Tales from the road: Gulf Coast

Well, it was hard to head east from New Orleans.  I could have headed north to the 'land of familiar' and watched my youngest niece do her first Easter egg hunt.  I was torn, resisted and headed for new territory ..  I hope she will understand when she's older.

As I headed east out of New Orleans I finally started to really see Katrina's destruction for the first time.  Shingles hanging off roofs and piles of debris were still there .. almost five later.  Amazing.   I headed out in the midst of severe flooding throughout the Southeast.  Roads, parks, campgrounds were closed and flooded.  The night before on the news they showed a campground on the Louisiana/Mississippi border with water halfway up the side of a 5th wheel.  That got my attention!  I had wanted to experience Biloxi but the closure signs, swollen rivers and the air force jets scaring the beejeebers out of dog & I as we stopped to contemplate the matter keep me moving. 

As we went on, I keep noticing people pulled off the highway .. not on the shoulder but on the grass beyond that.   There were lots of cars spread out.  I looked closer.  There were people fishing! ... right off the interstate!   I-10 a fishing hole .. who knew.  I had never seen people fishing along a interstate .. one guy had either a big gator or a big turtle.  It was hard to tell at 65 mph.  You don't see that everywhere.

Driving along the coast, I have seen lots of things that you don't in the west and midwest where I have spent most of my life.  Causeways, bridges, bayous, swamps, evacuation signs, pastel colored houses on stilts, fish markets, boats, boats and more boats all novel as I headed up the coast from Texas.  Now I get that is just life along the coast.   But fishing off the interstate??