Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana

23 – 25 Oct 

We stayed an extra night in Georgia and then set off for Alabama on the I-85.  We spent the first night dry camping at Walmart in Montgomery, the state capital.  It is summer again – it is sunny and hot!  We have also gained an hour as we have crossed into the ‘Central Time’ zone.

Wednesday morning we stopped off to see Joyce and Rick, who we had met in Georgia.  Their ‘southern hospitality’ was wonderful.  We planned to ‘pop in for a coffee’ but were treated to lunch of Brunswick Stew and Joyce’s homemade chocolate pudding – it was delicious.

The landscape changes and becomes much flatter as we travel past Mobile on the I-65 and then onto the I-10 and into Mississippi.  We travel over some impressive roads which take us over the watery marshes.

We stayed overnight in our first public campground at Davis Bayou National Seashore Park at Ocean Springs in Mississippi.  The site is in a salt marsh.  We went round the park in the evening and were treated to seeing fish jumping 2 or 3 feet out of the water catching flies – but no ‘gators.  We were woken to the most varied Dawn Chorus I’ve heard since we got to USA with at least a dozen or more different bird calls (although not quite as tuneful as the British blackbird).

 We continued our way towards New Orleans along Route 90 which followed the coast.  Many of the houses on the coast line are raised on stilts.  There were also several plots of land for sale; some looked like there used to be a house there with stone steps leading to nowhere.  We assume the house was blown away by hurricane Katrina (?).  We went through Biloxi with their casinos and bright lights. 

 

 

 

There were miles of white sandy beaches with only one or two people around.

 

We arrived in New Orleans, Louisiana, where it is HOT!  I went swimming whilst Paul caught dinner with his fishing rod.  We are camping right on the edge of Lake Pontchartrain (the lake that flooded during Katrina) and next to ‘Trinity’ one of the biggest specialist yacht builders in USA.