It's so foggy you can't see the rain. The Great River Road. Some good news.

As promised by the local forecasters, rain paid a visit to NOLA today and is promising not to leave for a few days. When I awoke at a little after 6 this morning I was happy see that it hadn't begun raining so I put off going for a walk until I'd had my morning tea and watched the forecast.

I finally got out and going at around 8:30 to avoid some of the rush hour traffic and headed down Napoleon to Tchoupitoulas St. that runs along the waterfront with the intent on getting in one last walk before the rain started. For the most part you can't really see the river from this part of town or from the Great River Road. It's hidden behind huge levees that serve as buffers for the port and keep the streets of New Orleans dry. Most of New Orleans is below sea level (my apartment is at 1 ft.).

After Audubon Park, Tchoupitoulas St. turns into Leake Ave. (honest) then to the Jefferson Hi-way and eventually becomes the Great River Road that runs all the way up to Baton Rouge. It's home to most of the existing plantations that are open to tourists along with oil refineries and small towns like Destrehan, Garyville and Vacherie.

I stopped at a spot where the MBT (Mississippi Bike Trail) met Audubon Park and headed out. I got in 7 minutes before the rains started and not wanting to sit in the car in wet shorts, turned around and headed back to the car. Some walk is better than no walk.

Destrehan is about a 30 minute leisurely drive from my apartment and the plantation is probably only 10 minutes from the airport so it is popular due to its proximity to town. It was built in 1787 and renovated and expanded upon in the 1830s by the new owner (Destrehan) and his brother-in-law (de Bore) who happened to own the plantation that is now Audubon Park and later became the first mayor of New Orleans.

Didn't take the tour, cause I'm pretty sure I'll be going in the next couple weeks when company begins arriving. But I did get a good picture of it.

Further down the road I came upon a huge Valero Oil Refinery. It stretched for a mile and a half along the rive and you could see the tops of huge tankers over the top of the levees. Just after that the Great River Road detoured around the Bonnet Carre Spillway. The Spillway is a 5.7 mile long floodplain created by the Corp of Engineers in 1931 to control Mississippi River floods and divert them to Lake Ponchartrain. It was eerie driving across it in the fog know that at times is was totally under water.

I stopped at the high point and took this picture of tankers waiting to be off loaded.

Here's view of the floodplain under water and the refineries in the background (there's a road under there somewhere). They only use it when the flood levels in town are at their maximum height. (Photo courtesy of bonnecarrespillway.com)



It was a lazy day for the most part. Forecasts are still calling for 2.5 to 5 inches of rain in the next thre or four days, so I'm gonna have to find alternate things to do. Maybe more drives though the rain doesn't make sightseeing very much fun.

The good news of the night was that Bob's heart doc gave him clearance to travel so he and Carolyn are heading up here and will arrive on the 17th now for a couple days of sightseeing and raw oysters to get his heart stronger.

This was Bob when he first woke up. He's made quite a recovery in just two weeks.The next one was three days later as he came into his private room from ICU.

Looks like the Reeds, Steven Bribach and I will be heading back from Corpus on the 2nd of April weather permitting. More later.

Les Bon Temps Roule!!