So called the sunshine state, here in florida it’s rainy. We came for our last dose of sun before our über winter. So come on weather man and sort it out mate.
Yesterday we rose late after the late night, for a big ol creole and Italian family invasion for our host and us.
Off and away we drove for a tour of the city. Vince knows the city better than I could imagine a local does, he’s been there just 6 years. We saw uptown, the garden district and warehouse district, which are magnificent and super history rich.
Then a quick cuppa tea from a cowboy and we headed in the opposite direction.
Off we went to the the part of town that remains in a struggle of recovery since hurricane Katrina 5 years ago.
Everywhere you look are either piles of rubble, building sites, or where there is a lack of money then vacant lots of land. The streets look to peculiar with gaps between houses.
That however is not the worst. There are lots of house boarded up, rotting, roofs collapsing. Marked on the front remains the identification made by the military to note how many animals and humans lay dead within that needed collecting. It makes you think of the black plague back in history.
We drove for a long time, seeing parks where many of the trees are gone due to salt water poisoning, roads full of holes. But nothing was quite like the east side of town which had been hit worst. Being the first side of town to in the line of fire, house sat under up to 20ft/6m of water. Entire streets have been washed away. Here it is like a jungle with the odd house either standing and rotting, or where hopeful people have rebuilt they’re house.
It’s a very sad thing to see the city in ruins, many people having left for good, many people still trying to rebuild thier lives, many who died. And what is worse is that the hurricane barely even touched the city, it was the fore of the storm that caused the destruction directly but more down to human stupidity.
The city had little defence to the forces of nature. In the way that London has the Thames barrier, New Orleans had nothing. A few levees, but not around the whole city, had no chance to keep the waters back.
The people are fighting to rebuild their city and lives, but the government here sees the place as third world, so not even worth thinking about. But this makes the place such a wonderful change to our trip around the US. It isn’t third world, but is very different. We both think it’s the best city that we’ve been to over here so far!
We met some locals, then headed back to town for some proper creole cuisine, even I was catered for, yum!
Then we had a pretty gay night out. Fun, and not much of an early night as we’d hoped, but a great finish to our visit.
So we drove today, we passed Mississippi and Alabama but with little stopping except to dip our feet in the gulf of Mexico.
To finish off we’ve just been to the cinema and seen Zombieland. I think there must have been a stretch where I wasn’t laughing of 3 minutes. It’s cheesey, funny and well just good gorey entertainment that I would recommend everybody with a funny bone to go and see!
“So nut up or shut up.”