Well, we tried.
That whole “take the back road” thing? Not always going to work.
From our overnight spot in Greenville, AL there was a decent secondary-highway route that would take us in the direction of New Orleans. It only added 30-some miles to the route. We programmed Mr Ferguson (our GPS) and took off. And he had a different idea of what back roads to take. After some time driving we realized he had chosen a different route than expected and was adding 60-some miles to our trip for the day. Too much. We tucked our tail between our legs and backtracked a bit to I-65 for most of the day.
Around lunch time we were in the Gulfport, MS where the interstate runs pretty close to the Gulf of Mexico. We decided to lunch with a view and dip our toes in yet one more major body of water for the year. We had been in this area on our first year of traveling and don’t really feel that it has changed much since. We haven’t seen another area of the country where so much oceanfront property is for sale - we counted 8 signs in one mile and that wasn’t even a very developed stretch. It’s been almost 9 years since Katrina and from what I can tell owners can’t quite come to terms with the new lower value of this property and insurance companies have upped their rates to insure it.
We arrived at our park in New Orleans in the late afternoon and have already bumped into a family we were familiar with from social media but hadn’t yet met. They have kids our age so we’re hoping for some more time to get to know them.
I’ve been hoping for a NOLA visit for years now - having long been a fan of the music and food from the area. Looking at the weather we’ll probably hunker down for the next couple of days and then explore the city once the rain has passed later in the week.