The drive from Pensacola to New Orleans is about 4 hours. We set off early in the morning because we wanted to spend some time in Alabama, we had heard there was a naval ship there that was worth seeing. After about an hour of driving we stopped in Mobile, Alabama to see the USS Alabama, a famous war ship that has been preserved as a museum at the USS ALABAMA Battleship Memorial Park. There was also a naval submarine and various planes. The kids had a wonderful time running about in the dark tunnel like passage ways of the sub and warship. It was crazy to see how those men lived, if you can call it living. Truly like sardines and so many nooks and crannies, buttons, switches, dials, levers and wheels to look after. Those things also had a lot of fire power that’s for sure.
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| USS Drum Sub |
The USS Drum (SS-228) was commissioned 1 November 1941. The ship is 311 feet long and 27 feet wide. She carried about 7 officers and 65 enlisted men and earned 12 Battle Stars during World War II.
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| Daddy and Leo up high |
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| Very little girl on very big sub |
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| Leo trying out tiny bunks |
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| Piloting the sub! |
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| USS ALABAMA |
The USS Alabama (BB-60) was commissioned 16 August 1942 and is about 680 feet long and 108 feet wide. Under battle conditions she weighed in at well over 45,000 tonnes. Her assigned crew was 127 officers and 2205 enlisted men but she usually had a crew of about 2500 on board. She earned 9 Battle Stars and was recognised for shooting down 22 enemy airplanes during World War II (the crew put it at 37). Her guns could shoot accurately to 21 miles and a few more statistics are: Maximum Speed, 28 knots; Horsepower, 13000 and Range, 15000 nautical miles at 15 knots.
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| Guns; lead dammit lead! |
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| Cannons |
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| On board |
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| enlisted bunks |
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| Captain Leo |
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| Captain Spencer |
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| Leo at the wheel of USS Alabama |
The planes on exhibition were an F15 Eagle, a B52 Strato Fortress (Vietnam war era), the SR71 Blackbird which was a CIA spy plane and something to see. The blackbird is completely black and has stealth designs to avoid radar detection, this is the plane that is rumoured to have been born in Area 51 (Roswell) and the conspiracy theories say they used alien technology. She flies so high she is on the edge of space and pilots must wear space suits. We also saw the A6 Intruder flowed by Commander Denton, he was a prisoner of war for 8 years in Vietnam and a true hero who despite daily torture never waivered or gave information. The USA was able to finally confirm that prisoners were being tortured in Vietnam because Denton managed to spell it out via blinking T.O.R.T.U.R.E in morse code while being filmed by his captives for a propaganda services. We saw an old Dakota which is like the planes that Justin's Grandfather Tom Condon flew in the 2nd World War.
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| F15 |
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| B-52 |
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| Kath reading about Blackbird |
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| Lancaster Bomber |
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| Dakota |
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| Last Legs Louie |
You also need to drive through the Southern tail of Mississippi to get to Louisiana, we stopped for a bit of a break here but pretty much drove on through. We stayed at a very interesting camp ground called Hidden Oaks Family Campground. We seemed to be the only ‘travellers’ as such, the other RVs and trailers were literally built in. The accents are a bit harder to understand here and the people seem “tougher” in some way. It seems I have spoken too soon about how well Louie was doing. Just as we were setting up camp we heard a loud hissing noise coming from his bonnet and then a cloud of steam shot up all around him. Leo was flabbergasted and couldn’t believe something had happened to Louie, neither could we to be honest and we had no clue what was wrong. Louie had blown a gasket, literally. There wasn’t much we could do about it that night so we took the kids for a swim and tried to leave it for the morning’s worries. I did however approach some of the locals from the camp about any mechanics close by and they were very helpful. Not only did they suggest someone but one of them came back with me to the camper to have a look and help Justin fashion a short term fix, one of Louie’s tubes had burst.
