FLORIDA--ON TO THE "BIG EASY"

First of all, we are OK.  Some really rough weather hit the southeast last night.  There were damaging tornadoes in Pensacola, about 100 miles west of Panama City Beach.  We had and continue to have strong winds here today, but no damage.  Someone did move my trailer in the parking lot to a safe place, so I'll have to find out who it was and thank them.

Now for a continuation of our trip report.  Last report we had just left the Zahn winter estate in Venice and were heading north on our way to New Orleans.  Again the traffic from Venice to north of Tampa was incredible!  Our trip led us past Panama City Beach, so I dropped off the trike and trailer in the condo parking lot and continued on to New Orleans.  I have always wanted to visit New Orleans and the WWII museum located there and since we still had some time before checking into the condo, we took the opportunity for the trip.

When we arrived at our motel in New Orleans, we received some very good advice from our knowledgeable and friendly desk clerk.  She suggested a tour company that we used to cover the parts of the city we wanted to see.  It worked out great.  The guide was very well informed as well as entertaining as the van toured the garden district, the French quarter, the warehouse/arts district, and the central business district.  Probably the most interesting to me was the visit to an old cemetery.  In New Orleans the water table is so high that graves cannot be dug into the ground, so each family has a vault where generations of the same family are interned.  You will see by a couple of photos that some of the vaults are pretty elaborate.  The more money a family had, the more elaborate the vault.

After our van tour, we decided to take the trolleys that operate on tracks throughout parts of the city we didn't see.  You can ride a trolley and/or a bus throughout the city all day for $3.50.  After we were done on the trolleys, it was time for a Madi Gras parade.  Like a lot of people, I thought there was just one big parade.  WRONG!  On the weekend coming up there were close to 50 different parades with various themes.  We just stayed for the one, but I'm sure if you wanted to stay for all of them, you could end up with a truck load of beads.  Actually it was just a treat to sit and watch the people go by on the sidewalk.  We got to see quite an assortment of characters!  We felt perfectly safe right downtown because there were police everywhere.  Although I didn't see any of the CSI New Orleans group. 

Because of the space available on the blog, I'll save the trip to the WWII museum for the next report.  Here's some photos of the city tour.

PHOTO OF LEE CIRCLE AND A BEAUTIFUL STATUE OF ROBERT E LEE
SOON THE "DO GOODERS" ARE GOING TO HAVE THE STATUE TORN DOWN!

A VIEW OF THE BUSINESS DISTRICT AND ONE OF THE MANY BRIDGES

MOTOR COPS ON HARLEYS KEEP THE CITY SAFE

OLD CEMETERY IN THE CITY

MOTHER TERESA WAS EVEN THERE TO KEEP AN EYE ON US

YES, VOO DOO IS ALIVE AND WELL HERE

ONE OF MANY PARADE FLOATS

ANOTHER FLOAT