We arrived at the Yogi Bear's Jellystone Campground in Robert, Louisiana late on Wednesday afternoon. Robert, LA is a small town situated right off of I-12 and north of Lake Pontchartrain. The campground was nice with lots of trees, a lake, a playground, and a putt-putt golf course.
After school was over on Thursday, we headed over to the capital in Baton Rouge. Baton Rouge is located right on the Mississippi River. When we arrived it was already lunch time, so the first point of interest was food. We started out looking for something
Cajun, but that became difficult downtown. After a while it came down to just eating. Just down the street from the old capital building overlooking the Mississippi River, was a casino hotel restaurant. It was ok, nothing too special.
As soon as lunch was over we, walked down the river front to the old capital building only to discover that it was being renovated. Although there was scaffolding all around it, from what we could see it looked like a French castle. Almost like a fort. Anyhow we just continued walking down the river front.
On the way back from Baton Rouge, we decided to drive I-10 south into New Orleans. Since Hurricane Katrina, all you really hear about is all the despair in New Orleans. After seeing what happened to Gulfport, MS, I didn't know what to expect in New Orleans.
Upon arriving in New Orleans though, we really didn't see any damage. A few blue tarps on the roof, but that was all the extent was. Driving through downtown there were about 50% of the businesses still boarded up. Or at least the lower floors anyway. Well it was getting late and we still had a long drive back so we didn't stay long.
On Friday we drove north of the campground a short 10 miles or so. There was a place called the Global Wildlife Reserve. It was a 900 acre park where the animals run free throughout the complex. They have a tour where they pull you in an open wagon with a tractor. They make several stop throughout the park and allow you to feed the animals.
They had a lot of different varieties of deer, gazelles, antelopes, impalas, llamas, giraffes, camels, and more. It was a lot of fun getting up close to the animals. I didn't feed them because I was too busy taking pictures. However, Cricket and the boys had a lot of fun.
Saturday came and we headed down south to Houma near the coast of Louisiana. They were having some family friendly Mardi Gras parades down there which would be more suitable for us than the ones in New Orleans. However, the weather wasn't cooperating. It had started raining and the temperatures stayed pretty much in the 40's, occasionally reaching the low 50's. Not very good for a parade.
After staying in the RV for the past two days with no sign of the weather improving, we decided to leave a day early today and head to Texas. So with a long drive ahead, I've got to get going. My next update will be from the Lone Star State.
See you there,
Mark