grass between the sites. About half the sites are back-ins and half are pull-throughs. Although some of the back-ins are a little close together, the site width of the rest of the back-ins and most of the pull-throughs is pretty good for a private campground. The photo below shows our site at Cypress Lake.

There is a little noise from 4-lane U. S. Route 90 that passes the campground, but is diminishes somewhat at night. There are also train tracks nearby, and there are two or three crossings within earshot, one of which is fairly close. Fortunately, there weren't too many trains when we were there.

The next photo shows a view looking toward our site. You can see some of the many cypress trees from which the campground gets part of its name. Fortunately, they have some sites where the trees are more widely spaced, and they gave us one of those sites so we had no trouble getting satellite.

The other part of the campground name comes from a nice lake. There are paddle boats and canoes available. Paul enjoyed watching the sun rise over the mist on the lake on a couple mornings he was up early enough.

The fact that much of Louisiana is under a flood watch is ironic because they also have severe drought conditions. When we headed out the next morning for some sightseeing, we saw numerous, huge clouds of dust caused by tractors plowing.

For our first day of sightseeing, we headed west to New Iberia, LA and to the Conrad Rice Mill, which is the oldest rice mill in the country still in operation. New Iberia is about 45 minutes northwest of where we were staying in Berwick. The original part of the mill was built in 1914 with additions in 1917 and 1930. The mill still operates today producing the Konrico brand of rice which is sold in grocery stores all over the United States and Canada. The mill operates with only 23 employees.

Just past the mill is the Konrico Store where products from the mill are sold and where tours of the mill start.

The tour starts with a slide presentation that details some of the history of Cajun Country and of rice growing in Louisiana. After the French and Indian War, the British expelled the French from the area of Canada known as Acadia. The name Cajun is a corruption of the name Acadian.

Louisiana was settled by the French, so the people of southern Louisiana welcomed their French cousins from Canada, and the Cajuns ended up settling in an area to the west of New Orleans. Cajun Country is also known as Acadiana. Today, Cajuns are a mixture of mainly French along with Spanish, English, German and African-American.

Cajuns brought rice with them that they learned to grow when they passed through the Carolinas. They originally planted rice for their own use (mainly as animal feed) in areas that couldn't be plowed like in the wetlands and swamps. Commercial rice production didn't begin in Louisiana until the late 1800s. It was started by the Americans and English, and it was aided by the availability of railroads that could take the rice to market. Until Conrad Mill opened, growers used to have to ship their rice to New Orleans to be processed.

The tour starts near the front of the mill where the guide uses a model to demonstrate how the rice is processed. The model opens up to show where the machines and hoppers are located and how the rices moves up and down between the three floors of the mill. The rice first travels from the million-pound silo to the top floor of the mill, then it moves down through a couple of machines that remove the husk. The husks are sold as mulch for gardeners and for animal bedding.

The resulting brown rice and can be eaten as is. Like whole wheat, brown rice contains more fiber and nutrients than white rice.

To make white rice, the rice travels back up to the third floor by conveyor to pass down through another machine called a pearler to remove the bran. Bran is the hard outer coating of the grain. The bran that is removed is sold as chicken feed. From the pearler, the rice goes back to the third floor to pass down again through a couple more machines that sort out the broken grains. Broken grains are used in-house to make rice crackers, another Konriko product.

Instant rice is made by pre-cooking the rice, then dehydrating it so all that is needed to prepare it is to cook it quickly to rehydrate it. Instant rice is fast, but many people, including Margery, think instant rice does not have as good a texture as regular rice. The Conrad Rice Mill does not make instant rice.

Incidentally, wild rice is not really rice - is is a member of the grass family is more closely related to wheat.

From the sorter, the rice goes to packaging. In addition to packaging in consumer-size bags and boxes, rice is also packaged in 50-pound bags. The machine in the photo below sews up the 50-pound bags.

On the tour, we also got to walk up and down the aisles of the ground floor of the mill to see the machines that were located there.

After the tour, we wandered around the store, which sells the Konrico brand of rice products, seasonings and rice crackers. They had samples of some of their products available for tasting.

We went outside for a tourist photo with the 50-pound rice bran bag that is filled with lightweight foam.

 

From the rice mill, we stopped at another historic location in town. We'll tell you about it in our next post.

