Friday, 11 December 2009
New Orleans, LA
Pontchartrain Landing
We spent pretty much all of the morning working with Crossroads to figure out how to get our roof and wheel fixed. They are going to send a new rim and we need to figure out where to send it to. They also said yes we need to have the roof fixed BEFORE we head on down the road.. At first we were trying to coordinate the two. But, the wheel will take 7 to 10 days to arrive. We contacted a place in Metairie which is only about 13 miles away but they are swamped. Tara (Crossroads) gave us another dealer in Baton Rouge and one in Opelousas . We contacted Opelousas , it is about a 2 hour drive. We made an appointment with them for Monday. Our plan is to put the spare tire on which is a full size, mag, and everything, have the roof fixed and hit the road. We will have the rim sent to Dad in Fresno . There we will have the tire taken off the cracked, but it on the new and then we are required to send the cracked back at no expense to us. They really have been great about taking care of everything, it is just having to wait for the parts that is the drag.
Anyway, Rob got up on the roof and taped some plastic over the part along the side that is bubbling and Fred, Tom and another incredibly nice man came over with a jack and changed the wheel for us. Then they brought over a compressor and we filled all the tires on the rig and the front tires on the truck (can’t get to the dualies). So, now our plan is to spend the night tonight and possibly tomorrow night and go explore the French Quarter and then head to Opelousas .
So around 1pm we finally headed down to New Orleans and all the cool stuff. First we watched an animation of the flooding from Katrina. It gave hour blocks of the storm, then the hurricane itself and where and when all the flooding occurred. This RV park was underwater. We are sitting on the edge of the Pontchartrain Canal which goes from the Lake Pontchartrain to the ocean. This is why Barges, Shrimp boats and everything else has been going by while we have been here.
Anyway, first we drove around several of the areas that were underwater. There are many new houses, and many boarded up houses. It is so sad. Then we went to “Uptown New Orleans” to a little hole in the wall place called Domilise’s Po Boys. I had a shrimp Po Boy and Rob had an oyster one. We both really liked mine. From there we drove around the Garden District. There are some beautiful homes there. It is really nice this time of year because many of them have the beautiful garlands and wreaths up for Christmas.
Next we walked around the French Quarter. We headed straight to Café Du Monde for Café au laits and Beingets. Oh they were sooooo good. We continued to wander around the French Quarter, Bourbon St. etc. , and then headed down to the Warehouse District for dinner. We ate at a place called Cochon. It serves all parts of the pig. Cheeks, ears, livers etc. We basically had appetizers. We each had a small salad, crab and artichoke dip, Rob had the cheeks, and I had a couple ribs. Then we had dessert, I had pumpkin pie with orange flavored whipped cream and Rob had pineapple up-side-down cake with pineapple sorbet.
From there we went to a park that was featured in USA Today as one of the “top 10 places in America to see Christmas lights.” What a disappointment. It was really a theme park with rides and some walk-through areas that were decorated. And we paid $7. each for that disappointment (not to mention it was raining and freezing.) Oh, we did remember to grab an umbrella this time. This is something we rarely remember. It is one of those that folds down to about a foot. Anyway, we opened it up and half of it was broken and limp. Too funny! I still had to use it though, because I don’t have a rain coat with a hood.
From there we headed home. We drove through an area that had brand new mansionettes. They were beautiful and all decorated with the garland and wreaths and many with lights and displays.. We decided that since it is so unusually freezing here (40s – 50s) that we would leave and go to Opelousas tomorrow rather than stay here longer. It is supposed to continue to be cold and rainy here and it is supposed to be sunny and warm in Opelousas (72°) on Sunday. We will play golf.
So back in our abode we watched 2 episodes of “The Closer” and went to bed
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