Nov. 10, 2008 – New Orleans, La.
A unique city ….
I slept in my car just outside of Lake Charles, LA. last night. I sometimes scare myself on how adapted to sleeping in the car I have become. One minute I’m sitting in the car thinking about things and the next minute I wake up at 7:30am with all of the parked traffic that was around me gone.
It was a little warm last night so I left the windows in the car down, which makes me sleeping through the cars next to me starting up and their doors opening and closing all the more frightening.
Swampland everywhere
I actually worked out today. I don’t know what got into me, but I felt the urge to pay the daily guest fee of $5 and visit the local YMCA. Honestly, I think it was more a desire for a shower than it was a workout. After sleeping in a hot car and waking up sweaty, I guess it was time to clean up. Why not get a workout in as well? It wasn’t the best YMCA I have ever been to, but it did the trick. If I could only keep this up for the remainder of the trip, maybe I would lose more weight. Only time will tell.
After a brief stop at the campus of LSU in Baton Rouge, I bee-lined it to New Orleans.
My intentions are to visit Rita’s (my boss) friend, David, in Mississippi in the evening. She had mentioned on more than one occasion how nice of a guy he is and thought I would enjoy his conversation.
I drove downtown New Orleans to check out the football stadium (which is now 12 of 31.) After obligatory viewing the Superdome, I checked out Canal and Bourbon Streets. Canal appeared more upscale than I figured it would be and Bourbon St. had less than expected curb appeal.
Bourbon Street was surprisingly narrow. There was barely enough room for two cars to drive down the street and the balconies of the buildings were so close, they felt as if they were above the car as I drove down the street.
I left noon shadows of Bourbon St. in search of the infamous above ground cemeteries. I had no idea which one to view so I picked what I thought to be one of the older ones. My GPS had many “St. Louis” cemeteries listed. “St. Louis 1, St. Louis 2, etc.,” so I went with St. Louis 1 in hopes that it was the oldest.
Judging by the dates, St. Louis 1 is one of the oldest in New Orleans. There were dates from the 1700’s. A lot of the older headstones were written in French, if not for the numerical part of the headstone, I wouldn’t have had a clue as to anything about them.
Bourbon St.
It’s pretty fascinating reading the old headstones. It’s hard to imagine that the person buried there took part in the Civil War or even the Revolutionary times.
Of course, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the most recognizable trait of this downtown cemetery; it’s above ground!
Due to the water table being so high in New Orleans, they bury people above ground. Technically, I wasn’t sure if you could “bury someone above ground,” but you can. It was a little strange walking through these old walkways knowing that the remains of people were right next to me or even above me.
One tomb had noticeable markings all over it, with beads, candles, and candles in front of it. I had to get in closer for a better look and to hopefully find out why this tomb was getting so much attention.
It turns out that this tomb was the site of the person believed to have brought the Voodoo culture to New Orleans. Evidently, she had spent some time in the Dominican Republic and brought back this culture to New Orleans in the 1700’s
There were at least three tours going on through the cemetery while I was walking around. I can understand why, it’s because there is history around every turn. A lot can be learned about the region or township by visiting some of the earliest developments, landmarks, and even cemeteries.
The weather was hot and humid, even in November. I had forgotten how much the humidity suffocates a person. Here, it was only 77 degrees, but it felt so much more miserable than the 100 degrees I experienced in the desert a couple of weeks earlier.
It was getting ready to rain so I hurried myself along. On the way out of New Orleans, I started to notice some of the Hurricane Katrina damaged areas. I had to pull over for a closer look.
old above ground cemetery
I’m not sure how safe the neighborhoods were, but I had to drive around these neighborhoods to get a feel for what had happened three years earlier.
From every documentary that I’ve seen about the rebuilding of New Orleans following Katrina, there is no one reason or answer as to why homes aren’t completely rebuilt yet.
It sounds like there is a lot of “red tape” for people work through and it has slowed the rebuilding process down incredibly.
Whatever the reason, it was quite clear which homes had been effected. On any given street in this neighborhood, there was a brand new house, neighbored by a house with water stains up to the second story, next to an empty lot showing leftover remnants of a home that used to stand there.
I would have liked to sit and talk with some of the people who live in this area. I’d like to hear their experiences first hand. It is always leaves a greater impact on me hearing a person’s experience first hand, but time is my major restraint on this trip. I’m sure if I put in some due diligence, I could find someone to talk with.
Later in the evening, I made my way through the hurricane damaged areas of Mississippi’s gulf coast and then up to Duck Hill, MS. I stayed with someone whom I had never met before, but my boss -Rita- had suggested that I meet him because he was a “great guy”
David is retired from Delta and spent the first 35 years of his life in Houston before venturing on to Dallas. He later moved to Georgia and then to Montana. After his wife died from cancer, he decided he’d like to be closer to friends and family so he left Montana and settled in Mississippi.
Just to give you an idea of David’s character, he found himself needing to fill the extra time on his hands after retirement and decided to do some volunteer work. He flew around to various prisons and donated his time to the Prison Ministry. David’s faith is strong and has remained unraveled throughout his life, including the loss of two wives to cancer. He gives me the impression that he never questions God’s will and it’s inspiring to be around someone so dedicated to their beliefs.
Something that I wasn’t able to try, but would love to try someday is his BBQ Pit. He has a customized pit that he has taken with him through many of his moves over the years. He told me the finer points to good BBQ.
David knows his BBQ
He told me what kind of tree twigs to throw into the pit depending on how much a particular flavor I wanted, plus it seems to be equally important to put the right size twig into the fire as well. After cutting the wood and deciding on what flavor to go with, he simmers the meat at least 24 hours before serving. I get the impression that his grilling talents are very appreciated by those lucky enough to sample it. I hope someday to try that Texas talent in barbecuing.