New Orleans, LA Part I: Oak Alley Plantation

New Orleans, LA

It was another short drive of only about two hours from Biloxi to our next destination in New Orleans. It took us almost four years of full-timing to stop in New Orleans even though we passed close by every year when we left Florida on our way west. When we finally stopped last year, we wondered why we waited so long. We ended up really liking the good food, the laid-back attitude of the people, and the charm of the French Quarter. Did we mention we like the good food?

We stayed the same place this year as we did last - Bayou Segnette State Park. In fact, we had the same site we had last year.

As you can see from the view down the road in the next photo, it wasn't very crowded. There was a group of people around the other side of the loop most of the time we were there (those sites are closer to the bathhouse), but our side of the loop stayed relatively empty throughout our stay.

Bayou Segnette has 30/50-amp electric and water hookups only. They also have free Wi-fi. The roads, pads and patios are paved. Some sites, like ours, have wooden decks, too. The grassy sites are widely spaced.

Louisiana State Parks no longer accept America the Beautiful passes for half price camping (unless you're a resident of Louisiana or of one of the few other states that accepts the passes), so we had to pay full price of $24 a night. By the time they added a $6 transaction fee (charged by the Louisiana State Parks) and the $10 reservation fee (charged by the online reservation service), our total was $26 a night - a little high for no sewer hookups, but not bad for a nice campground near a big tourist city with 50-amp electric and free Wi-fi.

Like last year, they are still doing construction work on the levee beside the canal adjacent to the campground. Although there is no construction and it's nice and quiet on the weekends and at night, construction starts at 7:00 AM on weekdays, and you can hear the engines of the construction equipment humming and the backup beepers beeping. You can also frequently hear the thunk---thunk---thunk of the pile driver. It was a lot hotter this year in New Orleans, so we ran the air conditioner day and night for most of the time we were there. That pretty much covered up the construction noise.

This year, part of the road on the way to the campsites has been torn up and is now dirt/gravel, but at least it's relatively smooth. The road in the camping area is still paved so there's no dust around the sites.

We had a lot we wanted to do while we were in New Orleans, so we headed out the next morning to see Oak Alley Plantation. There are quite a few old plantations between Baton Rouge and New Orleans along the Mississippi River. We enjoyed our visit to two of them last year, so we decided to see another one this year. To read about last year's visits to Houmas House and Laura Plantation, click on the highlighted names.

Oak Alley Plantation gets its name from the long, double row of live oak trees lining the way from the entrance of the house to the Mississippi River. In the early 1700s, a settler built a small house on the site of the current mansion. It is he who planted two rows of well-spaced live oak trees. All but one of the trees are original which makes them about 300 years old. One was struck by lightening and had to be replaced.

Visitor parking and the entrance to the grounds are in the rear. The grounds of the plantation are well-groomed and attractive. The flowers in the photo below greeted us as soon as we had paid our admission fee and started down the walk toward the house.

There is another tree-lined walkway up to the back of the house, but the view is not as spectacular as the one in front.

The large kettles in the two photos above were used for sugar making. Sugar cane was a major crop for plantations along the Mississippi River in Louisiana. The stalks were crushed and pressed to extract the sweet juice, and the juice was then boiled in the large, iron kettles to thicken it. When the sugar crystallized, it was placed in barrels. Molasses, the syrupy byproduct of sugar making, is used to make rum.

The next photo shows the rear of the house. Costumed interpreters greeted us on the back porch and directed us around to the front where the house tours start.

As with many historic houses, photography is not permitted inside. One notable exception was Houmas House Plantation we visited last year. Not only was photography permitted, you were also allowed to sit on the furniture and play the antique piano if you knew how to play.

Our tour guide, who is shown in the next photo, told us about the history of Oak Alley.

Jaques Telesphore Roman was a the son of a prominent New Orleans family who made their money in sugar. Jacques was a Creole, which means he was of French descent, but was born in the New World.

In 1836, Jacques wanted to be a sugar grower like other members of his family, so he and his wife Celina purchased the land where Oak Alley is now located. Celina was reluctant to move out from the city, but Jacques promised to build her a grand house overlooking the river.

Jacques built the house in the Classical Revival style with 28 columns surrounding the house to match the 28 oak trees that stood in front. The porches are deep and totally surround the house to provide shade. The walls are solid brick 16 inches thick. Ceilings are high to allow the heat to rise, and there are central hallways on the first and second floors running the length of the house to allow breezes from the river to enter.

