Gundyville On Wheels: Mighty Mississippi and More

If where-ever else we are is “Gundyville,” then this must be “Sim’s City.” Our friends Sandy and Waylon (SIMS), minding the house while we travel, are from Louisiana, and a while back we toured New Orleans with them and had a great time. Lucky we did that because thanks to Katrina much of the opportunity to do that, at least in all its old glory, is gone for now. So for this trip we are content to see parts of the natural Louisiana- parts that were surely affected by hurricanes but not so an outsider would ever know.
We drove right through the heart of Baton Rouge and were excited to go up, up, and over the mighty Mississippi River. It was as expected: muddy, with paddlewheel river boats on either side of the bridge and lots of tug driven, steam belching barge traffic. The crossing is not significant because of its beauty ( it isn’t) but because it represents our having crossed into the West. And it represents the most central commercial artery of the country. We will be on this side of the Mississippi only for a short while on this venture. Just enough to get our feet wet in the west so to speak. And we did just that.
Having crossed the river, we drove through the Atchafalaya Bayou, the world’s largest river swamp system. To be honest, I never even heard of it before. But what a discovery! Swamps are interesting to begin with, but this one is downright exciting and we spend much more time exploring it that we had ever expected to do. We learned a lot and the welcome center for the area had interactive displays to help visitors learn lots. To date this is the best visitor’s center we have seen in any state we have visited. Amazing displays! We award Louisiana the “Best of Trip” welcome and info center. Unfortunately, I didn’t reset my trip meter on the coach so I don’t know exactly how many miles we were driving through the swamp, but surely this has to be the longest bridge anywhere, so long as you are willing to classify it as such. It’s actually a divided highway that goes for nearly 30 miles through the bayou on pilings. We snapped a shot or two as we drove down the highway, same as we had done when we crossed the river. There are some places you just can’t pull over when your vehicle is a combined 60 feet or so long! From the road, you are eye to eye with the tree tops and look down into the swamp. Incredible perspective - the kind of view you pay good money to see from a gondola at a theme park or mountain resort.
Most noteworthy about traveling through the Atchafalaya Bayou - the scenery is different than we have ever seen to date in our travels. Unique. Distinguished. Noteworthy. And very, very memorable. We enter the Bayou as the first entry on the list of places we would hope to return to for future consideration.
And a word or two about Gulf Coast hurricanes: As we have progressed through the states of the Southeast that border the Gulf of Mexico, we have both told and listened to many a hurricane story now. The stories are, in all truth, more or less the same, depending on how close to landfall the story was generated. But, as they used to say in a twist on the old detective TV shows, “the names have been changed to protect the innocent.” In this instance, the names change to blame the guilty. We were hammered the hardest by Charlie in Cape Coral. In the Florida Panhandle, we crossed the newly completed bridge on Rt.10 which was destroyed by Ivan. Got a close up look at Katrina in Biloxi and parts of Louisiana, but here, near the Texas border we are hearing and seeing about the rath of Rita. We all share the human experience. We all face the natural world. Hurricanes. Tornadoes. Earthquakes. Hail. Snow and Ice. It really doesn’t matter. Here on the planet, there is no getting away from it all. And only the names are changed…..

Up, up and over the Mighty Mississippi...