Checking_Out_New_Orleans

From the park I headed out Wisner over the overpass which when I lived there served as the soap-box derby track. Though not kept up, this stretch along St.John Bayou is very pretty. The city is near bankruptcy and it shows.

At the corner of Robet E. Lee and Wisner, the Old Spanish Fort still stands. I can't tell you how many hours I hung out here.

I know of no care that the fort has ever been shown besides mowing. It does not seem changed.

The same fence surrounds what I believe is a grave.

You climb the steps and the levee. Bayou St.John is on the other side.

I rode up to the lake front where Old Beach was. We would walk from my next home to the beach and go swimming until people started worrying about sewage and stuff in the water. What a bummer.

I think this levee has been raised. I don't remember but a little bump that was called a levee. Down the stepped sea wall we'd go to swim. It might have been a hundred yards long. The real beach was at Pontchartrain Beach, the amusement park.
A better amusement park I can't imagine and yes, I've been to the Six Flags. The Wild Mouse was horrifying and I would not ride the Zepher. That thing would dump people periodically. Buy your ticket, take your chances.

Built in 1959, the Causeway has since been a highlight on the lake. Illuminated at night, it is very pretty. That would be my way back to the Norhshore.

The big house, our next rent property was on Egret Street. Thus my fascination with the common bird. It was a duplex. We lived downstairs and the Bristers lived upstairs. They had a daughter, a good looking girl, who was in college. She could kick a football a half mile with those long legs. Hum, I guess I was noticing. I also saw a flying saucer while living there. It crashed into the lake, burning up as it fell. No lie.

The houses in Lake Vista have their backs to the street and the fronts to a central sidewalk covered by trees. It was cool. I had a tree house.

I continued toward the Causeway and came to the end of Westend Blvd.
That's where the Southern Yacht Club is. There's not much left. The roof to what I believe was the main building and lighthouse lays on the ground. I think it burned after the storm. Natural gas was spewing everywhere and a lot of it was on fire.

That first "bridge" is eight miles out. I remember Dad driving us out in his red and white 55 Olds 88 to the 8 mile turn around. It is the longest bridge in the world at 24 miles. I think there is a spot where no land is visible. Now I said, "land".

There was work going on at the Metairie Canal.

Below is where Lake Vista and points east were flooded. The other break was on the Intracoastal Canal, I think. I'm so glad the Corp used my idea of steel pilings If they had driven them across the canal at the bridge it would have been fixed fast. I cursed those idiots.

See the houses below the canal. The canal is at lake level on a calm day.
Any person who wants to argue against the rebuilding of New Orleans can use this picture. That levee can be topped in a tropical storm. Heaven forbid that it is broken again. Oh, that can't happen. It was a barge that did it last time. It had been used to build the new bridge over the canal. Not a whole lot has been said about that.

Next, Mz Guzzi and I would do 24 miles of lake. No charge south to north.

At the posted 65 mph speed limit.

At about the 14 mile mark, I pulled over into one of the 5 or so crossovers. You can park there but don't leave. Your car will be gone when you come back.
Towed.

Because the crossovers are used as emergency copter pads.

   I had the camera wound out tight and caught the ghostly outline of the city.
To the right is the Superdome and the Mississippi River. The city is sick and this patient is on life support. A lot of taxpayer money is going there. I just wonder how long the infusion will keep the patient alive. The city is sinking, quickly. Some say more than a inch a year. I'm almost 60. That's five feet in my lifetime. Good luck New Orleans.

                 Maybe some day, the Aquarium will take in the whole city. A thought.
I suggest, if you have never been to New Orleans, come soon, very soon, if you want to see one of the nation's oldest cities, one that had so much to do with the country's history.
If you've been to New Orleans prior to the storm, I'd suggest letting those memories serve you if you can't handle "the hurt". If you are like me, a displaced expatriot, go back and check it out. It may be your last chance to mentally relive the "old days", like my friend says, when "it was still magical". New Orleans may have a chance if those, like the ones saving City Park, can dominate. If New Orleans returns to its old graft and corruption, waste and lawlessness, it will be a shame. A shame which the rest of the country will not tolerate. Katrina washed off the white wash of what everyone suspected about the Murder Capital. We can't ask people in Nebraska to support a situation like that.

I returned home satisfied that I'd made the pilgrimage. Done.
Check that one off, Mz.Guzzi..

MORE LOUISIANA

That brought back some memories.

Statue of PGT, Delgado, Old Spanish Fort, Wisner Overpass. Lake Vista, West End, going to the symphony (like you said, a couple of times a year)---remember going to see the "Ten Commandments" movie with the whole school................ ................Jesus..............seems like a hundred years ago.

We moved to NO from Lafayette when I was an infant. Lived in the Quarter on St Phillip, then to Art Street, which was very near the Reserve Naval Air Station ( UNO was later built on the RNAS site).

Then to De Saix Blvd. On De Saix we lived in the 3rd house from Bayou St John. In the summer I used to tie my crabnets to the bridge railing and check them several times a day. On a good day I'd pick up 6-12 nice size blue crabs.

Was in City Park when the Today show filmed there. The monkey was J Fred Muggs..................got to see him, Dave Garroway and Jack Lescule up close.

Saw Roy Rogers riding Trigger on the street in front of City Park stadium. I was about 20 feet from him and screamed "ROY...............ROY........." and he looked right at me and waved. It was either my first ****** or I felt like I had been touched by the right hand of God.

Saw the Lone Ranger (Clayton Moore) on the stage at the Saenger Theatre downtown.

Don't want to go back to NO, until it's rebuilt.................or maybe.....................just never go back at all. You and I knew that city when it was still magical. As far as I'm concerned, it stopped being that sometime in the 1980's.
"Oooooooooohhhh........said the storm is threatening................my very life today.............................
If I don't.....get some shelter........oooooooohhhhhhhhhhgurl.........I'm gonna fade away.......", The Rolling Stones

Thanks for the memories.

Below is a note from an old friend who was there when I was. We met in highschool in Lafayette.

I knew Moisant Airport and Shep Morrison. My New Orleans.