At the end of our last post, Betty & I had reached the Gulf of Mexico, and enjoyed revisiting and relaxing at Buccaneer State Park in Mississippi. While a different state from New Orleans, the campground is an easy hour drive from The Big Easy. This pictorial post will catch you up on our overlandish odyssey to our current location.
We were finally back into the palm trees at Buccaneer State Park.The homes along the Gulf coast are well elevated, and presumably hurricane proof!Most have very long staircases, which provide a work-out on grocery day, if the elevator isn’t working… Many actually do appear to have elevators.Betty, Charlie & I were a little more down to earth, spending another pleasant day at the beach.From Mississippi, we took I10 across Lake Pontchartrain into Louisiana.We love the architecture in the French Quarter, which was bustling with activity. However, because we had the Smart car, we were able to squeeze into a parking spot only a block away from our restaurant.The narrow French Quarter streets where far more easy to navigate in our Smart than in our motorhome…The wrought iron railings adorn many buildings in the French Quarter, including our chosen restaurant.Betty & I had a pleasant seat outside Cafe Amelie, until our appointed reservation.Many restaurants have enclosed courtyards for al fresco dining. We had previously dined at Cafe Amelie when it was a couple of doors down (at 912 Royal Street). It is currently at 900 Royal Street, but still very nice.For our 49th anniversary dinner, Betty chose gulf shrimp and grits– old mill stone ground grits, corn andouille maque choux, blackened gulf shrimp.And I chose catfish – a cornmeal crusted filet, old mill stone ground grits, lima beans, collard greens with bacon and pot likkor. Other than the lima beans, everything was a new taste adventure! An earlier menu included black-eyed peas instead of lima beans, which would have made it 100% original!After dinner, we drove around a bit to soak up the atmosphere. Driving down Bourbon Street was a treat, until we realized we were the only car on the street! Time for a fast exit!!!Our plan for the next day was to drive to the small community of Venice, Louisiana, were the Mississippi River empties into the Gulf of Mexico. There was a lot of construction on the road, and it looked like it would have involved another six hours of driving, so we cheated and caught some pics a little further north.Just as previously noted, the river appears extremely low, as evidenced by the slant on this jetty.Betty & I marked the end of our journey down the banks of the Mississippi River with a kiss. (Heart, heart)From The Big Easy, we crossed over the Fred Hartman Bridge, en route to our next stop – Galveston, Texas.As we drove onto Galveston Island, palm trees and sand greeted us.We are now in the beachside campground at Galveston Island State Park.Arriving a day before our reservation, we were able to stay in an unserviced site (#88) that was actually closer to the beach than our current site. This was our view through our front windshield.Our current site (#2) has 50 amp service (which is nice as the a.c. is currently working hard to cool us down), water, a picnic table & shelter, and a level cement parking pad.Betty is enjoying the shade from our motorhome and picnic shelter.This is the Gulf view from our current site.And here is where Betty, Charlie & I spent most of today. This portion of our journey so far could definitely be called The Big Easy!
