The wind was picking up something awful and the weather reports were indicating a huge storm that was getting ready to hit southeastern parts of Mississippi and Louisiana – right where we were, of course.  Sorry for stressing you out, mama and daddy! J It was impossible to explain not stopping by New Orleans being that we were so close.  So, despite the bad weather headed in our direction, we decided to stop in and see it for about an hour.  We walked around the French Quarter and had coffee at Beignet Café to fill out postcards.  Jason was given a nice little treat from a bird who decided to poo on him and his camera.  It was amazing to see the devastation still left behind from Hurricane Katrina in both New Orleans and Biloxi.  Driveways, foundations and chimneys of homes remain but nothing else.  You could see where there were clearly shopping  centers and parking lots and now there is nothing.  Especially driving into New Orleans from the interstate, homes stood eerily boarded up and the roofs were being covered with moss and other plant life and covered in spray paint and graffiti.  Being there gives you a bizarre feeling in your gut when you try to imagine what must have been going through the minds of these people as they were about to lose everything they had ever known. 

We rushed back to the car so that we didn’t have to pay for an additional hour of parking….we missed it by 2 minutes! Actually, the employee at the booth said we missed the cut off by 4 minutes and she wouldn’t budge on that fact.  Frustrating.  We got back onto 10-West and ran into the storm.  The sky was a blue/green/grey color we had never seen before and it was only noon.  Then, the heavens opened and it rained unlike anything we had ever seen.  Cars were pulled over with flashing lights and although we were only driving 20 mph, we couldn’t even make out the lines on the road.  AM radio was playing so that we could listen to the local weather reports.  Bad news – two tornados had been reported….Good news – we were going the opposite direction.  We didn’t quite make it to Dallas after having to drive a round-about way to avoid the storm but we were safe.  After decided at 7pm that we were just too exhausted to make it another 3 hours to Dallas, we had dinner at Posado’s and booked a reservation at the Ramada in Shreveport, LA.  We made plans to settle in early, do some laundry and work on the blog together.  While Jason was moving the Jeep, I took a hot shower, threw on pj’s and settled in.  He poured us each a glass (no, plastic hotel cup) of Sasquatch Stout he brought from Vancouver which was delicious.  Cheers! Then, we got out the laptop to begin on the blog. I was asleep in about 3 minutes.  Sorry, Jason.  I got up this morning (Thursday) for a makeshift workout in the “workout facility” at the Ramada while Jason caught up on sleep.  I couldn’t blame him as he drove the entire day yesterday and I seem to be experiencing some sort of narcolepsy falling asleep any and everywhere.  We had the continental breakfast at the hotel, finished our postcards, packed up the car again and hit the road.  Next destination: Amarillo, Texas. Translation: Maybe somewhere in Texas but who really knows?