Jacques died in 1848. His widow was totally inexperienced in running the plantation as a business, so her son eventually took over. Unfortunately, pressures of the Civil War, the period of reconstruction that followed, and Celina's excessive spending forced the sale of the estate and most of the furnishings in 1866.

The property changed hands a couple of times, and Oak Alley flourished for a while. The owners who bought the plantation in 1905, however, didn't fare well. The plantation was boarded up and became a victim of the elements and the creatures that took up residence inside.

Finally, in 1917, Oak Alley was purchased by Jefferson Davis Hardin, Jr., who poured his fortune into Oak Alley in an attempt to restore it, but he ran out of funds before it was completed. Can you say, "money pit?"

In 1925, Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Stewart became resident-owners of Oak Alley. They completed the restoration of the house and installed modern conveniences like electricity and indoor plumbing. The Stewarts, who are buried on the grounds, also set up the non-profit foundation that runs Oak Alley today.

The house is furnished with pieces true to the antebellum period, but very few items original to the house remain because most everything was sold after Jacques died.

When we finished the house tour, we took time to pause for a couple more photos at the front of the house.

Then we enjoyed more of the gardens around the house.

We're not sure what the next flower is, but it certainly was striking. It's possible it is a member of the iris family. It is only about 2 inches across.

On Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays, the "Colonel" talks about the Civil War behind the house. We listened from a distance for a short time; but even though there was shade available, it was too hot and humid for us to hang around very long.

Oak Alley also has guest cottages and a restaurant on the grounds.

Before the current 15 or 20-foot levee was built by the Army Corps of Engineers following a massive 1927 flood, there used to be a grand view of the Mississippi down the rows of oak trees from the second-floor porch. However, the close proximity of the river meant there was a threat of flooding, especially in the spring. Back in the day, the landowners were responsible for their own levees, and they were only about 5 feet high. The landowners needed to work together because your protection was no better than the weakest levee.

As we left Oak Alley, which is about 50 miles upstream from New Orleans, we parked across the road and walked up to the top of the levee to take a look at the Mississippi. We have been monitoring the reports of flooding up and down the river since before we got to Biloxi.

They are predicting record floods for many areas (we already canceled a stay in an RV park overlooking the Mississippi River across from Natchez, MS due to flooding, and we're hanging loose on another stop in southern Louisiana Cajun country), but New Orleans is well-protected by levees. Even though the river is predicted to crest a little above flood stage, the levees protect to several feet above flood stage. The water at Oak Alley was high, but there was still at least 6 or 8 feet to go before the water got to the top of the levee. The crest was only predicted to be another foot or two higher at the most, and the crest wasn't expected for almost another week.

Last year, we discovered the great New Orleans tradition of the muffuletta sandwich. Did we mention we liked the good food in New Orleans? We were hungry for a muffuletta, so we stopped at a restaurant called DiMartino's to pick one up on our way back to the motor home from Oak Alley.

The muffuletta is an Italian submarine-style sandwich with meats like ham, pepperoni and salami, and with provolone cheese. Rather than a hoagie bun, the muffuletta is made using round, Sicilian bread that is 9 or 10-inches in diameter. The sandwich is topped with chopped olive salad and drizzled with olive oil.

Last year, we got great muffulettas from Central Grocery located in the French Quarter. Central Grocery claims to be the inventors of the muffuletta back in the early 1900s. Our neighbors up the road at the campground, who were locals, told us about the excellent muffulettas at DiMartino's, which is only about a mile or so from Bayou Segnette State Park. DiMartino's has tables inside so you can eat in, or you can order your food to go like we did.

When we got back to the motor home, we couldn't wait to dig in. The photo makes it look like the muffulatta is on a hamburger bun, but it's 9 inches in diameter, and one sandwich was almost more than the two of us could eat.

Wow! Central Market may be the inventors of the muffuletta, but DiMartino's sure makes an excellent sandwich. We think we like them better than the ones from Central Market, and the best part is we don't even have to go downtown to get one. The bread was outstanding - a little softer than at Central Market, and we also like the fact DiMartino's serves their muffulettas warm. Did we mention we like the good food in New Orleans?

As we said earlier, we have a lot we want to do while we're in New Orleans, so we'll have more posts coming up.