Destination: New Orleans

New Orleans was in my mind from the beginning of the trip as a major destination point, and I have now arrived (sort of).  I’m actually at Fairview-Riverside State Park, across Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans, and will stay here four nights.

As usual, I didn’t know what to expect of the campground, and I was actually a bit worried.  I don’t really like what I think of as “RV ghettos”—places that accommodate sometimes hundreds of RVs, many of which are literally as big as  Greyhound bus, crowded together in spaces with only 15 or 20 feet between (sometimes less.)  Palmetto S.P. had essentially become such a ghetto Friday night, though because of the greenery a more bearable one.  I was afraid that this close to N.O., RV ghettos were all I was going to find, and was thinking about how to entertain myself away from home, so to speak, if it was awful.

But Fairview-Riverside is anything but awful.  It accommodates around 90 RVs, but a lot of spaces are empty right now, and I lucked into a spot on the end of the row with extra space around it that has a nice open feel to it:

So as soon as I pulled in, the notion of pulling out again to look for entertainment elsewhere lost its appeal.  

I’m pretty close to the bathrooms (that yellow building the the background)

which are positively luxurious.  Shower, sink, and potty all in one large room, wheelchair accessible.  There are only three for women and three for men; I’m hoping the prevalence of big rigs means I won’t have too much competition for one in the morning.  We’ll see.  

Once I was set up—electricity hooked up and AC on—it was time to explore the rest of the place, so CJ and I took a walk.  The park is on the Tchefuncte river—and I have no idea how to pronounce that.  This is a shot of the open area by the river.

Took the opportunity to get a close-up of the Spanish moss, and to touch it.  It’s softer than it looks.  It’s beautiful—but I honestly think the moss I took so many pictures of on Fort Ord is prettier (which is apparently actually a “fruticose lichen”; I went looking for the name, and discovered that.  It also gets called California Spanish Moss.)

Here’s a tree growing out in the river; took this one just because it’s pretty.

Then there’s a nice little boardwalk through a swampy area.  

An iris.

And does anyone know the name of this plant with the. . . heart-shaped?  spearhead-shaped? . . . leaves?  I feel I should know it, but it has not appeared in my actual brain.

My campground last night was quite pleasant, attached to the Baton Rouge Equestrian Center.

Google, btw, had a terrible time finding it—it led me astray twice, once ridiculously.  I’m having to learn when to ignore that little voice and navigate myself.  If I was smart, I’d take a good look at the overall map before throwing myself on the mercies of the google voice, but . . . I’m not.  Or not often enough.  

It was nice and cloudy this morning, which meant walking on the levee was really pleasant, so CJ got her longest walk in some time.  There were a number of boats tied up? anchored? to the near shore.  I only got two pictures because I had let the battery run down.

 

Does anyone know why one would push a series of barges up the river, instead of towing them up?  I have a hypothesis, but I’m not sure it makes sense.  This one was making very slow progress–I was able to keep pace with it just at my usual walk.

According to the Weather Channel app, tomorrow will be thunderstorms, after which the weather will cool down.  I don’t know if I’ll have the gumption to go exploring in the rain, or exactly what I even want to do.  Tuesday afternoon I have a reservation for a swamp boat tour, and plan to do the associated plantation tour in the morning, and I’m thinking Wednesday will be a good day to go in to the French Quarter and just walk around and look and eat.  Thursday I think I’ll do a long drive, destination Destin, Florida (see how that works?  It just happened that way.)  Two people have told me about the beauty of the Gulf water there, and there’s a couple of parks close by.  I need to get reservations, though, I suspect.  Will keep posting as time and energy and inclination allow.