Good bye New Orleans and hello Wiggins, Mississippi. Hope I included all “s’s”, “p’s” and “i’s”.
I left New Orleans via highway 11, an one lane highway with a really long bridge crossing the mouth of Lake Pontchartrain. You don’t realize how much water surrounds New Orleans until you start driving. If it is not a man-made canal it is a natural waterway through the marsh, wetlands or lakes. Once outside the New Orleans area the scenery changed from marshes to pine forests.  What also changed were the road conditions, they improved and got even better once I entered into Mississippi.  Driving on bumpy pavement with a truck is not that much fun, the shocks are pretty hard.  However, driving with the camper on the truck is even less fun, you bounce up and down and even sway a little.

I am now at a quiet campground in Wiggins.  Most of the campers here are long term residence.  Some of the trailers look like they haven’t been moved in years.  No complaints on my side.  I can see a little lake out my back door and hear birds singing.  Sometimes a squirrel or cat walks by.  Quick comparison with my last campground:

Sounds Wiggins: birds, at night AC

Sounds New Orleans: birds, at night bull frog and shrieking raccoons

Wildlife Wiggins: Canada geese with young

Wildlife NO: Hornets and too many bugs to name, especially inside my camper.  I turned into a mass killer.  At one point I had to clean my computer screen because I had squashed so many bugs on it, sorry.

One of the wonderful scents in New Orleans was the sweet smell of the magnolias.  Here, I smell fresh cut grass, not bad but no match to the magnolias.

On my last day in NO I drove and than walked through an area called (Faubourg) Marigny.  Located to the east of the French Quarter, east of Esplanade Avenue.  I really liked to feel of the neighborhood.  Several cafes/restaurants one or two story homes.  No tourists.  I bought an iced tea at a place that reminded me of the Lower East Side in New York City before NYU students moved in.  According to the bar tender the area was voted second best neighborhood in the country.  Don’t know who voted and I have not verified this piece of information.  So, on your next visit to NO, venture out east and check it out.

OK, I have to go now and cut my hair to fight the oil spill.  Yes, you read correctly.  There is an organisation called Matter of Trust, located in San Francisco and they collect hair to make booms and hair mats that absorb the oil.  They used this method against the oil spill in the San Francisco Bay a couple of years ago.  Hair attracts and holds the oil.  Hair salons from all around the country and even people from Europe send in their clippings.  Pet hair works as well.  You have to sign up with Matter of Trust, for free, to find out where to send your hair.  Talk to your salon to collect a day’s worth of clippings to help.  This is not a hoax, google the organisation and see for yourself.  They don’t just take hair donations, go to their website and find out more www.matteroftrust.org