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| Our neighbours |
The next morning Justin took off for the mechanic and I stayed with the kids in the camper. It was a mixed bag of weather and it rained off and on so we couldn’t really go that far from the camper. At this stage we now knew that Tropical Storm Lee was heading our way and although she didn’t look like she was going to develop into a hurricane; the locals were worried because New Orleans is below sea level and of course after Hurricane Katrina no one is taking anything for granted. But we were stuck here, next to a lake, until Louie could be fixed!
It was a rough morning for all. It rained a lot, Leo was cranky, Spencer was tired and every time I almost had her to sleep Leo would announce he needed to go number twos, so off we would all traipse through the rain to the toilet only to find that “it’s not coming mummy” and so off we would trudge back to camper. After the 3rd time of this Spencer was beside herself and I was pulling my hair out.
Four hours, 2 cranky kids, 1 infestation of red ants (they have a nasty bite) and a frazzled wife (stuck in camper in rain for 3 hrs), Justin returned with Louie. It turns out he had a faulty radiator cap, poor old Louie had been working twice as hard for so long because his system relies on pressure to suck oil and engine coolant through etc and of course with a loose cap this wasn’t happening. To fix it was $10, to get the part (a new cap) it took 4 hours. Justin got to know the mechanic and his cronies quite well. They were rednecks of note, talking about n*ggers and how they weren’t welcome etc. They all owned guns and their toddlers were learning how to shoot. They warned Just about New Orleans and told us to definitely stick to the French Quarter and not to stay after dark. Apparently there is major problems with gangs, poverty and drugs now (isn’t there everywhere?).
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| 37km long bridge over Lake Pontchartrain |
The next day we headed off early, excited to finally be going to New Orleans. Storm Lee was picking up and there was lots of rain but we weren’t going to be put off. To get there we took the “Causeway”, it costs a toll of $3 but it’s worth it as it cut the trip down to 50 mins instead of 1.5 hours. The causeway is a bridge over the middle of Lake Pontchartrain and it’s 37km long! You can’t even see the other side of the lake, it’s bigger than Lake Taupo. After a while the shape of the New Oleans city skyline seemed to rise up out of the clouds. You have to drive through the city to get to the French Quarter. We saw a bit of damage still there from Katrina, especially some lovely old graveyards that are just rotted. I don’t want to know what happened to those buried there but the water table has risen so imagine that is what has happened to the bodies as well.
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| New Orleans Skyline |
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| Jackson Square |
You know you’ve hit the French Quarter, it really is like stepping into Europe with all the lovely apartments with balconies, wooden shutters and narrow cobbled streets. We found a park not far from Jackson’s square and started our exploration. Behind Jackson’s Square is the Mississippi with the old Steam boat Natchez so that was our first stop. The Steam boat wasn’t going due to the weather but we had a good look around and it was exciting to finally see the Mississippi. There are a lot of antique shops, mardi gras shops, restaurants and art galleries in the surrounding streets and of course the infamous Bourbon Street was worth it. Bourbon Street was like one big night club, you can buy your alcohol to go and sip it while you walk! Friends of ours had recommended a Hurricane Cocktail, so we stopped and grabbed a takeaway one and off we went.
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| Hurrican Cocktail to go |
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| Musical Legends Park |
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| Pizza break |
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| Enjoying the buskers |
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| Just and Leo with Mississippi Natchez |
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| Rue de Bourbon |
We stopped at Acme Oyster house for lunch, it came highly recommended by the carpark attendant and he wasn’t wrong. What an atmosphere! We sat right in the middle of it all and ordered shrimp, crab, fish and rice. The kids loved it and so did we. This oyster house had been in operation since 1910 and it was just the right mix of history, ambiance and lovely food.
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| Justin with his fried crab |
After lunch we took another stroll down the rest of Bourbon St and back to Jackson park where we gave the kids a good run around. All of us had been soaking wet a couple of times that day but it was so hot that it was actually pleasant. By now the festival was taking off and there were some sights we weren’t ready to explain to Leo yet so we decided it was prudent to leave.
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| Dad would have loved this |
Louie started first time and got us home safely across the bridge, he is running so much better. Hard to believe it was all due to a $10 radiator cap but there you go!
New Orleans, you are beautiful, tragic and vibrant all in one – what a brilliant day, thank you!
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